Conflicts

Over 600 thousand Syrians, fleeing the war, arrived in Turkey. Most of them are in the Hatay province. Our report from Reyhanlı

Two towns in a mirror image, one in Turkey and the other in Greece. Birgi and Dimitsana are “The other town” - the prize-winning documentary by the Turkish film director Nefin Dinc

On November 9^th, twenty years ago, the artillery of the Bosnian Croat army destroyed the Mostar Bridge, a treasure of Ottoman architecture and one of the symbols of Bosnia and Herzegovina. People reacted on instinct to the news

Kosovo is preparing for the local elections of November 3 after the shocking murder of EULEX officer Audrius Šenavičius. A test on the recent Belgrade-Pristina agreements

The girl that runs. It is the title of a famous photo by Mario Boccia, Italian photojournalist, snapped on September 30^th, 1993. A day like any other in Sarajevo, under siege for 17 months, between bombings and snipers. Twenty years later, Mario tells the story

Truck drivers sealed off the border after a rapid escalation in trade restrictions between Macedonia and Kosovo. The situation quickly came back to normal, but not without consequences

Hundreds of Syrian refugees have crossed the Bulgarian border fleeing the war. About 500 have been placed in the transit center of Pastrogor, near the border with Greece and Turkey. Our report

Marching to Sarajevo to contribute to peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina and promote popular diplomacy and non-violent interposition. This was the goal of over two thousand Italian and foreign pacifists who took part in "Mir Sada - Peace Now" in August 1993. One of our journalists participated

Kosovo's declaration of independence in February 2008 marked a change in Russia's approach towards Abkhazia and South Ossetia in the months preceding the war in Georgia in August 2008. Five years later, a short journey through this change in Moscow's official rhetoric

The story of a girl from Sarajevo who became a national table tennis champion playing for the “Grbavica” club in 1960s Yugoslavia

A statement on Karabakh by the presidents of the mediator-countries hardly contained anything unexpected. But a 1 bln dollars arms deal between Russia and Azerbaijan was cause for concern in Yerevan

Epic songs of the Balkans have often been key in the construction of controversial nationalist ideas. In fact, they sing a common history

Elva is a platform developed in Georgia that allows to easily receive feedback from local communities via SMS. Successfully used to map local needs along the ABL with South Ossetia, it could soon be used elsewhere

In his contribution for the dossier “Abkhazia, twenty years after the war”, Francisco Martínez shares with Osservatorio's readers the materials he gathered in late 2010 while visiting the region, including video interviews in Gali, Sukhumi and Tbilisi

The Kosovo-Serbia deal is a victory for the civic notion of statehood and citizenship, avoiding further risks of ethnic partitions. Also, it is a remarkable success for the EU, and a reason to be optimistic about its future

ICG's latest report on Abkhazia is timely and its recommendations show the way forward. As usual, it provides a wealth of information and details. Yet, it is not without imprecisions

In recent months, a number of incidents have taken tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan to very high levels. On the Azeri side, the rhetoric is more and more explicitly anti-Armenian and warlike, as clearly exemplified by the Safarov case and the story of writer Akram Aylisli. Yet, things have not always been such.

Zelenkovac is an eco-tourist village in the Bosnian mountains, not far from Banja Luka, hosting artists and travellers from all over the world. According to his founder, Boro Janković, its beauty has a mission

The law introducing double signs in Latin and Cyrillic on the streets of Vukovar has triggered strong protests. But how much is the city really divided?

Negotiations between Belgrade and Priština are swiftly proceeding, while Serbs in Northern Kosovo fear being abandoned by the new socialist government

Armenia and Azerbaijan are in a bitter conflict. Dialogue between the sides is difficult, but some visits across the border are still happening. The story of an Azerbaijani journalist in Armenia

For the first time in the recent history of Albania, extreme nationalism has political representation: the Red and Black Alliance. An interview with anthropologist Armanda Kodra

In north-eastern Syria, a region with a Kurdish majority, the civil war becomes a clash between the Free Syrian Army and the Kurdish-Syrian separatists of the Democratic Union Party (PYD). A report by our correspondent from the Turkish-Syrian border

After the acquittal of generals Gotovina and Markač at the ICTY, the Croatian judiciary must demonstrate that they know how to judge the crimes committed by the Croatian side in the 90s, without the bias seen so far against the Serbs

The law "On the state language", approved by the authorities in Sukhumi in 2007, risks exacerbating inter-ethnic relations in Abkhazia, a territory that remains largely multi-ethnic, even after the ethnic cleansing that happened during the war. Our correspondent went to Abkhazia to find out more about it. A feature story

‘Everybody talks about Syria, but nobody does anything. Instead of stopping the whips, people count while we are being flogged. How is that possible?’ Ibrahim is twenty years-old, lives in Damascus and longs for a different Syria. The last episode of “From the Caucasus to Beirut”, a journey on the discovery of the Middle-Eastern Armenian diaspora

Damascus. When I get there, in December 2011, the uprising against Bashar Al Assad has been going on for ten months. In the city, under the ever-present eye of the dictator, everything seems calm, though at the same time absent and precarious. Even for the historical Armenian community, once again prey to its destiny of chronic lack of safety. The thirteenth episode of “From the Caucasus to Beirut”

Amman is the capital of a Country hovering between remaining faithful to a pro-Western monarchy and the shock wave of the Arab Spring. A community of three thousand Armenians, a small star in the firmament of the diaspora, lives and survives the contradictions of the Middle-East. The eleventh episode of our report “From the Caucasus to Beirut”

Over the years, almost all historical leaders of the Chechen separatist rebels have been killed. In the movement there are no more figures known to the general public, but attacks continue. For the Chechen leadership, however, it is important that enemies have a name. Today, the enemy's name is Gakayev

A city symbol of the Armenian resistance. Razed twice to the ground, first by the Ottoman troops and then by the terrible earthquake of last winter, Van seems to share its destiny with the beautiful Tamara, a legendary figure disappeared in the abysses of the lake it looked over. The eighth episode of our report, “From the Caucasus to Beirut”