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Members of the Yerevan Youth Orchestra, who were in Beirut, Lebanon, for an international festival, have been safely evacuated amid the ongoing escalation in the Middle East, Yerevan Mayor Tigran Avinyan said on social media.
Photos posted online showed the young orchestra members reuniting with their families at Yerevan airport on March 4. Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Orchestra Sergey Smbatyan is also seen exiting the arrivals gate.
The Armenian Embassy in Lebanon said that Ambassador Sarmen Baghdasaryan and the embassy’s diplomats facilitated the orchestra’s safe passage to the airport through areas under bombardment.
Middle East Airlines organized the special flight following talks with the Armenian Embassy. Eighty-seven people, including attendants, returned to Yerevan on the flight.
The orchestra had been participating in the Al Bustan International Festival in Beirut but cut its participation short.
Israel has been striking what it describes as Hezbollah positions in Lebanon amid the ongoing escalation in the Middle East, triggered by the U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran and Iran’s subsequent retaliatory counterattacks in the region. The escalation has disrupted air travel due to airspace closures.