Minorities

Oluja, the story of Nikola

06/10/2023 -  Giovanni Vale Zagreb

Nikola was just a few months old when, in August 1995, his family – together with the other 200,000 people of Serbian nationality, left Croatia in a hurry. After living in Serbia for fifteen years, he returned to Croatia where he attended high school and where he still lives and works. We met him

Ukrainian Roma refugees are not welcome everywhere across Europe

29/06/2022 -  Cassandre Thomas

About 100,000 refugees fleeing from Ukraine to Europe are estimated to be Roma. They are particularly vulnerable, and yet appear to suffer from discrimination in at least some European countries, such as Czechia and Moldova

Croatia, a controversial law on citizenship

21/08/2019 -  Giovanni Vale Zagreb

The Zagreb government is determined to soften the requirements for obtaining Croatian citizenship, with an eye on intercepting the diaspora. But there are those who feel discriminated against: the case of Milan Škorić and the 5,000 without nationality

Crimea: the resistance of the Tatars

20/08/2019 -  Martina Napolitano

Following the Russian occupation of Crimea, the Tatar community is under great pressure. An analysis of the situation through historical digressions and a meeting with the Tatar representatives recently elected in the Ukrainian parliament

Dejan Jović, an alarm call for Croatian society

24/06/2019 -  Giovanni Vale Zagreb

What is the situation of the Serbian minority in Croatia? We talked about it with Dejan Jović, university professor and recent candidate in the European elections

The fragility of Syrian refugee women in Turkey

24/12/2018 -  Burcu Karakaş

Violence, exploitation, marginalisation: these are the challenges of a difficult everyday life for many Syrian refugee women in Turkey

Albania: ‘If I were a boy’

03/08/2018 -  Gentiola Madhi

‘If I were a boy’ is the title of a novel by a male author published in 1936, which explores the inner world of a young girl living in Tirana, and her revolutionary thoughts on women’s emancipation and empowerment in Albania’s patriarchal society

Rijeka and the two languages of Fiume

22/03/2018 -  Giovanni Vale Rijeka

With the approach of 2020, when the main seaport of the Kvarner gulf will be “European capital of culture”, the question of bilingualism has reemerged

National minorities under the Georgian Dream

02/03/2016 -  Marilisa Lorusso Tbilisi

Giorgi Bobghiashvili, of the European Centre for Minority Issues, spoke to us about national minorities and inclusive policies in Georgia ahead of the next general elections

The Jerusalem of Bessarabia

30/04/2015 -  Danilo Elia Chişinău

In Chişinău, a tiny Jewish community tries to save its history from oblivion. Half of the ancient capital of Bessarabia used to be inhabited by Jews. One day, in April 1903, the nightmare of pogroms started. Before the Nazis, even before the Shoah, it was in this forgotten city that the century of hatred began

Ethnopolis

19/02/2010 -  Andrea Rossini

The Bosnian political crisis in the election year. The European Court of Human Rights' statement on the Dayton Peace Agreement, the force of the Ethnopolis

Kosovo's stolen properties

15/12/2009 -  Veton Kasapolli Pristina

In Kosovo many buildings, mostly belonging to Serbian citizens, are occupied or sold illegally in the owners' absence. Swindlers often use false documents and conniving officials, unveiling the weakness of the rule of law. The case of Peja/Pec

Kosovo elections: conflicting realities South and North of the Ibar

11/12/2009 -  Tatjana Lazarević Mitrovica

The mid-November local elections in Kosovo stressed once more the two different realities of the Serbs living north and south of the Ibar river. For those living south, some kind of participation was considered as a vital necessity to retain local power. North of Mitrovica, the boycott was almost complete

The "big excursion" of Bulgarian Turks

04/11/2009 -  Francesco Martino Edirne

In Bulgaria, a few months after the fall of the Wall in 1989, the Communist regime triggered the exodus towards Turkey of 360,000 Bulgarian citizens of Turkish ethnicity. The mass exodus, gone down in history as the "big excursion", has left deep scars on the people who lived it. Our reportage

An Azeri village in Georgia

16/10/2009 -  Arzu GeybullayevaOnnik Krikorian Karajala

Our correspondents from Baku and Yerevan, Arzu Geybullayeva and Onnik Krikorian, visited an ethnic Azeri village in Karajala, eastern Georgia. A photo-reportage

TRT shesh

13/01/2009 -  Fazıla Mat

Turkey has launched a public TV channel in Kurdish - TRT 6. The law prohibiting the use of Kurdish for political purposes remains in force. The reactions to Erdoğan's "opening," the views of Kurdish politicians and intellectuals, and commentary from Leyla Zana

Minors on Trial

18/12/2008 -  Fazıla Mat

They risk imprisonment of 23 to 58 years. They are minors and Kurds. They are awaiting trial for their participation in the protests against the Turkish government last October. The debate concerns minors involved in political protests and violations of the rights of children by police and the judiciary

Dial M for Multiculturalism

18/12/2008 -  Risto Karajkov Skopje

The government of Skopje is trying hard to pay respect to diversity. Some analysts argue that, despite a difficult start, Macedonia remains the only viable example of successful ethnic co-existence in the Balkans. This may also be an exaggerated statement, but it is worth thinking about it

Yes, We Cem

04/12/2008 -  Fazıla Mat

For the first time in German history, an ethnic Turkish son of a gastarbeiter migrant worker, will lead a political party. Cem Özdemir, 42 years old and a former MP in the German Bundestag, is the new German Obama. With 80% of the party convention vote in his favour, he will lead the German Greens together with Claudia Roth

Dealing with the Past and Reconciliation with the Balkans

02/12/2008 -  Luisa ChiodiFrancesca Vanoni

Reconciliation and re-analysis in Southeastern Europe and with Southeastern Europe. Luisa Chiodi's speech at the conference "Dealing with the Past and Reconciliation Processes in the Western Balkans", Vienna 10-11 November

The Slovene Minority in Italy: Unfinished Protection

28/10/2008 -  Anonymous User

Indigenous linguistic minorities living in Italy's Alpine area benefit from strong legal protection; among these, the Slovene minority is the least protected. The slowness in guaranteeing its rights is due to deep-rooted historic factors

Union of Minorities

22/10/2008 -  Andrea Rossini

Conditions of the Slovene minority in Italy and the Italian minority in Slovenia after Ljubljana's entry into the European Union (EU). An interview with Bojan Brezigar, a journalist and advisor to outgoing Slovenian Foreign Minister, Dimitrij Rupelj

Best friends

25/09/2008 -  Davide Sighele

One of her best-known novels is Amiche per la pelle (Best Friends), a story of four migrant women in Trieste. However, there is also a fifth actor in the story. An interview with the writer Laila Wadia

Macedonian Refugee Children: Exodus Anniversary

12/08/2008 -  Risto Karajkov Skopje

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the exodus of the "refugee children" from Aegean Macedonia (Northern Greece). They fled their homes amidst a civil war and when they became adults, could not return to their homes nor claim their land. For the first time ever, the Macedonian government endorsed their demands

Roma in Macedonia: A Decade of Inclusion?

16/05/2005 -  Risto Karajkov Skopje

There are 54.000 Roma in Macedonia (a questionable piece of statistics as the identity declaration of Roma can be quite ambiguous). Of them, 17.000 are unemployed and 14.000 cannot afford the basic necessities. Another statistics says that 85% of the Roma in Macedonia receive social welfare

Macedonian Referendum. What's the Time?

03/11/2004 -  Risto Karajkov Skopje

On 7 November Macedonians will go out to the polls to support or reject the new law on territorial boundaries.Voices coming from the joint opposition say that these new territorial arrangements create the possibility for the claim of the Greater Albania, the government answers that the success of the referendum would mean "NO" to Europe