Human rights

The curious case of Anvar Sharipov

11/02/2011 -  Giorgio Comai

Anvar is a 35-year-old man. On 6 January, he was found without documents at the Venice-Mestre station and immediately transferred to the Centre for Identification and Expulsion (CIE) of Gradisca (Gorizia). A case of illegal migration like any other? Only at first sight

Transnational networks and state-building in the Balkans

03/02/2011 -  Denisa Kostovicova, Vesna Bojicic-Dzelilovic

Informality allows people to change their immediate circumstances for the better, but it locks the state and society in a vicious circle of reproduction of a weak state, promising insecurity for the majority and prosperity for the few. From openDemocracy

Macedonia: violence at home

28/01/2011 -  Dejan Georgievski* Skopje

Domestic violence is a widespread phenomenon in Macedonia. According to NGOs working on this issue its causes are mainly a consequence of a society that is still very patriarchal. Our review

Bloggers in Azerbaijan back to freedom

15/12/2010 -  Arzu Geybullayeva Baku

Emin and Adnan were arrested in July 2009. Their detention and later arrest was harshly criticized by local and international organizations. Documents published by Wikileaks suggest that US leadership asked that the two bloggers be “quietly released”

Greece: end inhumane detention conditions for migrants

06/12/2010 -  Human Rights Watch

The number of migrants arriving in northern Greece from Turkey has risen dramatically in 2010. According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), Greek officials should immediately transfer migrants from overcrowded and inhumane detention sites and protect the unaccompanied migrant children

Kadyrov requested to testify in Vienna

02/12/2010 -  Majnat Kurbanova Vienna

Umar Israilov, ex Chechen guerrilla fighter, denounced the Chechen leadership for torture at the European court of human rights. He was subsequently murdered, in January 2009 in Vienna, where he had been granted the status of political refugee. Right now in the Austrian capital the trial regarding his assassination is being held. The Chechen President Kadyrov has been called to testify

Vukovar, 19 years later

29/11/2010 -  Nicole Corritore Vukovar

On 18 November 1991, the siege of Vukovar, Croatia, ended with an agreement between besiegers and besieged to evacuate civilians and respect the Third Geneva Convention on treatment of prisoners of war. Neither promise would be kept. Our report on the memorial day

Kosovo: Europe Returning Roma to Face Hardship

04/11/2010 -  Human Rights Watch Pristina

According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), Roma and related minority groups deported from Western Europe to Kosovo face discrimination and severe deprivation amounting to human rights abuse. In a report published at end October 2010, HRW asks for an immediate moratorium on forced returns

Tensions Rise After Armenian Dies in Azeri Custody

03/11/2010 -  Jasur Sumerinli - Sara Khojoyan

While Azerbaijan says it captured a spy who committed suicide, Armenians say he was a shepherd and was deliberately killed. From IWPR

Mussa Khan. An asylum roulette

07/03/2011 -  Paolo Martino Ancona

Ancona, Italy. Here is the “Europe” dreamed of by Mussa Khan. Here too, though, welcoming the muhajirins are metal fences and procedures that make applications for asylum a runaway and distant prospect

Chechnya, choked by headscarves

20/10/2010 -  Tanya Lokshina

In Chechnya there is official support for attacks on women when they are considered to have ‘flouted’ Islamic rules by not wearing a headscarf or covering up enough. Tanya Lokshina listened to some of the women’s despairing accounts. From openDemocracy.net

Mussa Khan. Destination Europe

25/02/2011 -  Paolo Martino Igoumenitsa

In Igoumenitsa the muhajirins dream of Europe. It does not matter if they are there already: for them, the one that counts is on the other side of the Adriatic. Here Mussa Khan too, as many before him, tries his hand with fate.

Fätmagül Berktay: “Turkish women root for the EU”

13/10/2010 -  Francisco Martinez Istanbul

Leader of the Turkish feminist movement, Fätmagül Berktay has defended the right to university even for those wearing the veil. “The Kemalist constitution let us move forward in society, but it had no effect on domestic violence, widespread in any class and ethnicity. The EU would make us stronger”. Our interview

Mussa Khan. The other side of the acropolis

28/01/2011 -  Paolo Martino Athens

Athens. The place where democracy was born hides a dark and painful side: it is the streets and squares where the muhajirins live illegally, waiting for a future that never comes. A black hole that swallows lives and destinies, where Mussa Khan seems to have gotten lost

A new story from Chechnya: Tamara

06/10/2010 -  Majnat Kurbanova

In the eighties Tamara was a teacher of Russian language and literature in Chechnya. Since the year 2000 she has had to cope with not only the disappearance of her husband but also breast cancer, an illness with a particularly high incidence in Chechnya after the recent wars

Mussa Khan. Greece, poor Greece

21/01/2011 -  Paolo Martino Thessaloniki

Victims of conflicts that do not concern them, like the hoary one between Greece and Turkey, which has left a mortal trail of mines along the border of the Evros. Even when they get to the long desired Hellenic land, however, the muhajirins find a country in the midst of an economic crisis, less and less willing to offer them protection and grant them asylum

Mussa Khan. A tale of rivers and borders

14/01/2011 -  Paolo Martino Edirne

Turkey, Bulgaria, Greece. Three separate nations united by the Evros-Meriç-Maritsa, today the last door for the muhajirins attempting to land in Europe. Maybe Mussa Khan has already passed here, but more and more of his traveling companions are losing their lives in the dark meanders of the river

Mussa Khan. Downtown

10/01/2011 -  Paolo Martino Istanbul

Istanbul: connection between two continents, Asia and Europe. Where refugees like Mussa Khan are obliged to pass, especially now that the routes of the muhajirins have shifted towards North. Here, their destiny crosses with the contradictions hovering between economic development and denied rights

Mussa Khan. Dead end

30/12/2010 -  Paolo Martino Izmir

The Silk Road of the Third Millennium carries human flesh. Its terminal on Turkish soil is Izmir: here, muhajirins arrive. Muhajirins, like Mussa Khan, who try the Aegean route to end up, too often, at the bottom of the sea. To look for him, I need to enter Basmane, Europe’s door of the last

Mussa Khan. The Jirga of Gaziantep

23/12/2010 -  Paolo Martino Gaziantep

The distance, journey and precariousness are not enough to deprive the Afghan refugees of their roots. The “Jirga” meets also in Gaziantep. The assembly of elders sits to face the painful topic of exile, but also day-to-day problems of those who hover between a bitter present and an uncertain future

Migrations: Evros, last door to Europe

09/09/2010 -  Francesco Martino

The Evros River, on the border between Greece and Turkey, is the last open door towards the European Union for migrants and political asylum seekers. A road full of risks, filled with accidents and victims. Meanwhile, Greece and the EU are stuck in a logic of permanent crisis and cannot come out of it. Our report

Mussa Khan: The Turkish trap

09/12/2010 -  Paolo Martino Van

Still in Van and of Mussa Khan, no news. The journey amongst the Afghan muhajirins continues: trapped in the Turkish city, in the limbo of temporary asylum waiting to continue their journey, even illegally, through Greece and Italy

Mussa Khan, the valley of migrations

03/12/2010 -  Paolo Martino Van

“At night, in Yuksekova, the army has permission to shoot at sight. If you go up there, be very, very careful”. On OBC, the journey in search of Mussa Khan continues. An Afghan refugee on the path to a dream called “Europe”. A dream that is all too often paid with one’s own life

A modern Odyssey: On the trail of Mussa Khan

26/11/2010 -  Paolo Martino Van

Months, years, constantly moving. Rejected, invisible, on the margins. This is the destiny of the Afghan muhajirins, on a tenacious search for the dream called “Europe”. Starting from today, with the episodes of the “Mussa Khan” blog, we are going to tell their odyssey through Turkey, Greece and Italy, until the Ostiense Station in Rome

Oil, Afghanistan and progress

17/08/2010 -  Arzu Geybullayeva Baku

The United States’ willingness to overlook Azerbaijan's democratic and human rights records was revealed by the recent visit of Secretary of State Clinton to Azerbaijan’s capitol, Baku. Azerbaijan has become more important, not only as an oil and gas-rich country, but also for the transit of troops to Afghanistan

White Orphans, the enlargement's children

07/07/2010 -  Cristina Bezzi

Romania’s 350,000 “white orphans” have been left behind by one or both parents, who emigrated to search for jobs and resources to grant their children a better future. During the “Left Behind” conference in May 2010 in Milan, Italy the “Albero della Vita” association presented the results of their study of the problem

Mother Courage in Grozny

31/05/2010 -  Majnat Kurbanova

Lula is an actress to the bone, “flirtatious, fond of cosmetics, she pays attention to her gait and the tone of her voice”. A true life story from Chechnya, told by Mainat Kourbanova for the readers of Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso

Armenian genocide: "I remember them"

01/12/2010 -  Laura Delsere

The Armenian genocide – a look from inside a family. Two 15-year-old survivors meet in an orphanage. Sharing the pain is impossible, even with descendants. Therefore, a young university student tells the real story of her grandparents on 24 April, Memorial Day

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

Europe's minarets

07/01/2010 -  Fazıla Mat

There has been a strong reaction in both Turkey and Switzerland to the Swiss vote banning the construction of new minarets in the Confederation. A look at the significance of the referendum for migrant workers, the views of political parties and institutions such as “the House of the People” in Zurich, and the public debate