(25 Nov 2010)
1. Wide of protesters at Martyrs' square with poster of Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the background
2. Mid of Lebanese riot police, pan to protesters clashing with the riot police
3. Protesters tearing down Erdogan poster
4. Protesters chanting slogans against Turkey
5. Protesters tearing down Erdogan poster
6. SOUNDBITE (English), Alain Tabourian, Former Lebanese telecommunications minister:
"We also have a big grief with Turkey in that they are not recognising the Armenian genocide, something which is unacceptable after almost one hundred years of its occurrence."
7. Pan of protest
STORYLINE:
Hundreds of Lebanese of Armenian descent protested in Beirut on Thursday against the two-day visit of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to the country.
The protesters gathered in the capital's Martyrs' Square to demonstrate against Turkey's refusal to recognise the World-War I-era killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide.
"We also have a big grief with Turkey in that they are not recognising the Armenian genocide, something which is unacceptable after almost one hundred years of its occurrence," said Alain Tabourian, Former Lebanese telecommunications minister.
Some protesters clashed with the riot police as they chanted slogans against Turkey, while others tore down a large poster of Erdogan.
There were no reports of major injuries.
Erdogan himself was inaugurating a hospital in the southern port city of Sidon on Thursday.
In 1915, Ottoman authorities evicted Armenians from their homes in actions that spiralled into the mass slaughter of the Armenian population.
Turkey and Armenia are locked in a bitter dispute over the deaths of Armenians in Turkey.
Historians estimate that up to 1.5 (m) million Armenians were killed by Ottoman Turks around the time of World War I.
Many scholars view the event as the first genocide of the 20th century.
Turkey denies that the deaths constituted genocide, saying the toll has been inflated and those killed were victims of civil war and unrest.
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