Every second Tuesday of September a small town tucked in the middle of Spain, Tordesillas, holds an annual event that draws 45.000 visitors. A bull is lanced, speared and harassed to death by 500 men in the name of culture and tradition, this event has been happening since 1453.

‘El Toro De La Vega’ is one of the many controversial ‘Blood Fiestas’ that take place in villages and cities all over Spain every year. ‘Blood Fiestas’ and ‘Bullfighting Shows’ are different though both of them use, or according to animal rights activists abuse, bulls in order to carry out these kind of festivals.

While bullfighting shows take place in a bullfighting ring commonly known as ‘plaza de toros’ and have designated bullfighters or Toreros, ‘Blood Fiestas’ normally happen on streets, squares or entire towns where people gather to enjoy themselves.

Bullfighting and blood fiestas are considered part of Spain’s cultural patrimony and therefore millions of Euros are granted every year by The EU, central government, and local authorities to support what they claim is Spain’s unique art form.

Some of these bull-related events are worldwide known such as ‘San Fermines: The Running Of The Bulls’ where bulls and runners zigzag down the narrow streets of Pamplona but some others like ‘El Toro De La Vega’ involve what detractors state is an out-dated form of animal torture that shouldn’t be happening nowadays.

Tourists and even locals are often unaware of the real damage and harm the bull has to go through in Tordesillas because of a well-designed shielding campaign that surrounds the event.

There are several non-written policies that prohibit the use of cameras especially when the bull is being taken down, which endangers even more the work of the many photographers, journalists, not to mention undercover activists. Last year ‘El Intermedio’, a popular Spanish TV show sent a crew to Tordesillas with one goal: find some locals who were not in favor of this event.

The results were astonishing, on camera everyone seemed to agree with the tradition and the few who didn’t would only confess under the condition that their faces had to be blurred out and their names kept secret. Every year animal rights activists collect signatures and schedule various demonstrations to show their disapproval of the event.

They post videos, share ideas, and a couple of days before the event is set to be held, they show up in Tordesillas facing the local hostility of those who defend their right to enjoy their traditions. ‘Afligido’ (Spanish for sorrowful) was the 1300-pound bull that was previously hand-picked for this year’s edition.

Last September 13^th a lancer on foot struck the fatal stab that brought Aflijido down to a cheerful crowd that applauded the lancer’s courage. The lancer will be honored at the town hall and dub local hero before his neighbor’s eyes.

On his way through the village, Aflijido wounded two people but it was later announced that both men’s injuries were not severe unlike 17 other participants, that had to receive medical treatment after a woman pulled a pepper spray bottle out of a bag and attacked some of the attendees.

She was believed to be an undercover protestant that hid in the crowd before she turned on the audience, causing respiratory problems and panic attacks. The activist was arrested after some Toro de La Vega supporters held her down and unleashed their rage on her.

Tradition or cruelty? While supporters and activists duke it out on the streets, demonstrations and debates, Afligido has already lost this battle.

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At the click of a single button, Russian Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, opened the first Nord stream gas pipeline this week. The pipeline is located at the portovaya compressor station, along at the Russian-Finnish border.

The 1220 km Nord Stream Pipeline was constructed in order to deliver gas directly from Russia’s Vyborg to Germany’s Greifswald across the Baltic Sea. Thus far, the Nord Stream is a twin pipeline, which cost $12.5 bn to build. On completion of the second pipeline by 2013, the system will be able to move 55 bn cu m of gas per year, according to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).

According to Putin, for the next 50 years, the Nord Stream will supply an annual of 55 billion cubic meters of gas not only to Germany but also to the United Kingdom, Denmark and Netherlands.

Many see the benefits of this new tactic. “Nord Stream is important as it will reduce supply uncertainty and price volatility in the winter,” John Fahy, managing director of London-based consultants Eras Ltd., said in an e-mail, according to Businessweek.

Prior to the Nord Stream, Russia relied on land based transit and transportation of gas via Ukraine. The Ukraine and Russia often disagreed. A major conflict in 2006 between Russia and the Ukraine occurred when Ukraine failed to agree with Russia on a price issue.

According to Russian authorities, Ukraine often refused to pay the prices that Russia asks for; this battle has been an on-going issue from the time of movement the Soviet Union collapsed. Russia also accuses Ukraine of siphoning gas to cover its own shortages. In 2009 the battle over gas prices between Russia and Ukraine reached an extraordinary scale.

These conflicts resulted in Russian stopping the supply of gas in winter to Europe, during the coldest temperatures. This left many European customers shivering without heat. According to Reuters, the pipeline will lesson Russia’s reliance on Ukraine who currently transports close to 80 percent of its exports to Europe.

With a lucrative market for its natural resources, many forecast that Moscow will profit off this new system. Meanwhile, the Ukraine is showing concern over the situation, feeling as though Russia is backing out on their working relationship. “You cannot just unilaterally break a contract,” Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister, Igor Sechin, told reporters at the Nord Stream launch.

Sechin is a close ally of Putin, Reuters said. At the launch, Putin commented on the circumstances. “As with any other transit country, there is always a temptation to exploit its unique transit status” and that, he said, is ending. Businessweek reported that the Nord Stream pipeline will carry enough gas to supply 26 million European home.

Completion of the first phase of Nord Stream has increased doubts of Ukraine’s future gas purchases from Russia and the process of negotiation is also under doubts. Construction of Nord stream is not the only blow to transit nations since Russia also unveiled plans for construction of a South Stream which will run from Southern Russia to Bulgaria under the Black Sea.

Some say supply disruptions will be the thing of past upon the completion of second and third phases of the project.

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An area most people would be unable to point out on a map, the narrow strip of land bordered by both the Black and Caspian seas has been a point of contention for centuries.

Strategically located and historically known as where Europe fades into Asia, this mountainous region is reminded of policies enacted by Communist leader Josef Stalin twenty-plus years after the countries of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia (Stalin’s birthplace), declared independence from the Soviet yoke. But this region is not so easily divided.

There are more than three types of people here, with at least fifty different ethnic groups all trying to establish themselves.  With no Kremlin and powerful military to qualm nationalistic interests, tribal feuding emerges resulting in a multitude of regional conflict.

The Chechens, with their terrorist attacks in Moscow railways may be the most notorious of this lot, but are just one example of post Soviet problems presented in the 21^st century.

Societies that may be similar, but speak drastically different dialects crowd these narrow and ancient settlements, a region that harbors the most ancient forms of Christianity and churches. This small area has spent time being ruled by such superpowers as Persia, Turkey, Byzantium and Russia, but managed to keep their way of life alive against such odds.

Armenians have had a glorious history; only to have experienced such tragedy during their vast existence. A nation known to be passionate with the written language, their chronicles cover a range of history, and even translations of neighboring literature.

The holocaust of World War two even has ties to this enigmatic region. Hitler mentioned the forgotten Armenian genocide prior to his invasion of Poland in 1939. In the years between 1915-1918, 1.5 million Armenians would die from unnatural causes, and continue to suffer from the humiliation of denial.

By creating an ethnically Armenian exclave within the borders of Azerbaijan in 1923, Stalin caused conflict amongst both peoples claiming the area to be their own, creating internal strife that would in turn, weaken both nations of any potential cooperation against Moscow.  The plan worked and is still working nearly nine decades after it was initiated.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict of 1988-1994 was a result of borders created by Stalin to create disunity between the peoples of this region. The effects are still relevant today as both Turkey and Azerbaijan have a closed border policy resulting from Armenia’s victory in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The war ended in bitter peace and severed trade routes with the West. This currently strains Armenia economically, falling further behind her neighbors while oil-rich Azerbaijan bypasses  Armenia and routes their new pipeline from the Caspian, to Georgia, and out through the Black Sea.

War between Georgia and the territory of South Ossetia has been declared three times in the past two decades. The Ossetians are an ancient Indo-Iranian ethnic group that presently has both a north territory within Russian borders, and an adjacent southern province that is a continuing point of conflict with Georgia claiming ownership.

The first war was in 1991-1992 and would break-out again in 2004.

With the Georgian-Russian war over South Ossetia contained since 2008, the conflict lasted ten days and resulted in a cease-fire.  Presently, Russia and Venezuela are the only countries that recognize South Ossetia as a separate government from Georgia, who was receiving and implementing weapons provided by the USA and NATO.

With Ossetia backed militarily by Russia, comparisons can be made to the ideological cold-war conflicts in Southeast Asia. Poor host countries serving as the battleground for empires to show off weaponry.

The notorious Chechens still have animosity toward Moscow and are not afraid to hide it. After Stalin deported the entire Chechen population to Siberia or Kazakhstan, some returned home to the mountains and developed national identity once Communism fell. The Islamic Chechnyns committed jihad acts against their northern neighbor, and former ruler, Russia in recent history.

Numerous suicide bombs in and around Moscow, and the immensely tragic hostage situation at a North Ossetian elementary school in 2004 are just more examples of a region in strife.

The Armenian Genocide is a hotly debated subject to this day, as Turkey and the United States do not declare this loss of life due directly toward the Turkish Ottoman Empire. Many Armenians will agree on the contrary, and place the systematic slaughter off their people and culture on Turkish sabers and rifles.

Obama had addressed this issue during his campaigning, assuring the world that the tragedy would finally be recognized appropriately. The promise is left unfulfilled to this day, as the USA has a vested interested in Turkey’s strategic location, operating several air-bases in the most ‘western’ of Middle Eastern countries.

What can explain an area so small and isolated, yet, so full of war and conflict? The easy explanation is to blame communism as a failed social experiment, with Transcaucasia as a result of it. Or is it that diversity and multiculturalism doesn’t work? That when you have dozens of different peoples all vying for domination in a confined area, that such aspirations will turn violent toward your neighbor?

Either way, it is a tragic circumstance for a place that is used to being controlled by someone else.

Sergey Kamshylin / Shutterstock.com

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Hundreds of Syrians have already fled their country and human rights groups say more than 1,300 civilians have been killed in the Syrian conflict since mid-March. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said at a press conference last week: “It’s very clear to us that unless the Syrian forces immediately end their attacks and their provocations that are not only affecting their own citizens but endangering the potential of border clashes then we’re going to see an escalation of conflict in the area.” At last Friday’s prayers, at least 20 civilians were shot by security forces and hundreds were arrested in the gathered protests. The government have express willingness to reform, but will the people accept the compromise?

A few weeks ago, I spoke with Sasha Ghosh-Siminoff, a journalist and Master graduate in Middle East Politics with a specialty in the levant region. We spoke about his stay in the Syrian town of Aleppo between January and April 18, 2011, which collided with the outbreak of the conflict. He gave us his analysis of the situation.

How was the daily situation for you during your stay?

When I say we (from the CET Academic Program) were being monitored and watched, it wasn’t very overt but we knew that being Americans, especially being foreigners in Syria, was gonna come par with the program so we were just aware of it. But there was really no problem, I had numerous friends who were interested in human rights and they went freely back and forth to the Palestinian refugee camps [...] so for the first six to eight weeks, there were really no problems.

How do you keep up to date with the situation in the country now?

It’s certainly been difficult. Before I left, as the situation was getting worse, I spoke with a little number of my friends and we all exchanged emails, phone numbers everything [...] they all were very upset because we left very abruptly. Friendship in Syria is a very deep thing [...] so the fact that we had to leave so quickly was really hard on them but [...] I keep up to date with them, they email me, they let me know what’s going on. It’s getting more and more tricky, I have a number of friends who do participate in protests and they have right now ten different sim cards for their mobile phones, they change them a lot. Sometimes they don’t feel confident that they can send email without being tracked so, it’s become more difficult.

How would you define the initial motivation behind the protest?

It’s an interesting question, I think in many ways without the incident that occurred in Daraa, many of these things may or may no have come to light. Hindsight of course is 20/20 but the incident in Daraa that sparked all of this was a group of kids, very young people, who had written some graffiti – slogans they had heard and picked up from the Egyptian and Tunisian revolutions. [...] You know, family is important and the fact that the security services arrested those people I think was extremely culturally tone-deaf, and I think it really sparked for a lot of people – it was the straw that broke the camel’s back. There’s been a lot of other incidence, arbitrary arrest, like I discussed in an op-ed piece in the Guardian [...] These kinds of things do happen, they’re not as common as they were under Hafez al-Assad, things did get better under his son but the pressure had been building. To give you another example, me and some friend would be sitting in a cafe and a friend would look to me and say ‘we need to leave and move somewhere else’ and I’d say ‘why?’ and he’s like ‘there’s security services watching us and I’m worried about us having an open conversation without problems’ so we would move – little things like that, and just living in that kind of atmosphere, I think, takes a toll after a while.

In your opinion, what keeps Assad in position?

I think it’s interesting to note a few things, one is that when Bashar al-Assad came to power, he’d promised numerous reforms and he had promised to do away with a lot of the old guard that had supported Hafez al-Assad, his father. And he did change a lot of those positions, [...] but the family dynamic of the al-Assad family is very complicated. For example, there are reports of the fact that for one, his older brother is in charge of the fourth mechanized devision which has been the division of the army they’ve been using to suppress the protest in Daraa especially and to occupy several cities and his brother-in-law, I believe, is in charge of the internal security service. I don’t have [all the] information, I’m not sure what kind of conversation they’re having but I certainly feel that it’s no longer just Bashar’s decision in terms of how to deal with the protests.

Do you think it will come to an intervention?

It’s a good question, I believe that intervention would be a very difficult prospect because of Syria’s position in the middle east, it’s relationship with Iran, it’s relationship with Lebanon and of course the negotiations that need to occur between Israel and Syria to have a sustainable peace between those two countries. Intervention of the kind we see in Libya; I don’t know if that’s possible or not and I’m not sure it would be in anyone’s interest to do that. I think the international community would prefer the Syrians to do this themselves. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have both made statements saying that they condemn the killing, [...] that the Syrian government should allow for protest to occur and that significant reforms need to occur. The issue of reform has interestingly enough been echoed by the prime minister of Turkey and Turkey does have a good relationship with Syrian government so that was significant [but] I don’t know if anyone’s going be willing to intervene in the way that we’ve seen so far in Libya.

In the greater Middle East, what does it mean for the future structure of the region that Arab Spring is sweeping through former authoritarian states?

I think it’s clear that autocratic rule in the Middle East failed in numerous ways and in places like Syria, for the longest time they would use Israel as a foil to say ‘we have these issues and these problems internally but we have this greater enemy of Israel that’s always there so we need to put aside our wants and wished domestically to deal with the threat of Israel’. But I think, at a certain point, that sort of discussion loses weight and domestically speaking, especially in places like Syria, there’s so many other concerns, so many other issues that need to be addressed and it’s all just coming out. I think it’s the same thing in Egypt and Tunisia and in Yemen that there’s a certain amount of corruption, there’s a lot of people – they work day and night and barely get by and that combined with the kind of repressive tactics these autocrats use to stay in power, I think it’s just too much.  Tunisia was very symbolic in the sense that they showed the rest of the Arab world ‘this is possible, you can do this, if we can do this you can do this’. And I think, for many people that was very striking and I think, all over the Middle East and North Africa [people] really want reform and change and I think it’s a good thing. I’m really excited that this is a movement that’s come from within, it’s not external, these are movements being done by people there and it’s from them and I think, because it is from them that, I think there’s hope, definitely hope.

Hear the full interview on our iTunes channel soon.

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