Lefteast
Note from the LeftEast editors: this account by Caoimhe Butterly, currently in Belgrade, has been reprinted from facebook with the permission of the author. We spent last night in Belgrade’s main train station with families from Damascus, Aleppo and Deir al Zoor and a larger group of fellow travellers that they had befriended along the way. […]
This past weekend a stroll through a middle-class section of Turkey’s capital revealed nothing out of the ordinary besides a somewhat unusually high number of flags in store windows. Beneath the crescent and star against a blood-red background there appeared occasionally messages of grief for fallen soldiers and condemnations of “terror.” Terror is a good […]
We, the undersigned academics, are deeply concerned about the escalating violence after the general elections held on June 7th in Turkey. After these elections, AKP, the previously ruling party, has lost its absolute majority status and yet appears to act as if its status has not changed, undermining the electoral votes. The transition government put […]
A statement of the emerging left-wing Social Movement party in Ukraine. (source: Social Movement Party website) Throughout 2014-5 the conduct and decisions of various bodies of Ukraine’s executive and legislative branches of power have grossly violated Ukrainians’ citizens’ rights guaranteed by the Constitution, the ECHR, and fundamental rights 1. Free speech and freedom of expression […]
Originally appeared on Balkanist. Šejla Kamerić discusses the status of art and women in the Balkans as well as her controversial piece “Bosnian Girl.” Inspired by the graffiti printed on the walls of the army barracks of Potočari, the piece takes on a renewed significance as the 20th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre approaches. […]
With Turkey’s parliamentary elections on Sunday fast approaching, all eyes are on the Peoples’ Democracy Party (HDP) contesting its first ever election as a party, rather than a coalition of nominally independent candidates: a momentous decision on the part of the party leadership, which stands to gain clout in parliament and solidify its position as […]
Özgecan Aslan’s story was close to the heart. We have all been that girl trying to get home at night in the dark, alone. We are all too familiar with shorter breaths, raised heartbeats and sweaty palms, prompted by an instinct of being in danger. In this very instant, while everything else is tuned out, […]