2016 marked the 30th anniversary of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, the world’s worst civilian nuclear accident. An explosion followed by fire in the Chernobyl 4th reactor released a radiation plume 400 times more radioactive than the Hiroshima bomb. The radioactive cloud drifted over Ukraine, Belarus and Russia as well as large parts of Central and Western Europe.

On one side of the Greek-Macedonian border lies the Greek village of Idomeni. It’s nestled between rolling hills and the local population stands at about 150 people. One kilometre east from the village some 13,000 refugees and migrants lived in tents and improvised camps during the spring months of 2016.

Yad Vashem, POLIN & Auschwitz-Birkenau Holocaust memorials as physical reminders of past crimes. International Holocaust Remembrance Day - January 27 - United Nations General Assembly designated the day to commemorate Holocaust victims. The date coincides with the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp.

For Abkhazians the arrival of the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia seemed an opportunity for global recognition. A self-proclaimed sovereign state recognized by only a few countries – this hidden nation is just a few miles from Sochi.