Dear friends and colleagues join us for EMBCA’s "Lebanese Independence Day: Lebanon and its Rich Cultural Heritage" Panel Discussion Webinar on Sunday, November 21 at 2 P.M. EST/ 9 P.M. Athens/ Beirut EEST.
The Anniversary Commemoration of Lebanon’s Independence (November 22) as well as the 101 Anniversary of its liberation from Ottoman rule will be Introduced by Lou Katsos EMBCA’s President and AHEPA National Hellenic Cultural Commission Chairman and Co-Moderated by him and Author/Artist Joanne (Keratsos) Sayad. The distinguished panel will include Author/Architect/Professor and Founder of Beirut Heritage Foundation Fadlallah Dagher; Anne-Marie Affiche the Director of General Council of Museum, Ministry of Culture; Surscock Palace and Archives Owner Roderick Cochrane; Author and Owner of Maison Tarazi Camille Tarazi. All are actively making important and vital contributions to save the heritage of Beirut and hence preserving the fabric of the Hellenic Orthodox community, it's culture and history throughout the Levant.
The panel besides discussing Lebanese Independence among other things will be connecting the dots from history and contemporary current context of how the fabric of Beirut is closely tied to the Greek Orthodox community and how this neighborhood in the heart of Beirut is in danger since it's destruction due to the August 4, 2020 massive blast. The audience will learn about what is being done to safeguard it along with the steps of reconstruction to preserve this patrimony which is predominately Greek Orthodox. Last year marked the 100 Year of the Lebanese Independence from Ottoman rule. This anniversary as well as Lebanese Independence Day passing eerily uncelebrated. In fact there was barely a blur regarding commemoration. Instead it was a compilation of commiserating in the newspapers of how on the eve Lebanon’s Centennial it was of a failed state. Considering an almost complete currency collapse, protests, political pandemonium set amidst a worldwide pandemic and local lockdowns, that year culminated in a crescendo with an apocalyptic Beirut Blast that destroyed swathes of Beirut. The hardest hit destroyed neighborhoods, were the port, Mar Mikael, Gemmayze, St Nicholas quarter and Achrafieh, the urban crux of Beirut and the heart of the Greek Orthodox neighborhoods and community. We will not forget nor have forgotten Lebanon’s great and rich cultural heritage and why EMBCA has chosen it to be the first in a series of panel discussions on the Hellenic Diaspora nation by nation around the world.
The image of the event is from when in Sept. 1, 1920, that the French general, Henri Gouraud, stood on the porch of the Beirut palace la Résidence des Pins, headquarter of the French haut-commissaire General Gouraud while surrounded by local politicians and religious leaders and declared the State of Greater Lebanon — the precursor of the modern state of Lebanon.
