The demonstrators stood amid tight security outside the main entrance of the airport, hoisting banners that read: "The Lebanese have not forgotten Turkey's bloody history in the region" and "Erdogan should bow before our martyrs." "Today's Turkey is yesterday's Turkey: malicious, oppressive and an ally of the enemy," or Israel, read another banner. An AFP correspondent said police, army and SWAT teams were on hand to control the crowd, which had amassed across the street from a rival gathering of more than 100 Lebanese students who waved banners welcoming Erdogan as well as the red flag of Turkey. Erdogan, whose country is seeking to emerge as a key mediator in the Middle East, will meet top officials during his visit. He will also inaugurate a burn treatment centre in southern Lebanon and inspect his country's troops serving with a UN peacekeeping force at the Israeli border. His visit comes as tensions soar in Lebanon amid rumours a UN-backed court is to indict high-ranking members of the militant group Hezbollah in connection with the 2005 murder of ex-premier Rafiq Hariri. There are fears that should the tribunal implicate Hezbollah, that could lead to sectarian violence that would pit Hariri's Sunni supporters against the Shiite Hezbollah. Lebanon is home to a 140,000-strong Armenian community, mostly made up of the descendants of those who survived the massacres in eastern Anatolia under Ottoman rule almost a century ago. Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kin were systematically killed between 1915 and 1917 as the Ottoman Empire was falling apart. Turkey rejects the genocide label and argues that 300,000-500,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks died in civil strife when Armenians took up arms against their Ottoman rulers and sided with invading Russian troops.BEIRUT | AFP