All the news

Turkey, the new Ottomans

04/04/2011 -  Alberto Tetta

The Justice and Development Party (AKP) seized power in Turkey eight years ago, and is likely to win the next general elections, scheduled for 12 June. The political analyst Hamit Bozarslan shows us what in his view are the roots of the strength behind Erdogan's party

Romania, emigrants don't go home

25/03/2011 -  Cornel Ban

In the past years, for many Romanians (mainly from rural areas) emigration represented an opportunity for economic and social redemption. Today, the world economic crisis has changed people's perspectives, but going back to Romania does not look like a likely choice and the future is full of uncertainties

Georgia: inflation pushing farmers into debt trap

25/03/2011 -  Molly Corso

Hit by low harvest yields and double-digit inflation, hundreds of Georgia’s 700,000 small-scale farmers are confronting the start of the spring planting season without the money to purchase seeds. From EurasiaNet

Albania, the first time (with no visa)

22/03/2011 -  Marjola Rukaj

A nervous look at the documents, searching for a Schengen visa. Then a smile. The visa is no longer needed. The first trip from Tirana to Rome after Albania obtained visa liberalization. A report

Gjakova/Đakovica: the çarshija streetlights

18/03/2011 -  Marjola Rukaj

Destroyed during the war, the old commercial heart of the town Gjakova/Đakovica, in western Kosovo, was rebuilt in 2001, thanks to international financial contributions. But, suffocated by its traffic, it's struggling to get back to being a “market on a human scale”, typical of the Ottoman period

Bosnia: international judges under scrutiny

15/03/2011 -  Eldina Pleho Sarajevo

Many international investigations on corruption in Bosnia and Herzegovina have not produced results. Reasons for this include poorly evidenced allegations and limited knowledge of local law. The Bosnian experience was then transferred to Kosovo. Our study

Belgrade, 9 March 1991

14/03/2011 -  Danijela Nenadić Belgrade

Twenty years ago, in Belgrade, the first huge demonstration against Milošević’s regime. This date is the start of our dossier on the 20 years since the beginning of the war in Yugoslavia. The story of who was still a little girl then but who, for the first time on the 9th of March of 1991, demonstrated for a different Serbia

Mussa Khan. When roads do not end in Rome

11/03/2011 -  Paolo Martino Rome

They say all roads lead to Rome. Even that of Mussa Khan and the thousands of Afghan muhajirins for whom Italy is just a stop in the restless and tormented search for a better life. Among the building sites along the Ostiense Station stops the story of a journey that has no end

Azerbaijan: an anti-corruption campaign to prevent revolution

09/03/2011 -  Arzu Geybullayeva Baku

March 11 is the day anti-government activists in Azerbaijan have set as a day of protest in a campaign that has been publicized online. The protests are planned despite the Azerbaijani government new anti-corruption campaign, launched in January in what seems to be Baku's most visible reaction to the revolutions sweeping the Arab world

Mussa Khan. An asylum roulette

07/03/2011 -  Paolo Martino Ancona

Ancona, Italy. Here is the “Europe” dreamed of by Mussa Khan. Here too, though, welcoming the muhajirins are metal fences and procedures that make applications for asylum a runaway and distant prospect

ICTY, Djordjevic handed 27-year sentence

03/03/2011 -  Rachel Irwin

Former Serbian police chief Vlastimir Djordjevic was convicted of all five counts against him at the Hague, including responsibility for the murder of more than 700 ethnic Albanian civilians during the late Nineties conflict in Kosovo. From IWPR

Turkey: Cyprus issue moving to the forefront

02/03/2011 -  Nicholas Birch

For the first time since 1974, the turkish Cypriots of Nicosia demonstrated against some of Ankara's austerity measures. Turkey's furious reaction is fuelling further tensions on the island, bringing to the forefront the problem of its reunification - one of Erdoğan's ambitions - and the weak role of the European Union

Peja/Peć, the čaršija and the war

01/03/2011 -  Marjola Rukaj Peja/Peć

In Peja/Peć, a small town in Western Kosovo, little or nothing is left of the traditional bazaar, mainly because of the 1999 conflict. Although the authorities have faith in its development for tourism, it seems unlikely this will happen

1989 without Europe. The democratic contagion in the Arab world

28/02/2011 -  Luisa Chiodi

Can parallels be drawn between the extraordinary events involving many Arab countries and what happened in Eastern Europe in 1989? The question is open for debate, but is certainly a chance for (re)thinking the common Mediterranean space. A comment

Mussa Khan. Destination Europe

25/02/2011 -  Paolo Martino Igoumenitsa

In Igoumenitsa the muhajirins dream of Europe. It does not matter if they are there already: for them, the one that counts is on the other side of the Adriatic. Here Mussa Khan too, as many before him, tries his hand with fate.

Macedonia, clashes over religious symbols, again

24/02/2011 -  Risto Karajkov Skopje

In Skopje the construction of a church has increased hostility between the ethnic groups living in the Macedonian capital. Behind the clashes and protests hide the different political agendas of VMRO and DUI, the two ruling parties. An example of how the political leadership's behavior can contribute to the escalation of inter-ethnic tensions

As tensions mount, plans for an Armenian-Azerbaijan Peace Building Center in Georgia

22/02/2011 -  Onnik Krikorian Yerevan

The project of an Armenian theatrical director and actor turned peace activist to open a peace center in Tekalo, a small village in Georgia a few kilometers from the border with Armenia and Azerbaijan. “Communication is not betrayal, it is a natural human need.”

BiH: Domestic violence in a complex institutional setting

21/02/2011 -  OWPSEE/OBC

The protection of victims of domestic violence in Bosnia Herzegovina is guaranteed by a number of laws, but more often than not they are not enforced. In the background a society that is still very patriarchal and the heavy institutional burden left by the Dayton Peace Agreement. Our analysis

Mussa Khan. The boys of the fence

18/02/2011 -  Paolo Martino Patras

Patras. Along with migrants from all over the world, the muhajirins are also waiting for the right moment to jump the fence bordering the port, in a surreal and dangerous hide and seek with the police. The stake, though, is high: a ship towards Italy and the dream called “Europe”

Gjirokastër, the bazaar built of stone

16/02/2011 -  Marjola Rukaj Tirana

Kadaré defined it “the steepest town in the world” – Gjirokastër, in Southern Albania, on the border with Greece. Its çarshija also stretches upwards on sloping streets. Its architecture, although preserved over the centuries, has been slow in developing a new commercial life