All the news

No way out of the protests

14/04/2009 -  Tengiz Ablotia Tbilisi

On 9 April, the government opposition in Tbilisi, Georgia started a new wave of protests to demand the resignation of Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili. The protests have been peaceful but are rapidly heading into a stalemate

Protests out of control

08/04/2009 -  Iulia Postica Chişinău

After last Sunday's elections, the opposition took to the streets of Chişinău to protest the victory of the Communist party. Peaceful demonstrations degenerated into violent clashes between the protesters and the police when the crowd stormed the Parliament and Presidency buildings

Macedonia elects new president

07/04/2009 -  Risto Karajkov Skopje

Gjorgji Ivanov has won the presidential elections with about 63 percent of the votes. The most important thing for the country, as is widely agreed, was the fact that the election was free and fair

Tense spirits on the last hundred meters

03/04/2009 -  Iulia Postica Chişinău

The electoral campaign in Moldova ends with serious infringements of citizenship rights. Fifty Moldovan students studying in Romania were denied entering their own country, while three hundred Romanian citizens were stopped at the border and prevented to participate in cultural and political events organised by electoral candidates

For the good of Russia

31/03/2009 -  Giorgio Comai Moscow

The organization "Russian Congress of Caucasian Peoples" was founded by members of different nationalities in the region that have united to guard their own interests, defend themselves from discrimination and for the good of Russia

Ten years down the road

30/03/2009 -  Risto Karajkov Skopje

Bombers crossed the sky by night and thousands of desperate people gathered at the borders by day. In Macedonia, at the time of the conflict in Kosovo, the smell of war was in the air. Back then, for most people in the country, it was as close as they had ever been to war in their lives

Former president to run for Yerevan Mayor

25/03/2009 -  Onnik Krikorian Yerevan

Levon Ter-Petrossian, the first president of independent Armenia, will participate in the municipal elections of the Armenian capital to be held on 31 May. Amid fears of election rigging, with both sides convinced of their own sweeping victory, the opposition hopes to weaken the legitimacy of president Sargsyan

Gjakova, story of an anniversary

24/03/2009 -  Veton Kasapolli Pristina

From the very beginning of the Nato campaign in March 1999, the city of Gjakova in western Kosovo became a city under siege and had to deal with reprisals by Serbian army and police. Its inhabitants remember those days

As if nothing had ever happened

23/03/2009 -  Danijela Nenadić

"They listen to my generation's stories of fighting against Slobodan Milošević's regime like we used to listen to the partisans' stories we were told, once upon a time." The bombings and the generation born under them, the unsaid, the future

The encounter

20/03/2009 -  Marjola Rukaj

It was 1999 and refugees from Kosovo began to pour into a disoriented and torn-apart Albania. The 1999 crisis was a human drama, but it was also an occasion for two communities, divided for decades, to come together and tear down some national-romantic myths

How to do well?

20/03/2009 -  Risto Karajkov Skopje

On 22 March, Macedonian citizens will go to the polls to elect a new president and new local governments. If Macedonia runs a good election, it might hope to get a date to start accession talks with the EU, perhaps by the end of 2009. But if the election doesn't go well, Macedonia can forget about it

Cities in search of an author II

18/03/2009 -  Chiara Sighele

With his eclectic studies, urban researcher Kai Vöckler, curator of the exhibition Balkanology: New Architecture and Urban Phenomena in South-eastern Europe is trying to accomplish a "mission impossible": to prove that a participatory and sustainable urban life is also possible in South-eastern Europe. Second part of our interview

The Armenian Dram collapses

16/03/2009 -  Onnik Krikorian Yerevan

After years of economic growth that surprised many, the global financial crisis finally hit Armenia early last week forcing the Central Bank to devalue the local currency, the dram

Cities in search of an author I

16/03/2009 -  Chiara Sighele

With his eclectic studies, urban researcher Kai Vöckler, curator of the exhibition Balkanology: New Architecture and Urban Phenomena in South-eastern Europe is trying to accomplish a "mission impossible": to prove that a participatory and sustainable urban life is also possible in South-eastern Europe. First part of an interview

Far away, so close?

13/03/2009 -  Risto Karajkov Skopje

Just before the start of the electoral campaign, Macedonian prime minister Gruevski announced a massive plan to invest in infrastructures. Little resources, though, seems to have been allocated to revive the "European Corridor 8", meant to link the Adriatic to the Black Sea

Fast and furious

12/03/2009 -  Veton Kasapolli Pristina

Pristina's population has increased from around 100,000 in 1981, to an estimated 500,000 today. The city's turbulent growth has been marked by a frenetic building activity without any planning. This model of development is now being questioned

Konstantina's tenacity

06/03/2009 -  Gilda Lyghounis

She came to Greece seven years ago as a migrant. Ever since, she has been fighting for the rights of the "modern slaves", the cleaners. Until a dramatic attempt to silence her forever. This is the story of Konstantina Kuneva, the symbol of 8 March in Greece

Happiness is... multiple pipelines

06/03/2009 -  Leila Alieva* Baku

The war in Georgia and the recent gas crisis with Ukraine have revived Europe's willingness to develop the Nabucco pipeline, an alternative transit route for gas imports from the Caspian Sea basin that would bypass Russia

The fall

04/03/2009 -  Andrea Rossini

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

Who Are We? II

26/02/2009 -  Risto Karajkov Skopje

Macedonians have become bitter with each other. Over themselves. Over who they are. Over whether they are Slav or ancient Macedonians. Op-eds and commentaries have overwhelmed the press; the blogosphere has overheated. It all started because of a monument