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Orient Express
Silence of statues in Budapest's Memento Park, House of Terror
Budapest’s Park, built shortly after the fall of communism, commemorates the visual iconography of four decades under communist rule in the Hungarian capital. In sharp contrast to its frozen lethargy, the House of Terror bursts with life. Could things have been different for Hungary today if it had a revolution back in 1989?
orient express, reagan, lenin, joseph stalin, cold war, communism, cities
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, three-time Turkish prime minister in 2011
A faltering EU bid, separatist threats from the Kurdish minority and rumours of a presidential strategy. Ahmet Insel, a political scientist, liberal economist, editor of Orhan Pamuk and professor at Paris and Istanbul, spoke to cafebabel.com before the 12 June elections in Turkey
orient express, turkey, istanbul, recep tayyip erdogan, politics, orhan pamuk
A is for Macedonia
Like any others, Skopje's activists, artisans and artists build on the future, in correlation with the government's grand urban plans for 2014. Yet unlike any others, they have a more testing time building from the past, twenty years after independence from Yugoslavia. Across stone bridges, the Albanian heart of the city muddles on from changing traditions, whilst a Macedonian soul reigns in the streets, with the rising citizenship of people angered by an unnecessary state-related death of a young man. However, national identity is a creative booster for documentary makers opening to the world. One answer in getting from A to Z in this small Balkan country lies in the question: how many Macedonias are there? Read the final edition of Orient Express Reporter by cafebabel.com's editorial jaunt to the Balkans in 2011, as an Albanian, Montenegrin, Polish, German and French journalist-photographer team deconstruct the Macedonian capital (Image: © Sab Ji/ cendrillons.over-blog.com/)
Orient Express Reporter 2010/11: citizen journalism’s ‘corridor no.10’ in Balkans and Turkey
For nine months, this citizen media has been sending an editor from its team of six in Paris along with volunteer teams of journalists to the likes of Bosnia, Macedonia and the EU’s 28th member state as of July 2013, Croatia. A project initially born of idealism in the winter – the aim being to present ‘our Balkan neighbours’ from an on-the-ground, positive viewpoint – the monthly city missions became a veritable bastion of shared and unshared realities throughout the year (travel in the Balkans, football fever), even when some well-meaning articles inevitably dipped into the usual shadows of already mediatised topics. Politics decides the status of a Balkan member state in relation to the EU, and politics is unavoidable in the daily lives of young people. In December 2010, Montenegro and Albania respectively garnered ‘EU candidate’ status and celebrated visa-free access to the EU’s Schengen zone. Their journalists and Arab-revolutionary wannabes dream whilst in Kosovo, a Spaniard (whose homeland has not recognised the ‘world’s second newest country’) has a one-on-one with the prime minister. As Irishwoman simply tries to understand Serbia, which is racing ahead in its EU prospects after 'handing over old war criminals', whereas from Turkey, whose negotiations to join the EU seem stalled, the scene is set by a passionate cult of football supporters in Istanbul. And that was the key to this year's editorial mission: passion. Read the best of cafebabel.com’s jaunt in the east and south-east (Image: (cc) Ezequiel Scagnetti for Orient Express Reporter Kosovo/ ezequiel-scagnetti.com/)
- Read the special edition Orient Express Reporter 2010/11: citizen journalism’s ‘corridor no.10’ in Balkans and Turkey
- Vox-pop: Being a young journalist in Montenegro
- Selling Serbia, a PR nightmare
- Hunting Hashim Thaci in Prishtina
- Being a Beşiktaş football supporter in Istanbul
- Try finding an Arab revolution in Albania
Religious fever in Istanbul: between football and Armenians
It's cold at the end of April in Istanbul, but these are days of celebration, and its not just to do with the strong national pride for football. The 23rd celebrates the modern republic's first national assembly and is dedicated to children, the future of the country. The 24th is easter for the catholics, protestants and orthodox, but also for the Turkish Armenians (and Turks) who silently protest for the 'genocide' that took place on the same day of their intellectuals during the ottoman era in 1915. These are also days of protest, between the Kurdish minority and the students who fight for their respective rights. Tourists invade the city which was once Constantinople, a paradise for young people and an eldorado for those who 'came back' from their immigration to Europe. Read the articles from our French-Italian-Serbian-Albanian team who report from Turkey in the framework of our special edition, Orient Express Reporter
- Read the special edition Religious fever in Istanbul: between football and Armenians
- Meeting 4 of 500, 000 'Almanci' German Turks who returned 'home' over last 30 years
- Easter in Istanbul with Turks and Turkish Armenians
- An Albanian in Istanbul on children’s day
- Being a Beşiktaş football supporter in Istanbul
Going bananas for Tirana
In 2010 a group of Albanian politicians organised a hunger strike in protest at the electoral problems of the year before. In January 2011 the police killed three protesters in front of parliament. This year marks the return of citizens riled at the irregularities at the foundation of local elections in June. In Tirana everything revolves around politics, but some are able to rise above the stench of disappointment. Between architects, artists, journalists and students, a new generation is trying to revive a young Balkan capital. Read the articles from our Bosnian-Serbian-Spanish-French team who report from Albania in the framework of our special edition, Orient Express Reporter (Image: (cc) davduf/ Flickr)
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Unravelling the Zagreb web
Contrary to our expectations of a post-war, post-Yugoslav capital, Zagreb looks like a puffy cream cake. The typical Balkan cliché doesn’t strike the eye right away. It is not for nothing that Croatia is a favorite for membership in the European union, having reached 30 of the 35 'negotiation chapters'. 23 May saw EU enlargement to this potential 28th state going on behind closed Brussels doors, but Zagreb has been producing its own critical tones too. Its ladies go for the 'western model' and its LGBT rights record pips it ahead of its Serbian neighbour. The Balkan idyll is cobbled together despite Croatia's status as having the youngest history of war and existing neighbour policy conflicts. Scratch the surface and this deteriorates. Citizens first raged the streets in February against corruption scandals and a bad economic climate. Changes here happened too quickly and in too short a time for this city to grow 'adult'. Read the articles from our French-German-Serbian-Bulgarian team who report from Croatia's capital in the framework of our special edition, Orient Express Reporter (Image: (cc) lern/ Flickr)
- Read the special edition Unravelling the Zagreb web
- Croatia’s writers and playwrights: no post-war no-hopers
- Croatian writer Olja Savicevic: 'We have never lived in a normal society'
- Zagreb’s Miss Independents
- My Zagreb Vitriol: remembering Croatia’s anti-government protests
- Is gay OK in catholic Croatia?
Just being in Bosnia: a slice of Sarajevo
It's one of the most famous countries in the world, and still one of the most mysterious. cafebabel.com visits the notorious Balkan capital at a historical time: it has been fifteen years since the end of the three-and-a-half year war in the nineties, marked by the Paris-signed Dayton treaty which split the country into two constituent Serb and Croat-Bosniak parts. The European Union has just signalled that the ethnically diverse Bosnians are welcome to travel without visas. Bosnia is clearly chugging forward. So are its young people, whether they are headscarved film directors, internet cafe owners or forward-looking, majority female students who are creating the city's first arthouses or working in a hostel in the centre, reading up on Bosnia-European history and being paid in euros. It's hard to isolate the dynamism of Sarajevo's youth when its past created this present not so long ago. The mountains of the valley capital sit on our shoulders to bring you this special edition of Orient Express Reporter
Kosovo: no country for bland men
Kosovo is like a good strong coffee: one sip is enough to alert your five senses. In barely a fraction of history its people have swapped communism for apartheid, war, controlled independence and a status which is disputed by the countries of the world. Its political elite are suspected of corruption and criminal activity, whilst its population is the youngest and has the highest rate of unemployment in Europe. The old mistrust between the ethnic Albanian and ethnic Serbian Kosovars is watched from the west. Maybe it's a lethal cocktail, maybe not: a team of pan-European and Balkan journalists headed to Kosovo where they met young artists, students, film entrepeneurs and politicians between the most modern bars of the capital to the prime minister's entourage and the tense Serbian areas. As part of the 'Orient Express Reporter' project, they help us see what Kosovo is made of, a taste which is decidedly not suitable for the bland tongue
Aleksandar Radivojevic of ‘A Serbian Film’: it’s catharsis more than ‘torture porn’
In Belgrade artistic culture and creativity seem to be menaced by the muzzle of conformism and the dictatorship of political correctness. Many believe that Serbia’s entry into the 27-nation European union could make the situation worse. We meet the co-writer of a controversial 2010 horror film, which he says is the perfect 'plastic metaphor' onscreen of the indignant cry of an art which wants to break free
orient express, cinema, belgrade, film festival, culture, violence, serbia
Burn after Belgrade: trying to type over stereotype
After Sarajevo and Podgorica, the third stop of ‘Orient Express Reporter’ takes place in Belgrade, cafebabel.com’s maiden voyage to the Serb capital. History wears a heavy coat on the journalists’ investigations. From Belgrade’s museums, a German journalist learns more about a little known scientist national hero whilst a Canadian learns about the Kosovo myth as he ponders whether Serbia will become an official candidate for the European Union in late 2011. An Italian deliberately dives into the country’s stereotypes whilst an Irish asks if Serbia can beat its past to gain a brand. All the while a French photographer stops and starts in the city, capturing the serenity which has not been the easyjet party capital’s claim to fame. In this week’s cities column special edition, we learn that our quick pan-European stop in Serbia by no means defines a mostly misunderstood, future European city (Image: (cc) Andrej_Filev/ Flickr)
Podgorica: Balkan youth, beyond corruption
An application for membership to the European Union, a resignation of a prime minister after nineteen years, a gust of accusations of corruption and mafiose activities of the latter, Milo Djukanovic. The first snow in many years, and against it Kosovar refugees building their homes in their promised land. A Roma minority working for other refugees, politicians who beat journalists, younger journalists wondering why they do this job in a country ranking 104th for the freedom of the press. It's all there in text and images in the second stop of cafebabel.com's Orient Express Reporter project. After Bosnia, welcome to four days in Montenegro
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