بالأمس إحتفل مسيحيو لبنان بأحد القيامة في بلداتهم وقراهم. حتى في عاصمة الشمال طرابلس، الخارجة من جولة قتال دامية، أقيمت الزياحات …

by: Andreane Williams

Lebanon's capital, Beirut, was once the centre-point of the country's civil war. But it has since shed its deadly past to become one of the Middle East's most hip and fashionable party destinations.

Lebanon's capital, Beirut, was once the centre-point of the country's civil war. But it has since shed its deadly past to become one of the Middle East's most hip and fashionable party destinations. And that's often quite a surprise for foreign visitors. It's 10.30pm on Saturday in Beirut and the streets are packed with bar-hoppers. For two decades, Lebanon was a dangerous war zone in the middle of a bitter civil war. But despite its dark past, Beirut has gained a reputation for being one of the best party cities in the Middle East. Every year, nightclubs in Beirut attract tens of thousands of partygoers from around the world

O1ne is one of Beirut's biggest nightclubs. Its owner - businessman Cheikh Chafic El Khazen - owns several other famous nightclubs in the capital.

He has invested millions of dollars in this enormous new venue, which can host up to 1,500 people. He said: "Initially, the investment was way less and through the process of the development, I was dragged into something that I was dreaming of for quite a while, and I ended up investing millions of dollars. "If it's a bit more to the extreme in Lebanon, it's definitely because we definitely don't know what's gonna to happen the next day."

At St. Elie Armenian Catholic Church in downtown Beirut, Zarmig Hovsepian lit three candles and slowly mouthed silent prayers before Easter Mass. After reciting "Our Father," she added a prayer of her own: "For peace, for Lebanon and the region," she said, underscoring the deep sense of apprehension beneath the surface of otherwise festive Easter celebrations.

Next door in Syria, violence recently displaced thousands from the historic Armenian town of Kessab, which rests in northwestern Syria, along the Turkish border. Groups of Syrian rebels, including some with ties to al-Qaida, swept into the Latakia province last month, seizing a number of towns in the strategically important mountains.

The violence and mass displacement in Syria opened old wounds for Armenians across the region, stirring up memories of the massacre and deportation of ethnic Armenians at the hands of the Turks during World War I. Syria, once a refuge from that violence, is home to nearly 100,00 Armenians, but now the community feels under threat again.

That's making Armenians in Lebanon nervous.

"The future is not clear for the whole Christian community in the Middle East, not just the Armenians," says Shahan Kandaharian, the executive editor of an Armenian daily newspaper. He blames the rise of Islamic fundamentalism across the Middle East.

  Defense lawyers for Assad Sabra, a member of Hezbollah allegedly involved in the assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri, have complained …