Friday, February 28 In the news: rebels have recaptured Saraqeb from the government army and Turkey has opened its border with Greece, allowing refugees to leave Turkey. Time to give Ahmed another call. “Hi Ahmed — how are you doing now?” “Good, good — and you?” “I’m fine. I just heard the news about Saraqeb. […]
February 18 Everything is falling apart. More and more people are fleeing from the Syrian army — 900,000 people have taken flight, but as the army keeps advancing, the space to flee gets smaller every day. The army is taking over more villages and towns, and refugees are everywhere. On the street, in tent camps […]
Suddenly, it happened. An endless stream of refugees leaving the city. Saraqeb used to be a city of more than 40,000 inhabitants. Now it’s empty. Everyone has joined the hundreds of thousands fleeing in front of the advancing army. Ahmed is one of them. January 28 “Ahmed?” “………………. (no answer)” Later I get a voice […]
Remember. Share the stories. Search for, find and share the stories of as many different people as possible. As many different perspectives as possible. To get somewhere near a complete picture of the past, and the present, many voices are needed, and I am grateful to all the journalists, podcasters, writers, and family members who […]
Friday 17 January News coming out of Idlib is without exception negative. The ceasefire between Russia and Turkey didn’t last long. The refugees who were on their way back during the brief ceasefire have fled again. According to the UN, 350,000 more people have fled recently. Although the fighting is taking place mainly in southern […]
The Netherlands has a tradition of promoting religious pluralism, tolerant societies, the separation of religion and state and opposing extremism in any form. The government values religious freedom as one of the key elements of an overall human rights policy. In the upcoming years, the country plans to foster religious tolerance by promoting an inclusive […]
Thursday December 19th It’s been a while since the last Ahmed Calling blog. We’ve kept in touch but we didn’t know what to put in a blog posting. Since the last blog, the attacks on Idlib have increased, and the extremist violence has become more eratic. There is heavy bombing, especially to the south of […]
A report by the European Commission shows that there is an ever increasing sense of European citizenship, with seven in ten respondents stating they feel citizens of the European Union (Eurobarometer 89, spring 2018). But feeling European seems more contested now than ever before, with nationalism and populism on the rise. So what does the […]
Interview with Deyis Margarita Carmona Tejada Blood Coal in Colombia The mining region of Cesar, a department in northeastern Colombia, has been hard hit by conflict. Between 1996 and 2006, at least 3,100 people were murdered, 55,000 farmers were driven from their land and hundreds of people disappeared. The paramilitary group responsible for these atrocities […]
Thousands of people are taking to the streets in Lebanon. They want change. Fed up with the corruption and inequality, people are responding to recently announced reforms and taxes. PAX has been working in Lebanon since 2003, in close collaboration with partners, activists and friends. PAX’s Pim Gerritsen is in Lebanon following the developments. He […]