Trends and society

As the electoral campaign unfolds in Bosnia Herzegovina, so does nationalist rhetoric, reviving the idea of conflict. But what is war? In a post on Facebook, Eldin Kurbašić explains it

When your father takes you to Istanbul but you really have no wish to go because you're dreaming of Paris. A trip to Turkey in the early 70s

Yugoslavia participated in many Summer Olympics, winning a record of 18 medals in 1984. Now its successor states all have hopes for medals, in spite of their young history of participating in the event as independent states

Things seem to be going well for Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia at the 2016 Summer Olympics – scheduled to start on 5 August, in Rio de Janeiro. At least when it comes to the overall numbers of participating athletes

The healthcare sector in Ukraine is in crisis: low quality, stagnant reforms and dwindling budgets. Is it the result of a widespread habit to pay doctors under the table?

Despite the local ecclesiastical institutions' disapproval, in the Monastery of Saharna, a hundred kilometres from the Moldovan capital Chişinau, mass exorcism rites are taking place

In the Seventies, a group of young hipsters leave Yugoslavia looking for the Buddhist monk Čedomil Veljačič, ending up in Morocco

After many years in Italy, the Prenga brothers have returned to Albania to put their new ideas for the restaurant business into practice. Fundamental to their practice are pride in their traditions, love for the land and the use of local produce

The Dengbêj represent the collective memory of the Kurdish people, having resisted the Turkish government attempts to assimilate them

An initiative advocating the use of the Ustaša salute ‘Ready for the homeland’ in the Croatian army has caused shock in the local public, indicating the persistence of a fascist legacy in Croatia

Lake Prespa, on the border between Macedonia, Albania and Greece preserves unique biodiversity and culinary traditions. Like that of the dried fish "cironki", whose origins are lost in time

On July 9^th, the owners of B92, Belgrade's historic radio and bastion of resistance to Milošević's power in the nineties, introduced drastic changes, ultimately turning off a myth of the Serbian media

A group of youth coming from the four corners of the world is representing Armenia at the Vienna Eurovision Song Contest. Meet Vahe Tilbian, Armenian of Ethiopia

Sarajevo is not the city it once was. There are no longer tens of thousands of inhabitants – some have betrayed it, others have left it. But it can't be blamed for this. Slowly it's coming back to life, as if after an earthquake

After the war, Dule was one of the first Bosniaks to return to Srebrenica, where he opened his restaurant. One year after his death, his son Avdo traces the family history

In the aftermath of the brutal murder of a female student in Turkey, women associations come out in anger: "We are not mourning, we are in revolt"

Northwestern Bulgaria: the poorest region in the EU, hit by the fierce depopulation of rural areas. Yet, despite the difficulties of the present, some do resist – and start back, in small steps - from the treasures of a centenary cultural and culinary tradition

An exhibition in Sarajevo sheds light on the most celebrated Italian comic strip translated in Yugoslavia and the new republics

Edith Durham, an author, aid worker and Edwardian traveller in the Balkans, has left an enduring legacy in South East Europe, namely in Albania. A review of the latest Marcus Tanner book on the first British woman to become Vice President of the Royal Anthropological Institute

Belgrade's Astronomical Observatory, a jewel of modernist architecture, houses amazing instruments and magical stories, like that of a mysterious “comet seeker”. Today, the question is how to do justice to what once was a symbol of the city. An interview

In the Iranian town of Isfahan, in the ancient district of New Julfa, lives an Armenian community. From the Ararat supermarket to the Ani cafe, everything here is reminiscent of the deep link of the Armenians to their homeland

The story of Predrag Pašić, old glory of Yugoslav football, is the story of Sarajevo and Bubamara, a small football academy for children founded during the war. Now Bosnian politics is trying to delete this experience, but Pašić assures: "We will keep fighting"

In her documentary "Aici... adica acolo", the journalist and director Laura Capatana addresses the issue of children left behind in Romania leading us through the daily lives of two teenagers

The decision to build a monument to the memory of Anastas Mikoyan, Armenian leader in the former USSR, has sparked a controversy on the soviet legacy and on Russian-Armenian relations

15 years after the NATO raids, Serbian society is dealing with a recent past marked by diverging narratives

The Bosnian capital has a new shopping centre, the “Sarajevo City Center”. It is the fourth within a radius of a kilometre, in a country where the population is increasingly poor. But the city loves its malls

The first book on the history of motoring in Serbia, and Yugoslavia, will soon be released. An interview with the author, Marko Miljković

Turning an area of Belgrade into a Dubai of the Balkans. The Serbian government project for the right bank of the Sava, issued during the election campaign, appears unsustainable to critics

Thirty years ago, from February 8^th to 19^th, the fourteenth edition of the Olympic Winter Games was held in Sarajevo. A few years after the Olympic facilities, a symbol of common history and life, were targeted by the bombings

The renovation of the centre of Belgrade will involve moving the statue of Dimitrije Tucović, Serbian anti-war activist who died in 1914 and has recently disappeared from the public debate