Azerbaijan
All countries-
Treading the Turkish tightrope
The European Union risks empowering Erdogan at its peril
Fraught with disagreement, relations between the EU and Turkey under Erdogan have rarely been easy. Bearing in mind recent developments, the Union needs to present a clear and united front in its dealings with Ankara. By Marc Pierini
-
France, Turkey and the Caucasus
French Armenians plead for Nagorno-Karabakh intervention
The Armenian diaspora in France – the largest in Western Europe – is urging the country to do more to support Yerevan in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. But Paris is, so far, acting with restraint. Lisa Louis reports
-
16th Morgenland Festival Osnabruck
A virtual journey of sound across the Balkans
As a consequence of the coronavirus pandemic, the Osnabruck Morgenland Festival took place via YouTube for the first time – transporting us to new cultural regions through music. Marian Brehmer attended several of the virtual concerts
-
Azerbaijanʹs struggle to promote the value of girls
Imams against sex-selective abortion
Azerbaijan is struggling to change the mind-sets of families aborting female foetuses. Imams who have weighed in on the issue have become indispensable in up-ending this practice. Experts say the country urgently needs to implement an action plan or it will face dire consequences. Ayse Karabat reports from Baku
-
Album review
″Love Party″ by Ya Tosiba: Sufi in the house
A wonderfully subversive and witty album, Ya Tosiba′s ″Love Party″ slyly pokes fun at authority and present day life in Azerbaijan. With electronics simulating traditional instruments from the region, it draws on the Sufi ′meyknana′ tradition for its lyrics. Review by Richard Marcus
-
Album review
Ya Tosiba′s ″Love Party″: Sufi in the house
A wonderfully subversive and witty album, Ya Tosiba′s ″Love Party″ slyly pokes fun at authority and present day life in Azerbaijan. With electronics simulating traditional instruments from the region, it draws on the Sufi ′meyknana′ tradition for its lyrics. Review by Richard Marcus
-
Azerbaijan′s enlightenment
A nation at odds with itself
As the first Muslim country to grant women the vote in 1919, Azerbaijan is rightly proud of its enlightened heritage. Yet increasingly, tensions are arising between an evolving 21st century ″anything goes″ interpretation of religious tolerance and the secular legacy of its literary founding fathers. An essay by Nermin Kamal
-
Sunni-Shia tension
Islam versus Islam
The religious element of the conflicts raging in the Middle East today is a major reason why they are proving so difficult to defuse. An essay by Shahid Javed Burki
-
Interview with Michael Dreyer of the Osnabruck Morgenland Festival
A hub connecting the Orient and the Occident
The Osnabruck Morgenland Festival has acquired a reputation for top-class Oriental music. Marian Brehmer spoke to the festival's founder, Michael Dreyer, about the challenges of organising the annual festival, and how un-political a festival of the Orient can be
-
Interview with the composer Marc Sinan
A modern-day Bartók of Turkic music
Dede Korkut, the best-known of the epic stories of the Oghuz Turks, and the music that goes with it form the basis of Marc Sinan's new docu-fictional musical theatre production, "Dede Korkut – The Story of Tepegoz". Astrid Kaminski spoke to the composer
-
Nowruz: one of the world's oldest festivals
"My paleness is yours, your colour is mine!"
The Iranian New Year celebration "Nowruz" has been a feature of Persian culture for more than 2,500 years. The roots of this festival lie in the ancient Persian religion of Zoroastrianism. Today, more than 300 million people all over the world celebrate Nowruz. Shohreh Karimian looks back at the history of this new year celebration and explains some of its customs