Happy Birthday to Panama!

Syrian traditional clothing. *Photo from Wikipedia April 17 is the Evacuation Day, which is Syria’s national day commemorating the evacuation of the last French soldier and Syria’s proclamation of full independence and the end of the French mandate of Syria. Syria, officially known as the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest. French troops occupied Syria in 1920 after the San Remo conference proposed that the League of Nations put Syria under

İstiklal Avenue in Istanbul is visited by nearly 3 million people on weekend days. *Photo from Wikipedia October 29 is the Republic Day of Turkey, commemorating the proclamation of the Republic of Turkey in 1923. The area of Turkey has been inhabited since the Paleolithic age by various ancient Anatolian civilizations, as well as Assyrians, Greeks, Thracians, Phrygians, Urartians and Armenians. After Alexander the Great conquered these lands, the area was Hellenized, a process which continued under the Roman Empire and its transition into the Byzantine Empire. The Seljuk Turks began migrating into the area in the 11th century, starting

The Albanian iso-polyphony, a traditional part of Albanian folk music and, as such, is included in UNESCO’s intangible cultural heritage list. *Photo from Wikipedia November 28 is Albanian Flag Day, celebrate the independence of Albania from Turkey in 1912, the first Albanian flag raise in 1443, and for the new parliamentary constitution in 1998. In the third century BC, the region was annexed by Rome and became part of the Roman provinces of Dalmatia, Macedonia and Moesia Superior (an ancient region and later Roman province situated in the Balkans south of the Danube River). The unified Principality of Arbanon (the