29 July 2023 | Author/Destination: Around the World / Rund um die Welt | Rubric: General , French Riviera , European Union , Living, Working, Building , Sport , UNESCO World Heritage , Union for the Mediterranean
Reading Time: 28 minutes
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In
biogeography , the Mediterranean Basin, also known as the Mediterranean Region or sometimes Mediterranea, is the region of lands around the
Mediterranean Sea that have mostly a
Mediterranean climate , with mild to cool, rainy
winters and warm to hot, dry
summers , which supports characteristic
Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub vegetation.
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6 January 2018 | Author/Destination: Knut Wingsch | Rubric: General , Editorial , Union for the Mediterranean
Reading Time: 1987 minutes
© Oncenawhile
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(Latest update: 23 August 2022) The Arab–Israeli conflict is the political tension, military conflicts and disputes between a number of
Arab countries and
Israel . The roots (
European colonial period ,
Ottoman Empire , widespread
Antisemitism in Europe,
Jews in the Russian Empire ,
Baron Edmond James de Rothschild (
Jewish land purchase in Palestine ),
Theodor Herzl ,
Jewish National Fund (
Israel Bonds ),
timeline of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict ,
World War I ,
Sykes–Picot Agreement (
San Remo conference ,
Mandate for Palestine ,
UN Charter, Chapter XII – International Trusteeship System, Article 80 (commonly known as the “Palestine Article” used by both conflict parties, Israel and Palestine, to create the wildest interpretations, speculations and conspiracy theories to assert the respective alleged right to the total land area),
McMahon–Hussein Correspondence ),
Balfour Declaration ,
World War II ,
The Holocaust (
International Holocaust Remembrance Day ),
Évian Conference ,
Mandatory Palestine ,
Forced displacement , and
United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine ) of the modern Arab–Israeli conflict (or the history of collective failure) are bound in the rise of
Zionism and
Arab nationalism towards the end of the 19th century. Territory regarded by the
Jewish people as their
historical homeland is also regarded by the
Pan-Arab movement as historically and currently belonging to the
Palestinians , and in the
Pan-Islamic context , as
Muslim lands . The
sectarian conflict between Palestinian Jews and Arabs emerged in the early 20th century, peaking into a
full-scale civil war in 1947 and transforming into the
First Arab–Israeli War in May 1948 following the
Israeli Declaration of Independence (
Nakba and the
assassination of UN mediator Folke Bernadotte by the terror organization
Lehi/Stern gang . Among them, the later Israeli PM
Yitzhak Shamir ). Large-scale hostilities mostly ended with the cease-fire agreements after the 1973
Yom Kippur War, Ramadan War, or October War . Peace agreements were signed between Israel and Egypt in 1979, resulting in Israeli withdrawal from the
Sinai Peninsula and abolishment of the
military governance system in the
West Bank and
Gaza Strip , in favor of
Israeli Civil Administration and consequent unilateral, internationally not recognized, annexation of the
Syrian Golan Heights and
East Jerusalem . Even when the text is about 556 pages long, it is just a summary. The multitude of links point out that there is a lot more to learn in detail. At first, it is a timeline of the major developments in the region and it leads to today’s challenges. The starting point is the view of the
international community , especially the European Union and North America, on the conflict, enriched with excursions into the ideas, convictions, believes, and thoughts of the direct and indirect involved parties to the conflict.
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25 September 2017 | Author/Destination: North Africa / Nordafrika | Rubric: General , Bon voyage , Theme Weeks , UNESCO World Heritage , Union for the Mediterranean
Reading Time: 13 minutes
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Algeria is a state in
North Africa on the Mediterranean coast. Its capital and most populous city is
Algiers , located in the country’s far north. With an area of 2,381,741 km² (919,595 sq mi), Algeria is the
tenth-largest country in the world , and the largest in Africa. Algeria is bordered to the northeast by
Tunisia , to the east by
Libya , to the west by
Morocco , to the southwest by the
Western Saharan territory ,
Mauritania , and
Mali , to the southeast by
Niger , and to the north by the
Mediterranean Sea . The country is a
semi-presidential republic consisting of 48 provinces and 1,541 communes (counties). Algeria is a
regional and
middle power . The North African country supplies large amounts of natural gas to Europe, and energy exports are the backbone of the economy. According to
OPEC Algeria has the
16th largest oil reserves in the world and the second largest in
Africa , while it has the
9th largest reserves of natural gas .
Sonatrach , the national oil company, is the largest company in Africa. Algeria has one of the largest militaries in Africa and the largest defence budget on the continent. Algeria is a member of the
African Union , the
Arab League , OPEC, the
United Nations and is the founding member of the
Maghreb Union .
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17 September 2015 | Author/Destination: European Union / Europäische Union | Rubric: General
Reading Time: 8 minutes
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Murcia, a city in south-eastern Spain, is the capital and most populous city of the Autonomous Community of the Region of Murcia, and the seventh largest city in the country, with a population of 442,573 inhabitants in 2009 (about one third of the total population of the Region). The population of the metropolitan area was 689,591 in 2010. It is located on the Segura River, in the Southeast of the Iberian Peninsula, noted by a mild climate with hot summers, tepid winters and scarce precipitation.
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29 April 2015 | Author/Destination: Levant / Levante | Rubric: General , UNESCO World Heritage , Union for the Mediterranean
Reading Time: 8 minutes
Saladin mouselum tomb © flickr.com – Jan Smith/cc-by-2.0
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Damascus is the capital and largest city of Syria.
Aleppo comes in second. It is commonly known in Syria as
ash-Sham (Arabic:
ash-Shām ) and nicknamed as the
City of Jasmine (Arabic:
Madīnat al-Yāsmīn ). In addition to being
one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world , Damascus is a major cultural and religious center of the
Levant . The city has an estimated population of 1,711,000 (2009 est.). Located in southwestern Syria, Damascus is the center of a large metropolitan area of 2.6 million people (2004). Geographically embedded on the eastern foothills of the
Anti-Lebanon mountain range 80 kilometres (50 mi) inland from the eastern shore of the Mediterranean on a plateau 680 metres (2,230 ft) above sea-level, Damascus experiences a semi-arid climate due to the
rain shadow effect . The
Barada River flows through Damascus.
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14 November 2013 | Author/Destination: European Union / Europäische Union | Rubric: General
Reading Time: 5 minutes
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Imperia is a coastal city and comune in the
region of Liguria . It is the capital of the
province of Imperia , and historically it was capital of the Intemelia district of Liguria. Mussolini created the city of Imperia on 21 October 1923 by combining Porto Maurizio and Oneglia and the surrounding village communes of Piani, Caramagna Ligure, Castelvecchio di Santa Maria Maggiore, Borgo Sant’Agata, Costa d’Oneglia, Poggi, Torrazza, Moltedo and Montegrazie.
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