[2009] Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall. From the promise of re-unification to new national fragmentations, from the hope for lasting peace to new wars. Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso analyses those days' hopes, nowadays' disenchantment, and twenty years of change through the voices, ideas and remembrances of some of the protagonists in the Caucasus and the Balkans. Where 1989 has not come to an end yet.
Interviews
10 November 2009
The memory of the communist era in Romania, questions about the revolution and the end of the Ceauşescu regime. An interview with Corneliu Porumboiu, screenwriter and director of the critically-acclaimed film "12:08 East of Bucharest"
On November 10th, 1989, Bulgaria sees the end of Zhivkov and the single party. The events of that year, the ethnic question, and the attempts at lustration in an interview with Zhelyu Zhelev, philosopher and dissident in the years of the regime and first democratically elected president after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
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The wall of lost chances: the Balkans and the Caucasus after 1989
Laura Delsere | 30 October 2009 -
Armenia, perestroika, and cosmic rays
Davide Sighele | 13 October 2009 - Giorgio Comai | 18 September 2009
- Tbilisi | Giorgio Comai | 25 August 2009
- Belgrade | Marco Abram | 6 August 2009
- Marjola Rukaj | 4 June 2009
- Bucharest | Francesco Martino | 28 May 2009
- Bucharest | Francesco Martino | 22 May 2009
- Marjola Rukaj | 20 April 2009
- Andrea Rossini | 4 March 2009
- Andrea Rossini | 18 February 2009
Articles
12 November 2009
From architecture to literature, from language to skiing, a look at Slovenia - the country that entered 1989 gradually turning its back on the Balkans. A contribution to our dossier The long lasting '89.
9 November 2009
The process of European reunification as a clash of opposing utopias, the thrilling night of 9 November, 1989 when the East and the West shook hands on the rubble of the Wall, and the reality that followed. An essay by sociologist Melita Richter.
4 November 2009
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
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Ceausescu who? The unknown past of Romanian '89
Bucharest | Francesco Martino, Davide Sighele | 26 October 2009 - Capodistria | Stefano Lusa | 23 October 2009
- Skopje | Risto Karajkov | 2 October 2009
A journey to Bucharest and Timisoara twenty years after the Romanian Revolution of 1989 in search of the places and symbols of the Revolution. A photo gallery by Francesco Martino.
In December 1989, 20 years ago, Timişoara citizens fought alone against the regime of Ceausescu. The memories of Ioan Savu, one of the leaders of that revolution, and professor Miodrag Milin, the first to collect the stories of those days. A videoreportage by Davide Sighele and Francesco Martino
They have no memory of communism and Ceausescu. They were too young to remember, or were not born yet. They are the Generation '89, they look towards the future, they want to change Romania. A videoreportage by Francesco Martino and Davide Sighele
Interview
18 February 2009
From the fall of the Berlin Wall to the European integration process, via the dissolution of Yugoslavia. The controversial heritage of Communism in Europe, made of nostalgia, social injustice and demand for security. An interview with Slavenka Drakulić
Interview
4 March 2009
The end of division in Europe, the end of Yugoslavia, the advent of globalisation: an interview with Rada Ivekovic. A new article in the series on European identity, the new system of international relations and the memory of communism in the first 20 years after 1989
Reportage
The Romanian generation born in 1989, what they do not know about their past, and what they want from the future. A reportage from Bucharest on the memory of Ceasescu in nowadays' Romania, where the events of 1989 continue to divide society and generations
Reportage
4 November 2009
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
