By now, I lived most of my adult life in California, and I consider myself a proud citizen of this state, which is also the home to the largest Armenian community outside Armenia. April 24th is the Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, and there were commemorations all over California. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the massacre of more than […]
Someone quickly phone Andy Vajna, aspiring Hungarian oligarch and pro-regime filmmaker. There’s a great idea coming out of Russian president Vladimir Putin’s inner circle and it is sure to resonate in Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s Hungary as well. The Russian government has confirmed that it is pumping $13 million (or 680 million rubles) into launching a national and patriotic fast […]
The fact that Hungary’s pro-Moscow foreign policy has managed to alienate key partners like the United States, Germany and regional allies within the Visegrád Group isn’t much of a success story for Budapest. But at least Hungary’s 36 year old Minister of Foreign Affairs, Péter Szijjártó, got an admittedly warm reception in Tatarstan this week, where he inaugurated the Hungarian […]
Recently, I had a chance to chat with Johannes Bloos the Deputy Consul General of the German Consulate in San Francisco, California. Mr. Bloos is a Saxon; his parents were part of this German speaking community in Brasov, Romania, before they immigrated to Germany. We talked about another Romanian-Saxon, Romania’s new president – Mr. Klaus Iohannis. His recent election was […]
The mayor of the Hungarian-dominated town of Beregszász (Berehove) gave a startling glimpse into what a year of war in Ukraine has meant for the western-most region of the country, which is home to over 150,000 ethnic Hungarians, as well as large numbers of Romanians, Roma and Slovaks, in addition to Ukrainians. Mayor Zoltán Babják remarked that the situation in […]
In Hungary, political philosopher and public thinker Gáspár Miklós Tamás is the only prominent essayist to write quite flatteringly of Alexis Tsipras, the hard-left firebrand who will likely become Greece’s prime minister-elect this Sunday. On Thursday, Mr. Tamás demonstrated in Budapest, in front of Greece’s embassy, in support of Syriza, otherwise known as the “Coalition of the Radical Left.” “Hungary’s […]
By a razor thin margin, voters in Moldova have chosen to give centrist pro-European parties a majority in the country’s parliament, according to results released by the country’s Electoral Commission. Although the Party of Socialists of the Republic of Moldova (PSRM) came out on top, winning 26 seats in the 101-member legislature, their preferred partner, the Party of Communists of […]
Pripyat, once a model working class city built for the employees of the Chernobyl nuclear plant, is now the world’s largest ghost town. Crumbling socialist era apartment blocks tower over what remains of a city founded in 1970 and evacuated on April 26th, 1986. The city was once home to 49,000 residents, it boasted over 13,000 apartment units, 25 shops, […]
Romania’s President-elect, Klaus Johannis, might want to send a thank you card to the 3 million Romanian citizens living and working abroad. And also to Transylvania’s Hungarian population. Without them, Prime Minister Victor Ponta would have been able to change political chairs and become the country’s new left-leaning president, replacing Traian Băsescu, who was completing his second and final term […]
Open hostilities between the Ukrainian central government and the breakaway eastern province resumed in last week, with the heaviest shelling offensive since the crisis began earlier this year. Russia’s role in this conflict continues to exacerbate the ongoing struggle by providing financing and supplies to the pro-Russian separatist groups based in the Donetsk region. The Ukrainian central government continues its […]
