Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Yasmina Allouche
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6 years after the Arab Spring: Where is Libya now?
Six years ago North Africa and the Middle East were engulfed by the fires of the Arab Spring in events that seemed unfathomable barely a year before. Fast forward six years and each country transitioning after the Arab Spring tells a very different and often tragic story. Of all...
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Is there a solution for Syria to be found in the Algerian civil war?
As it gets set to enter its sixth year in March, the war in Syria has set itself apart from other struggles of the Arab Spring since its onset in 2011. Though no conflicts can ever be regarded as entirely equal in cause and effect, one example in recent...
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Algeria: How cancelling elections led to war
What: 1992 elections are cancelled by the military Where: Algeria When: 11 January 1992 What happened? By October 1988, Algerians’ anger was made tangible for the country’s ruling National Liberation Front (FLN) party, and deadly protests in Algiers forced the FLN to accept the reality that they were no...
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Hundreds protest, call for peace in Aleppo
More than 1,000 people have been killed over the last month....
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Remembering the First Intifada
By the end of the First Intifada in 1993, 1,489 Palestinians and 185 Israelis had been killed...
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Algeria’s War of Independence from France
1.5 million people perished in the seven and a half year Algerian War which erupted in 1954...
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Remembering the massacre of Algerians in Paris
On this day in 1961, hundreds of Algerians were massacred by French police and had their bodies thrown in the River Seine....
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Why Algeria’s ‘Black October’ in 1988 defined its role in the Arab Spring
It is 28 years since Algeria’s “Black October” that has defined Algeria’s socio-political discourse ever since. Accepted as Algeria’s second most defining date after independence in 1962, 5 October 1988 also holds the answer to the question why Algeria did not succumb to the Arab Spring that ignited the...
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Algeria cannot be truly independent whilst it seeks French acceptance
Last week President Francois Hollande finally acknowledged France’s abandonment of Algerians who fought alongside French colonial forces in the Algerian war of independence. His words were welcomed by the surviving “Harkis” who have been waiting more than half a century to hear them; for others, though, this comes as...
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Discover Sheikh Zayed Mosque, UAE
Located in the heart of Abu Dhabi, it is also the burial place of its founder Sheikh Zayed who died in 2004...
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Risking death to document life in Syria
Much like Syria as a whole, little was known of the city of Raqqa before the civil war and the establishment of Daesh. Now, however, Raqqa conjures up images that stretch to public square beheadings, women clothed in black and groups of unruly men running amok with tanks and...
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Turkish MPs: ‘Good has come out of this evil’
Turkey has never been as united as it has become after the failed military coup, that was the overwhelming message from Turkish delegates who took part in a cross-party debate regarding the recent events. Speaking at the Yunus Emre Turkish Cultural Centre on Wednesday, the five members of parliament...
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Love, Bombs and Apples
Smoke fills the small studio, the lights dim and the room falls silent as the audience is transported away from London to a stage in Ramallah. Thus begins the first scene of playwright Hassan Abdulrazzak’s 90-minute monologue taking the audience on a journey through four different scenarios laden with...
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One picture says a lot about Algeria’s stark reality
Sitting lifelessly with a skeletal, vacant gaze next to French Prime Minster Manuel Valls, Algerian President AbdelAziz Bouteflika looks painfully out of place; like a corpse kept alive artificially. This is no exaggeration: the uncomfortable image of Bouteflika looking so woeful next to a comfortable and healthy Valls has...
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What Algeria’s constitutional reforms really mean
Last Sunday saw Algeria’s parliament vote to adopt constitutional reforms that will see the country strengthen its democratic standing and introduce key changes. Initiated by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who was absent from the proceedings, the amendments to the Constitution were supported unanimously by 499 of the 517 parliamentarians, with...
