Written by: Jadalyn Eagens On September 27, after 25 years of tenuous peace, war erupted once again between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the long disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. To understand this conflict, one needs to understand the significance of the region. Armenia and Azerbaijan are geographically located in a region called the Caucasus which lies…
Category: Eastern Europe
Turkey: Is Erdoğan’s Decision to Open the Country’s Western Border Justified?
Written by: Julie Schneiberg Running his democracy with a “You vote, I win” mentality, president Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey earned himself comparisons to Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Egypt’s Abdel Fatah al-Sisi. President Erdoğan, who co-founded the Islamist AKP (Justice and Development Party) party, has been holding power since the early 2000s. He was criticized for…
The Unsteady Alliance: US-Turkey Relations
Written by: Yusuf Ergul Throughout history, the relationship between the United States and Turkey has never been perfect, being more akin to a relationship requiring a great amount of effort and reason to maintain. Originally, a formal partnership started with Turkey’s entry into NATO in 1951, in which the U.S. and Turkey agreed to work…
A Century After Assassinations, the Romanov Family Remains Fractured
Written by: Sophia Halverson It’s been 101 years since the collapse of the last Russian dynasty, and yet the word ‘Romanov’ still conjures up fantasies of incredible wealth-from the Winter Palace, with its more than a thousand rooms, summer palaces in the Crimea, cathedrals filled with icons, and mysterious Amber Room that went missing after…
What’s the Deal with Ukraine?
Written by: Julie Schneiberg Even if you only loosely follow politics, it is likely you have heard about Ukraine in the past few weeks as the country that has been scattered across US news headlines. Ukraine, a former member of the Soviet Union, is located between Europe and Russia and has a complicated relationship with…
The Hijacking of Polands’ Courts
Written by: Ryan Thiele Since the Law and Justice (PiS) party took the reigns of the Polish government in 2015, the party has been on a crusade to remove “communist influence” from the country by taking over the courts. Led by President Andrzej Duda and Party Chairman Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the party has used its majority…
The Ukrainian Election: TV Star Turned Presidential Frontrunner
Written by: Daniel Zaydman On March 31, over eighteen million Ukrainians went to the polls for the first time since the 2014 Ukrainian Revolution. Volodymyr Zelensky, a comedian who plays the Ukrainian President on the wildly-popular satirical television series Servant of the People, came out in first place with over 30 percent of the popular…
The Russian Constitutional Court’s Review of the Chechen-Ingush Land Swap
Written by: Jared Lang On November 27th, the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation began to review the controversial land transfer deal between the Russian republics of Ingushetia and Chechnya. The deal itself is much-debated, but the fact that the federal Constitutional Court is weighing in on the issue almost overshadows the deal itself in…
Denmark’s Newest Human Rights Concern: Lindholm
Written by: Eva Branson Today, the deserted Danish island, Lindholm, is home to research labs that investigate viruses ailing cattle and swine. Researchers elected to conduct their work on Lindholm due to its isolation, limiting politicians’ and citizens’ concerns about potential contagion. In 2021, however, the research labs will be removed, and a brand new…
This is Not the Soviet Union, but Russia Will Still Work You to Death
Written by: Julie Schneiberg In 2005, President Vladimir Putin announced on a televised Q&A session that the Russian people would not see a rise to the pension age so long as he was president. Fast forward thirteen years and multiple terms, Putin remains president, but he has failed to keep his promise to the Russian…
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