Stories about History from October, 2020
Hong Kong police to launch hotline for public to report violations of the national security law
The new development indicates that the NSL will likely not target "a small number" of individuals, as Carrie Lam once promised, but surveil Hong Kong residents on a massive scale.
The importance of ‘unlearning’ the past: Interview with Balkans expert Keith Brown
"Critical thinking [...] liberates us from the illusion that figures in the past imagined their own identity in terms of the nationalisms of their future."
The Caribbean's case for reparations: Part III
Reparatory justice can play an important role in dealing with challenges like disease, climate change and COVID-19, all of which pose existential threats to the region.
In the Ural regions of Russia, Finland's linguistic roots live on
Russia's linguistic diversity is as expansive as the country itself. The Finnish writer Ville Ropponen shares his reflections on the past, present and uncertain future of the Uralic languages.
The Caribbean's case for reparations: Part II
"We transformed these broken colonies into functional democracies without any support […] and now we have this debt crisis because we were abandoned by those who plundered our wealth."
K-Pop band BTS targeted by Chinese netizens over Korean War comments
BTS leader Kim Nam-joon paid tribute to the U.S. and South Korea in the 70th anniversary of the war. Chinese netizens say he should have acknowledged Chinese deaths too.
Facebook to include Holocaust denial in its definition of banned hate speech
Human rights organizations and academic institutions praised Facebook's decision to address Holocaust denial and related conspiracy theories through enhanced self-regulation.
After three months of anti-government protests in Bulgaria, what’s at stake?
A prominent politician treated a public beach as his private property. Now, broad public demonstrations demanding the total overhaul of a corrupt political system.
A new book honors female resistance during Brazil's 21-year dictatorship
A new book brings together 15 profiles of women who had leading roles in the resistance against the 1964 military dictatorship in Brazil.
The Caribbean's case for reparations: Part I
"When a wrong has been committed, it must be repaired. If you recognise that colonization has been a source of massive crimes against humanity, then reparations are legitimate."
Uzbek DJ with a mission to popularize vintage Soviet music
The musicians of the time, like war partisans, overcame a great number of obstacles standing in their way to perform the kind of music they wanted to play.
Turkey's involvement in the Karabakh conflict could harm Azerbaijan, warns journalist Rovshan Aliyev
"This time it seems that Erdoğan wants to go beyond words and to support Azerbaijan with hardware. But authoritarian leaders take advantage of every situation, so Azerbaijan must be careful"
‘The war in Karabakh has made the possibility of conflict resolution even more distant’, fears Armenian politician Mikayel Zolyan
Negotiations can start only once aggression against civilians stops. However, war has widened the gap between Armenians and Azerbaijanis, and therefore for dialogue, says Armenian MP and analyst Mikayel Zolyan
‘We have a strange destiny': a conversation with the Livonian poet Valts Ernštreits: Part II
"That's the idea of the series: to tell the Livonian story to the Latvian public, so they would better understand why Livonian is important."
‘We have a strange destiny': a conversation with the Livonian poet Valts Ernštreits: Part I
"There are only a few countries in Europe who have indigenous people, and Latvia is one of them."
Trinidad & Tobago loses a fount of cultural knowledge with the passing of comedian Dennis ‘Sprangalang’ Hall
"He was our identity, he was a creole griot. A historical raconteur who spoke the nation language in a way that was universal. A comedian who made us think."
International conflicts are also about names: The case of Nagorno-Karabakh
As in all territories inhabited by different nations using various languages, in this case, Azerbaijanis speaking a Turkic language, and Armenians speaking an Indo-European language, geographic names have more than one name.
Nagorno-Karabakh: An old conflict in a new geopolitical context, says South Caucasus expert Tom de Waal
The most recent of outbreak of violence began on September 27. This time, both combatants and analysts are predicting that the conflict will escalate, with unknown and potentially dangerous consequences.
Holocaust denial should be considered hate speech, survivors demand of Facebook
Hate speech is a criminal offense in most European countries that experienced the horrors of World War II, but the US does not have such laws at the national level.
