Beirut or Turkey or both?

I am struggling to rewrite my essay for the Martin Roche traveling fellowship (due tomorrow!!) about where I would like to travel and what I would like to study.
The more I research Lebanon, the more interested I am in the response of the built environment to its political instability. There is an obsession among the AUB faculty with post-war reconstruction, yet the city itself is still volatile and unpredictable.

This flirtation with disaster, daily living on the edge, gives the city an intensity of life and vibrancy entirely unexpected.
There may not be much exciting architecture happening, but the city is a living precedent for the contemporary discourse's obsession with post-apocalyptic continually-volatile societies.
While I wrote my manifesto against such discourse, it is a fascinating relationship, providing inspiration for change. Continuing joyfully, confidently, hellbent on progress, perhaps these are the most hopeful people, the most hopeful buildings?

But I cannot stop my love affair with ancient spiritual space, and I feel it would be a great loss to not visit the Hagia Sophia while in the Mid East.

But how do I tie in these two contradictory themes?
One, ancient spiritual space, and its ability to inspire and strike our souls, thousands of years after completion. As the cradle of civilization, home to some of the oldest cultures in existence, both cities offer prime examples of ancient structures that remain relevant through centuries of evolution and use; as home to the best surviving examples of Byzantine architecture, I would especially like to explore the mosques and cathedrals throughout Istanbul.
Secondly: Both countries act as gateways between East and West; Turkey, which has remained relatively isolated and peaceful, has had the opportunity to develop a flourishing cultural mash-up of contemporary forms and heritage pieces. Lebanon, while dedicated to western modernization, is politically volatile and subject to instability. This contradictory position provides insight into the pervasion of contemporary American culture; from the extreme juxtaposition of old and new, I hope to better understand the key influences of our society and discover potential avenues for the development of an equally hopeful neo-vernacular of our own.