Stories about Eastern & Central Europe from August, 2005
Armenia: View of Yerevan
Marmot Power‘s travelogue-style view of the Armenian capital, Yerevan, has sparked a lively debate in the comments section of this post.
Azerbaijan: Women election candidates
Of the 362 candidates registered so far for November's general election in Azerbaijan, 150 are women, notes Marianna's election monitor blog.
Kosovo: Geopolitical flashpoint?
Laurence Jarvik wonders if a U.S.-Russian conflict will come over the status of Kosovo, when the U.N. trusteeship expires in eight months.
Georgia: Trip to Tusheti
Kaukasus contributor Grijsz photoblogs his trip to the remote Georgian mountain region of Tusheti.
Central Asia: Book review
Reuters correspondent Hugh Pope has a new book out about Turkic political cultures, which catches the eye of Laurence at Registan
Czech Republic: Smoking ban eased
The Daily Czech reports that new legislation on smoking in public places is actually easier on smokers than the previous law.
Azerbaijan: On Melons
Carpetblogger wonders if rumors about nitrites injected into Azeri watermelons are true, or if they make any difference, giving the levels of environmental toxins to be found in the country anyway.
Afghanistan: Women need protection
Human Rights Watch warns that the Afghan government and international monitors must take special measures to protect women from attacks and intimidation by the Taliban and regional warlords, ahead of the Sept. 18 elections in the country.
Hungary: Cryptic challenge
Central Budapest challenges Hungarian speakers to come up with the untranslatable in their language for Wikipedia.
Afghanistan: Bomb attack
Afghan Warrior covers the death of an Afghan policeman in a remote-control bomb attack in the southern city of Kandahar.
NDI Azeri Staring Contest
Former NDI-er and current Democracy Guy Tim Russo says that NDI is daring Azerbaijan's government to not let them observe upcoming parliamentary voting.
Mongolia: Rabbi visits local Jews
Nabetz at New Mongols posts (with a nod to Siberian Light) on Jews in Mongolia.
Armenia: Tough talk on Nagorno Karabakh
Blogrel‘s Hovakim notes that Azeri President Ilham Aliyev has been “talking tough” again about possible military action over Nagorno Karabakh, a largely ethnic Armenian enclave which seceded from Azerbaijan in 1991, but says ordinary people on both sides are unlikely to want to go along with it.
Georgia: Dead horse burns
Kaukasus posts a striking photograph entitled “Dead Horse Burns”, by Stefan Hostettler, and muses on the meaning of the horse in human culture.
Ukraine: Memories of Soviet youth camps
For Ukrainian blogger Veronica Khokhlova, the 80th anniversary of the former Soviet Communist Pioneers youth camp at Artek brings back memories of her own experiences.
Russia: Suicide in the military
Every month, around 20 people in the Russian armed forces commit suicide, according to a Russian newspaper article translated by Scraps of Moscow.
Armenia: Penal colony photos
Oneworld Multimedia has posted photos taken at a penal colony for women and youths in Abovyan, Armenia.
Russia: “The Flight of the Putin”
Scraps of Moscow comments on local media coverage of Russian president Vladimir Putin's flight in a strategic bomber aircraft during military exercises, saying they can no longer tell the difference between a PR exercise and hard news.
Russia: The lost universal language
Russian language student Misha Tch at Joy de Vivre considers the possibility that the world's languages are mistaken forms of an original human language.
Mongolia: An exile writes
Thomo's Hole posts an e-mail from a Mongolian woman now living in the United States about her feeling for the land she grew up in, saying she just about describes what it is to be Mongolian.
Kyrgyzstan: An aftertaste of lemons
Tim, in his on-line journal Kumys, tells how conspiracy theories about U.S. involvement left him feeling sour about his Peace Corps assignment in Kyrgyzstan.