Funded by The Foundation of the First President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the third international Talented Youth Festival featured exhibits from artists from Kazakhstan, Turkey, Russia and Kyrgyzstan in Almaty, Kazakhstan. The event, which opened Nov. 10 in the foundation’s new Almaty building, included an exhibition of Kazakhstan landscape photos by Kazakh photographers, paintings by international and local artists, and a sculpture of stone and wood by a Kyrgyz artist.
The foundation, created by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, was established in late 2000 to showcase the country’s cultural talent, build international relations, and strengthen Kazakh society.
Today marks the start of Eid al-Adha -- the Feast of the Sacrifice -- across the Muslim world. The holiday honors Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his eldest son to God. (Satisfied with Abraham's loyalty, at the last minute God gives him a ram to sacrifice instead.)
In Turkey, where the festival is known as Kurban Bayramı, it is celebrated with family gatherings and ritual slaughter. Families with means buy an animal and donate a portion of the meat to the poor. In Istanbul, the city now provides special areas for farmers to sell sheep, cows and goats, and for butchers to perform the slaughter for a fee.
At one such public slaughteryard in Istanbul's Piyalepasa neighborhood, hundreds turned out on October 25. Some took their purchases home to kill and butcher themselves; others found a professional who would perform the duties for 50 Turkish lira (about $28) for a sheep. Sheep cost between 500-700 lira. Cows and bulls are significantly more.
Sometimes the men say a prayer before the animal is killed. Sometimes it's just work. But the calming techniques used by the butchers and the swiftness of the animals' deaths testify to the skill and experience built up over centuries (except when they let amateurs take a whack at it).
David Trilling is EurasiaNet's Central Asia editor.
A man and girl ride around central Tbilisi during the annual Tbilisoba festival on October 7.
Tbilisoba, usually celebrated in October and dedicated to the Georgian capital Tbilisi, is a showcase for national culture and the place where farmers from the regions bring their harvest to market. The festival was first held in 1979 as an initiative by Eduard Shevardnadze, then the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic, allegedly to counterbalance the popularity of religious holidays and promote socialist traditions.
Temo Bardzimashvili is a freelance photojournalist based in Tbilisi.
Omar Dolidze, 28, uses ropes to lift parts of a log-turned-hive to the top of a tree in Merisi, a gorge in Georgia's mountain region of Ajara.
Traditionally, Ajarian beekeepers make hives by hollowing out linden or spruce tree logs and then wedge them in place at the top of the trees -- the higher the better. Bees eventually swarm inside, spending the spring, summer, and some part of fall making honey. In the middle of the winter, normally mid-February or so, the honeycombs are collected, and hives are left in the tree, until the next winter.
The advantage of this traditional method, Dolidze explains, is that such inaccessibility of the hives makes it difficult to forge honey by artificially adding sugar to the honeycombs. The efforts are appreciated: Dolidze does not lack buyers, who come to his very village to buy honey for further reselling. Mountain Ajara honey is popular in Turkey, from where the resellers come to buy it at 20-25 lari ($12-$15) per kilo, almost double the price in Georgian markets.
"They come because they know it's a pure product," Dolidze says. "And abroad, such honey is a few times more expensive."
Temo Bardzimashvili is a freelance photojournalist based in Tbilisi.
A boy plays in a pile of corn husks on Sept. 16 during the first corn harvest of the season in Supsa, Georgia. Corn is a staple in western Georgia, where it is used to feed farm animals and prepare "mchadi," or corn bread, which is eaten at lunch and dinner.
Molly Corso is a freelance journalist who also works as editor of Investor.ge, a monthly publication by the American Chamber of Commerce in Georgia.
The face of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the modern Turkish republic, is seen in the process of being tattooed on a man's leg at Istanbul's first tattoo convention, which was held September 15-16. The owner of the tattoo stepped outside for a cigarette in the middle of getting the inking on his upper leg.
Images of Ataturk and his signature are popular tattoos for Turks, who want to express their belief in his secular ideals. Often, tattoo artists will give Ataturk tattoos for free on November 10, the anniversary of his death.
Many tattoo artists say the permanent ink image of Ataturk has become more popular recently as Turkey's ruling Islamist-based Justice and Development Party (AKP) gives fresh importance to religion in Turkish society.
Justin Vela is a freelance reporter based in Istanbul.
Tamar Kiknadze, dubbed "Mother Madonna," sits in a half-built house in the center of Tbilisi that serves as a shelter for herself, four dogs, and more than 10 cats. Kiknadze, homeless herself, says she started sheltering abandoned pets three years ago, when she picked up a stray dog and started taking care of him. Kiknadze, very protective of her charges, receives money from private donations to make sure the pets are vaccinated, well fed, and healthy.
Temo Bardzimashvili is a freelance photojournalist based in Tbilisi.
Roland Girgvliani, 68, spreads oat on the road in Upper Svaneti as the passing cars run over it, thus threshing it. Girgvliani says that this method was started during Soviet times, substituting the traditional ox driven threshers. The unorthodox practice became useless with the deterioration of the road following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Girgvliani says that since then, many people chose to grow vegetables instead of crops that required threshing. With the recent development of tourism in Svaneti, the road was renovated, and farmers such as Girgvliani recovered the decades-old method of 'car threshing.'
Temo Bardzimashvili is a freelance photojournalist based in Tbilisi.
Photojournalist Anahit Hayrapetyan covered the recent election for the de-facto president of Nagorno Karabakh. Anahit, who is originally from the breakaway region in the South Caucasus, traveled to several villages and the capital Stepanakert to catch up on how the region is faring during the unresolved conflict with Azerbaijan.
Anahit Hayrapetyan is a freelance photojournalist based in Yerevan.
Nika Gugeshashvili, a local guide, looks at a stalagmite in a cave around Oni, a major town in the mountain region of Racha, Georgia. An adjacent region to the intensively promoted Svaneti, Racha remains mostly unknown to foreign tourists.
Temo Bardzimashvili is a freelance photojournalist based in Tbilisi.
