Beirut to Byblos -1

"The righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like the cedar in Lebanon ". The Bible is replete with numerous references to the cedars of Lebanon and even my occasional reading of the Bible couldnt miss such verses.

But my more  journalistic interest in Lebanon stemmed from the stories and pictures Frontline carried on the civil war in the country at the end of the 20th century. Lebanon in our minds has a "Visit at your own risk" tag, so it was natural for V to ask me whether it was safe to do so when I got this offer to visit Beirut as part of a week's assignment in July.  

Signs of the strife was visible on the older buildings in Beirut, ridden with bullets, as we were transported from the Rafik Hariri airport to Antelias where we stayed at the Armenian Orthodox Catholicosate (the headquarters as well as where the patriarch of the Church resides). But looking at the swank new buildings dotting the city, one gets the impression that Beirut is a city that is trying hard to wipe out memories of the war. 

Lebanon has an interesting landscape - the sea on one side and mountains on the other. And the mountains are dotted with buildings, their numbers having gone up with the refugee influx. No wonder the staff at the visa processing center at the Lebanese consulate in Dubai and the immigration counters at the Beirut airport are equally suspicious of your intentions on arriving with a business visa. The situation is not much different for those in our group who took the tourist visa - Lebanon just cant afford to have people overstaying. My entry is sanctioned for 15 days only though the visa can be procured for 3 months according to rules. And until you cross the immigration counter, you are fervently hoping and praying that they wont forbid your entry. My visa application had in the first place been facilitated by Vs stable income in the UAE.

Beirut airport sits on the coast and our aircraft taxied on a runway not far from the Mediterranean sea waters. In the distance, the mountains with the famed cedars beckoned to us. 

Our accommodation was 5 km away at the Armenian Catholicosate in Antelias. Originally the site of an orphanage for children who had escaped the Armenian Genocide of 1915, the Catholicate has a spacious campus that is neat and serene, as opposed to the narrow roads and traffic congestion outside. Apart from the residence of the Catholicos, HH Aram I, there is a monastery for celibate monks, a guest house, a museum cum conference hall and the genocide memorial. The genocide memorial is relatively new, erected in 2015 to commemorate 100 years of the genocide - the extermination of 1.5 million Armenian Christians by the Ottoman empire quite like the Nazi -authored genocide of Jews during World War II. I learn that much of today's Turkey belong to Armenia and if ever Turkey were to acknowledge its atrocities  it would have to return Armenian land and be left with just 10% of its present day territory.

History is replete with incidents of man's atrocities against each other for money, power and land. Religion often plays a role in the targeting of communities. The genocide memorial at Antelias has a powerful symbol - of skulls encased in a glass case which were recovered from the Syrian desert. These belong to Armenians who were led like lambs for slaughter; many died of starvation while many others were shot dead by the Turkish soldiers.  A recorded audio message plays while we bow our heads in sorrow inside the memorial.