For nearly 600 years, the lingua franca along a lengthy Central Asian stretch of the fabled Silk Road was Soghdi, a proto-Persian language. Even after the rise of Islam, a 9th-century king, Ismail...
When it comes to public works, there can be a fine line between stately and profligate. A case in point is Georgia’s new parliament building, which is under construction in Kutaisi, a former...
A song titled “Euphoria” won the Eurovision Song Contest for the Swedish entrant, Loreen. For many Baku residents, the word that comes to mind now that the contest is over is relief.
The hills of eastern Anatolia are better suited for sheep herding than for keeping yaks. Some 1,100 Kyrgyz found this out the hard way when they migrated to Turkey 30 years ago from Afghanistan's...
Twenty-year-old Issac Nyengue, a defender from Cameroon, a football hotbed in Africa, was looking for a little payday and a chance to gain valuable experience in what he thought was a professional...
A ceasefire 18 years ago this month brought a halt to the war in Nagorno-Karabakh. But with the battle over the disputed territory’s fate dragging on, residents must contend with a persistent...
Founded roughly 250 years ago on a picturesque hillside in what today is the disputed region of Nagorno Karabakh, Shusha was once a celebrated town that embodied the creative energies of both...
Does urban renewal signify progress? That question has dogged city planners worldwide for decades. And nowhere is the matter more pertinent these days than in Baku, the Caspian seaside capital of...
The Agean coastal city of Izmir these days is Turkey’s third largest metropolitan area with a population of almost 4 million. A hundred years ago, the city was a bustling port with a different...
In a workshop in the heart of Uzbekistan’s Ferghana Valley, Nigora Akhonova is seated over a steaming vat of silk cocoons. With measured movements she stirs the pot and pulls out some of the off-...