From the colorful bazaars of Istanbul to the felt gers of Ulaanbaatar, our contributing photojournalists have documented daily life - the struggles and the joys, the politics and sports, the living and the dead. It is through their eyes and by capturing with their cameras that EurasiaNet.org can present unique stories of people, events, and humanity in the South Caucasus, throughout Central Asia, across the Anatolian Plain, and over the rolling steppe of Mongolia.
These images are a look back at EurasiaNet's best photo coverage of news and stories from 2012. Although all of the excellent photos and hard work from our photographers cannot be featured on this select gallery of images, you can review all of our posted Photo Essays here and our posted Audio Slideshows here.
Finally, we would like to thank the courage and tenacity that our contributing photojournalists show every day.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Images are best viewed at full screen.
A giant rainbow hovered over Istanbul for several hours on November 22, as a soft northern drizzle battled an acute winter sun. The dreamy effect, seen here over the 4th-century Valens Aqueduct in Fatih, had some witnesses worried they were hallucinating.
David Trilling is EurasiaNet's Central Asia editor.
Kids play chess with pieces several feet tall at the First President's Park in Almaty, Kazakhstan. The park was opened by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev in November 2011.
Roman Glonti, a bathhouse attendant in Tbilisi baths, was born to an Armenian father and a Georgian-Iranian mother. The 42-year-old, who uses his mother's last name, says the sulfur baths are the ultimate symbol for Tbilisi's multi-ethnic Abanotubani district.
"There can be no quarrel between us, as the sulfur always soothes your mood," Glonti says jokingly.
Temo Bardzimashvili is a freelance photojournalist based in Tbilisi.
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.
