‘Christians in the Middle East are sacrificing their lives to preserve their faith and identity,’ Juliana Taimoorazy, an Assyrian Christian activist reminded us in the interview she granted to Mandiner.
Now, another commitment of the Hungarian government’s refugee policy to ‘help on the spot’ has come to fruition.
How strong is Iranian and Syrian political influence in Lebanon after Hezbollah was weakened? What is the status of Christian communities, and what room for manoeuvre does Maronite politics have? We asked Marwan Abdallah, Head of the Foreign Affairs Department at the Lebanese Kataeb Party, about the rise and fall of Hezbollah and the scope for Christian politics in Lebanon.
Bilateral aid models took centre stage at the Danube Institute, where experts argued that direct, community-based assistance outperforms multilateral programmes burdened by bureaucracy. Hungary Helps, an aid programme launched by the Hungarian government in 2017, was presented as a sovereign, efficient alternative to global aid structures.
Hungary’s humanitarian strategy was summarized by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who once said: ‘Let us not bring the trouble here, but take the help there where the trouble is.’
Will Iran sign a new deal on its nuclear and ballistic missile programme? How strong are Russian, Chinese, and American influences in the Middle East? What will happen to Gaza and Hamas? We asked the former CEO and President of the Middle East Institute about the rapidly changing geopolitical landscape of the Middle East.
‘Power, after all, begs to be balanced, as realist theory holds. As Kenneth Waltz wrote in his final essay: “the very acts that have allowed Israel to maintain its nuclear edge in the short term have prolonged an imbalance that is unsustainable in the long term.”’
From Kurdish self-governance to the UAE’s federal model, speakers at an MCC–Danube Institute conference argued that the Middle East’s minority question demands multiple, locally grounded solutions rather than one-size-fits-all answers.
On the third anniversary of the 2023 earthquakes in southern Türkiye, remembrance is intertwined with renewal. While tens of thousands perished and entire cities collapsed, an unprecedented reconstruction campaign has reshaped the disaster zone, revealing both the depth of the tragedy and the extraordinary determination driving the country’s recovery, setting an example for the whole world.
‘Truth be told, it is not in America’s national interest to start a war with Iran.’