The Balkan Chronicle

Macedonia and the medieval manuscript: It is the first time that this has repeated itself

In every class of every school there are students, who are excellent; there are good ones and ones with average performance; there are also bad student and ones that are so bad they have to take the same class twice; but there are also ones, who do not like anything and anyone.

The case with the class of countries, which want to become part of the EU, is quite similar. For Macedonia, the natural words that come to mind are a standard bad student, causing scandals, ready to generate problems and conflicts, just so it can prove itself worthy.

The former Yugoslav republic is constantly trying to deepen its problems and to touch and poison everything that surrounds it, instead of walking forward in its development and progress, and trying to retain its fragile internal ethnical balance.

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Tears of the famed Mona Lisa

Save You stand among the crowds in a world museum like the Louvre in Paris, moving from one hall to another gazing at pieces of art such as the Mona Lisa, trying to understand the secret of that mysterious smile on the face of the Italian La Gioconda ... well, you are not alone! Many people in this world are attracted by the various types of "culture" and are joined together in appreciating its beauty. Culture is a meeting point for peoples and civilisations. It is for everyone — not just for certain groups, cities or the elite. Culture brings us together at a time when politics and economics force us apart.

If all the bread in Paris is French, the collections of the Louvre remain universal. In a joint American-Dutch study, researchers found that the secret of the mysterious half smile of the Mona Lisa lies in the happiness of the lady in the portrait at that time. Despite the many theories and arguments around that picture, five centuries after it was painted, the woman still distributes her smiles to everybody. The 30-inch -high portrait still attracts and draws together millions of people from all walks of life.

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Bursa Photofest to mark 100 years of Balkan immigration

Bursa Photofest looks to merge Turkish photography with the global photographic community by sponsoring new talents in Turkey's emerging photography medium and renowned photographers from all over the world between Sept 15 and 21. This year's highlight is the exhibit 'Centennial of Balkan Immigration'

Turkey's only international photography festival, Bursa Photofest, is the largest photography festival in both the Middle East and Eastern Europe and will this year initiate a new project for the 100th anniversary of Balkan immigration.

The festival has been organized this year under the theme of "Traces of Humanity" and will exhibit photographs that narrate the noble human struggle for a better life, despite wars, economic crisis and depletion of global resources.

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Top Islamic artworks on display at Paris show

The Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris is playing host to an exhibition of Islamic artworks created by 10 top Iranian and Arab artists selected for the Jameel Prize 2011.

Awarded every two years, the Jameel Prize is an international art award for contemporary artists and designers inspired by Islamic traditions of crafts and designs initiated by the Victoria & Albert Museum in Britain.

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Ramadan in Sarajevo, Bosnia of East and West

Bosnian has a distinctive lifestyle, caught by the words 'sabur' ('take it slow') and 'bujrum' (''you are most welcome').

Ramadan is the most significant time for every muslim. Muslims across Europe are marking the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which falls in July and August this year, and Bosnia is the best place to "be" muslim in Europe, at least during Ramadan, because when You are on bosnian streets or in café you will have feeling that you are in some European and Middle East city at the same time.

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Modernist Islamic Architecture: Toward preserving a migrant past

MakeSpace Architects is a London-based firm whose work specializes in private and social housing, as well as community buildings. Much of the community work focuses on the development of mosques and Islamic centers. Besides designing and building the structures, MakeSpace aspire to develop a new architectural language based on what indigenous, British Islamic architecture, in their eyes, should be.

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The new Muslim cemetery in the city of Vorarlberg in Austria opened yesterday

The Muslim community of the city of Vorarlberg in Austria yesterday successfully opened the first Muslim cemetery for that region.

The cemetery opened on June 2, 2012, nine years since the first idea for the project. It is located in the municipality of Altach, along the road L190 between Hohenems and Götzis. The cemetery will serve all Islamic communities from different towns and cities of Vorarlberg, providing for burials to be done according to Islamic rites. The facility can accommodate approx. 700 graves, and encompasses a room for the ritual washing, as well as a small prayer space.

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A Nuclear Bunker Comes In From the Cold as an Art Gallery

SARAJEVO, Bosnia and Herzegovina — The Yugoslav Army would have been hard pressed to find a more scenic spot to build a nuclear bunker.

Begun in the 1950s and completed in the late 1970s, the bunker is built into the green and lush hillside overlooking the tumbling Nevetra River, an hour from Sarajevo, near Konjic, in central Herzegovina, where it's surrounded by conifer peaks and valleys. Costing more than $4.6 billion, it was intended as a shelter for President Josip Broz Tito of Yugoslavia and 350 elites of the armyin case of a nuclear attack.

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Turkish tradition, Islamic art meet at Acar’s exhibit

Turkish tradition and Islamic art came together as a renowned artist from Turkey opened his first exhibition in the Kingdom on Feb. 28.

Imsail Acar mounted a solo gallery featuring 43 of his paintings at the Consulate General of Turkey here until March 1.

Acar introduced his works as a combination of Turkish traditional aspects and Islamic art in calligraphic form. His paintings revealed colorful modifications of different Turkish lifestyles and the histories of Turkish sultans. The works came in seven collections: Pomegranate, Sultans, Istanbul, Turban, Kaftans, Flowers and Armor.

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Memories of Dario, some personal and some less personal ones

Dario Džamonja, whom many knew as Daco, was a well-known writer in Sarajevo. He was also my step-brother. Our father was Vlatko Džamonja, a tenor in the Sarajevo Opera. He had Dario in his first marriage, with Ljepša, and then, eleven years later, he had me in his marriage with Dženana Ku?ukali?. We did not grow up together and my memories of him before my age about 14, are almost non-existent. I knew he existed but I really learned about him and about a few other things the one and the same night, when I found the "forbidden" (forbidden to me) book "Pri?e iz moje ulice" (Stories from my street) that he had published some years before.

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