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The portrait and the hawk

30/07/2012 -  Paolo Martino

The meeting with Vartuhi and with the fate that divided her from her sister in 1946. She lives in Musa Dagh, in Armenia, where a huge hawk reminds travellers of the Armenian fighters who in 1915 opposed the Ottoman troops. The fifth episode of the story “From the Caucasus to Beirut”

Slow Food Turkey: Wheat Rites

26/07/2012 -  Francesco Martino Istanbul

A few kilometres off the coast of Istanbul, in the Sea of Marmara, the Princes' Islands are the tourist destination for those who want to leave behind, at least for a few hours, the frenzy of the immense metropolis on the Bosporus. These islands have been for millennia a laboratory of cultural contamination, as testified by recipes, smells, tastes, and words – suspended between memory and oblivion

On board the Pobeda

25/07/2012 -  Paolo Martino

Vartuhi left Beirut in 1946, to reach Soviet Armenia aboard a ship called "Pobeda". In Stalin's land, however, the survivors of the genocide saw the dream of a homeland turn into a nightmare. Travelling to the Caucasus on the paths of migrations. Fourth episode of the story "From the Caucasus to Beirut"

Chechnya, power is sacred

24/07/2012 -  Majnat Kurbanova

Two weeks ago, 16 items allegedly belonging to Prophet Muhammad arrived in Grozny. It is not the first time that alleged relics of the Prophet have arrived in the Chechen capital - it has become a frequent occurrence lately – yet such events never fail to find an audience

Time for summer clean-up after Eurovision in Azerbaijan

23/07/2012 -  Arzu Geybullayeva Baku

As soon as the Eurovision song contest ended, Azerbaijan was once again out of the world media spotlight. Baku's authorities did not lose any time getting back to cracking down on international human rights organizations and local activists

Nostalgia before memories

16/07/2012 -  Paolo Martino

Professor Adakessian’s slow pacing up and down the halls of the Armenian University of Haigazian, Rafi and his shoe factory in centre city Beirut, the present that shows up again in the old pictures of the Pobeda, the Russian ship that carried thousands of Armenians from the Lebanon to Soviet Armenia. The third episode of the story “From the Caucasus to Beirut”

Sarop’s armed struggle

12/07/2012 -  Paolo Martino

Arafat’s bodyguard, then on the front line in the Armenian armed struggle and for 10 years a prisoner in a Syrian jail. “When I came out, everything had changed. The USSR no longer existed”. The meeting with Sarop, in Beirut’s Armenian quarter. The second episode of the report “From the Caucasus to Beirut”

Greece, Germany and the wounds of history

11/07/2012 -  Francesco Martino Distomo

The economic crisis in Europe is stirring up animosity and distrust, especially in places marked by the wounds of history. Like Distomo, a village in western Boeotia, where one of the worst massacres in Nazi-occupied Greece took place in 1944. Here, recriminations against Merkel's austerity pair up with claims – never met – for compensation. A report

Welcome among Armenians in Lebanon

10/07/2012 -  Paolo Martino

In the Bekaa valley, in Lebanon, in the company of Hrayer, a boy from the local Armenian community. Among fruit trees, vegetables and a tragic past. The first episode of the report “From the Caucasus to Beirut”

Abdulah Sidran, the soul of Sarajevo

03/07/2012 -  Andrea Oskari Rossini

Sarajevo, 20 years after the siege. The famous Bosnian poet and writer talks about a city that for centuries has symbolized the encounter of faiths, nations, and cultures

Kosovo, where ideas bring value

28/06/2012 -  Veton Kasapolli Pristina

A Minister for marketing? Why not? Promoting the country's image is something a new generation of musicians, sports people and artists is already working on, awaiting politics also to take its course

The false myth of sustainability

20/06/2012 -  Risto Karajkov

The section on sustainability is a fundamental part of development project proposals. But why is it so important for the donor? And is it always necessary? A comment

The supreme command in the war in Bosnia

19/06/2012 -  Azra Nuhefendić

The role of partisan cinematography in Socialist Yugoslavia and what happened to two of its better known exponents – Bata Živojinović and Hajrudin Šiba Krvavac, hero and director respectively of the most famous Yugoslavian film in the world, “Valter defends Sarajevo”

Greece, much crisis for nothing

18/06/2012 -  Francesco Martino

Crises are painful, but they must be an opportunity for change. Yet in Greece, says economic analyst Janos Manolopoulos, this has not happened. Athens' political and economic leaders navigate at sight, unable to rethink the country's future

Taner Akçam: to talk about the genocide is good for Turkey

14/06/2012 -  Maria Elena Murdaca Ginevra

One of the first Turkish scholars to tackle the question of the Armenian genocide in an open and forthright manner, Taner Akçam thinks that overcoming the taboo of the genocide will also enable Turkey to strengthen its own role as a regional power

Macedonia: Is It Terrorism?

11/06/2012 -  Risto Karajkov Skopje

On 12 April, the murder of five people by lake Smiljkovo, at the outskirts of Skopje, struck Macedonia's ethnic cohesion. Five people are now in jail, accused of being part of an Islamic terrorist organization. Many questions, however, remain unanswered

Croatia on the Balkan migration route

07/06/2012 -  Francesca Rolandi

Croatia is on the so-called Balkan route of migration that runs from Serbia to the countries of the EU. How does the country, soon to become the 28th Member State of the Union, deal with migration issues? We have asked Julija Kranjec, expert in asylum and migration policy of the Centre for Peace Studies in Zagreb

The life choices of Chechen youth

01/06/2012 -  Majnat Kurbanova

There are young people in Chechnya who live in prosperity and rapidly pursue their careers. If they sing the praises of Putin and Kadyrov, that is. For all the others, life can be very difficult

The Bosnian Identity

01/06/2012 - 

A journey into the memory of Bosnia. Where suffering, hope and black humour outline a common Bosnian identity born, or perhaps only survived, from the ashes of the former Yugoslavia. A documentary film by Marco Bastianelli. The trailer

Small is Beautiful: Challenges facing Balkan NGOs

30/05/2012 -  Risto Karajkov

EU aid to Balkan civil society seems to be increasingly directed at large NGOs. Small community-based organisations tend to be marginalised mainly as a result of turnover thresholds and excessive red tape set by the donors. An opinion by Risto Karajkov, OBC's correspondent and free-lance civil society consultant