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Trialeti - One Village, Three Faiths

Fearing that an avalanche of mud would hit his mountain village in western Georgia, in 2008 Malkhaz Mgeladze packed up his life and relocated to the gentler hills in the...

Religious Beliefs

4 October, 2018

The healing powers of Azerbaijan’s shrines

Physically, shrines can be elaborate building complexes, piles of rocks or simply a ribbon on a tree. What matters is their spiritual significance – and popular bel...

Religious Beliefs

27 September, 2018

Armenian Evangelicals Work for Hope

Vazgen Zohrabyan was only 10 when he joined the Armenian Evangelical Church in 1991. This was a unusual decision: in the rough-and-tumble 1990s his family, like most Arme...

Religious Beliefs

22 September, 2018

Living as Muslims in Christian Armenia

Thirty-six-year-old Iranian linguist Mariam Torabi came to Armenia last year with a goal not unlike that of other visitors: to learn a new language and experience another...

Religious Beliefs

18 September, 2018

Georgia’s Madrasas: Educating Women

In Marneuli, the seat of the predominantly ethnic Azerbaijani region of Kvemo Kartli, a search for a moral compass -- if not devotion to Islam itself -- often explains wh...

Religious Beliefs

18 September, 2018

A Georgian Priest in a Divided Parish

Father Isaiah’s visits to Nikozi, a village in central Georgia which is part of his parish, are increasingly rare. The parish is split in two by the administrative...

Religious Beliefs

16 September, 2018

Azerbaijan: Debating the Meaning of Kurban Bayram

Seven decades of communist rule did nothing to dent the popularity of Kurban Bayram among Azerbaijanis. 

Religious Beliefs

10 September, 2018

Armenia: The Bishop of the Border

Bishop Bagrat Galstanyan looks radiant as he shows the Japanese ambassador to Armenia, Jun Yamada, the new school being built in a village in his parish of Tavush, a nort...

Religious Beliefs

8 September, 2018