Conflicts

Armenia-Azerbaijan, possible progress registered at Brussels meeting

17/05/2023 -  Onnik James Krikorian Tbilisi

On Sunday, 14 May, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev met in Brussels for renewed talks hosted by European Council President Charles Michel. Still many unresolved points but some small progress appears

U.S. Hosts Armenian and Azerbaijani Foreign Ministers for Possible Roadmap to Peace Treaty

09/05/2023 -  Onnik James Krikorian

From 1 to 4 May, the United States hosted a meeting of talks between the Armenian Foreign Minister and his Azerbaijani counterpart. Few details of the meeting: there was some progress but points of disagreement remain on some key issues

Armenia-Azerbaijan, tensions rise as Baku establishes border control on Lachin Corridor

26/04/2023 -  Onnik James Krikorian

On April 23, Azerbaijan announced the creation of a checkpoint on the Lachin corridor, a move immediately criticized by the de facto authorities of Nagorno Karabakh and those of Armenia. The United States and France have also expressed concerns

Serbia between Moscow and the West: in the name of opportunism

30/03/2023 -  Francesco Martino Belgrade

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Serbia has navigated a delicate and increasingly uncomfortable balance between West and East. However, according to analyst Vuk Vuksanovic (Belgrade Centre for Security Policy), Serbian elites are mainly driven by their opportunism

Kyiv's street names are being heavily de-russified

28/03/2023 -  Yevheniia Drozdova

About 500 streets in Kyiv have been renamed since 2014 – many of them changed their name after the military aggression by Russia in 2022. Ukrainian and Western history and figures have now taken the place of Soviet or Russian ones

Azerbaijan and Karabakh Armenians talks at risk after gunfight

10/03/2023 -  Onnik James Krikorian

Recent gunfight casts doubt on prospects for talks between Azerbaijan and Karabakh Armenians

EUMA started observing Armenia's border with Azerbaijan

28/02/2023 -  Onnik James Krikorian

On 20 February the European Union Mission in Armenia (EUMA) started observing the country’s fragile border with neighbouring Azerbaijan. EUMA is a tool to create a more conducive environment for negotiations between Yerevan and Baku

Armenia-Azerbaijan, a difficult dialogue

23/02/2023 -  Onnik James Krikorian

Hopes and tension at Munich Security Conference as Armenian and Azerbaijan leaders meet to discuss a peace treaty. The initial optimism for the historic meeting soon gave way to unresolved tensions between Pashinyan and Aliyev

Croatia: mines still kill

15/02/2023 -  Nicole Corritore

Despite the extensive demining programme of recent years – also made possible by EU cohesion funds – the mines from the 1990s conflict still claim victims in Croatia

Ukraine: war and labour rights

09/02/2023 -  Francesco Brusa

We were in Kryvyj Rih, an industrial city in central Ukraine, to investigate what the workers' organisations are doing and how they have reacted to the conflict

Nagorno Karabakh, life under the blockade

01/02/2023 -  Armine Avetisyan

For over two months, the population of Nagorno Karabakh has been isolated from the rest of the world by the Azerbaijani blockade of the Lachin Corridor. How life is in Stepanakert

European Union Establishes Longer-Term Monitoring Mission in Armenia

25/01/2023 -  Onnik James Krikorian

The European Union gave the green light on 23 January to the long-term mission in Armenia (EUMA). It is a monitoring mission on the border with Azerbaijan, it will employ about a hundred people and will be temporarily led by Stefano Tomat, senior official with the EU External Action Service

Ukraine: the Red Guelder Rose song

23/01/2023 -  Antoine Laurent

From the beginning of the Russian invasion on 24 February 2022, a traditional song called "In the Meadow, a red Guelder Rose" (Oi u luzi chervona kalyna) has become the symbol of the Ukrainian resistance

The future of Donbass according to Izolyatsia

18/01/2023 -  Francesco Brusa

"Our job is not to 'correct' people or to tell them what to think, rather we should be able to offer a credible idea of a future together". Mykhailo Glubokyi is one of the organisers of the Izolyatsia cultural space, founded in Donetsk and then moved to Kyiv. We interviewed him

Time is running out for war crimes prosecution in Bosnia

20/12/2022 -  Massimo Moratti

“A race against time” is the title of a recent report by the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) highlighting the delays in implementation of the country’s strategy for war crimes prosecution. The risk is to see the process prolonged for a number of years. While the completion of those trials was a top priority for the country only 15 years ago, it has now become hostage to political tensions in Bosnia

Armenian and Georgian workers: war drives them away from Russia

07/12/2022 -  Armine Avetisyan

This year, the number of people who left Armenia to work in Russia decreased by 20,000. The number of migrant workers leaving for Russia from Georgia has also decreased slightly. The main reason is war

The Hybrid Warriors and the Invasion of Ukraine

24/11/2022 -  Giorgio Comai

What were the proximate dynamics that made possible what took place in the Donbas between 2014 and 2022? And what has even happened? An important part of the answer is convincingly outlined in Anna Arutunyan’s excellent latest book

Inequalities and resistance in Putin's Russia

15/11/2022 -  Asia Leofreddi

"The stable emergence of a Russian civic consciousness against the war is inseparable from a collective elaboration of the trauma of belonging to the aggressor country", says Russian sociologist and dissident Alexander Bikbov in this interview

EU Monitoring Capacity deploys on the Armenia-Azerbaijan border

08/11/2022 -  Onnik James Krikorian

The European Monitoring Capacity (EUMCAP) is the short-term EU mission deployed on the borders between Armenia and Azerbaijan with the aim of reducing tensions between the two states and strengthening their mutual trust

From Thessaloniki to Izmir, the friendship ferry

13/10/2022 -  Mary Drosopoulos Thessaloniki

Against the backdrop of growing tensions between Greece and Turkey, a positive counter-signal comes from the sea: the first regular ferry was recently launched between the cities of Thessaloniki and Izmir

Albania– Iran: broken relations and cyberwarfare

28/09/2022 -  Gjergji Kajana

Following a cyberattack on its IT system, Albania accused Iran and cut all diplomatic ties. In the background, the conflict over the hosting of anti-ayatollah Iranian movement MEK

Cyprus: halloumi diplomacy

16/08/2022 -  Mary Drosopoulos Nicosia

In Cyprus, cooperating across the lines that divide Greeks and Turks is always complicated. Also thanks to EU intervention, however, halloumi cheese – one of the symbols of the island – is once again a heritage shared by the two communities

Srebrenica: denial in the European public narrative

11/07/2022 -  Marco Siragusa

Almost thirty years after the genocide we are very far from starting a dialogue and a public discussion – in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Europe – on the memory of what happened in Srebrenica. An interview with Andrea Rizza Goldstein

Alexander Langer and Bosnia: a book and an educational project

13/07/2022 -  Sabina Langer *Giulia Levi

In the 1990s Alexander Langer, a South Tyrolean politician and MEP, devoted a great deal of effort to seeking peaceful solutions to the conflict in Bosnia. His writings have now been translated into Bosnian and will be the core of meetings for young people on human rights, ecology, and activism

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

Russians in Armenia, looking for a normal life

08/06/2022 -  Armine Avetysian

With the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war, thousands of Russians have moved to Armenia. There is an actual emigration wave of Russian entrepreneurs with their families. Most of them choose to live in the capital Yerevan in search of peace and stability

Ukraine: the railroad war

12/05/2022 -  Antoine Pecqueur

Whether they’re evacuating civilians, transporting troops or exporting goods, Ukrainian railways are on the frontline of resistance against the Russian invasion

Ukraine: (Greek) Mariupol is no more

06/05/2022 -  Mary Drosopoulos Thessaloniki

The city of Mariupol, sieged by Russian troops for more than two months, was the core of the Greek Ukrainian community for centuries. The future of this community is now more uncertain than ever

Aggression of Ukraine, a war with no happy ending

06/05/2022 -  Francesco Brusa

Putin's invasion is also the result of the fragile balance that has been created in Europe after 1989. According to Paul D'Anieri, author of "Ukraine and Russia: From Civilized Divorce to Uncivil War", it was a "highway to war". Our interview

Ukraine: how many refugees are there in the European Union – and where?

26/04/2022 -  Gianluca De Feo

Since the beginning of the war, many Ukrainians – but also Russians – have been seeking refuge in the countries of the European Union. Where are they going, and which are the countries that already hosted the largest Ukrainian communities?