Author: Iason Athanasiadis

Iason Athanasiadis is a Mediterranean-focused multimedia journalist based between Athens, Istanbul, and Tunis. He uses all media to recount the story of how we can adapt to the era of climate change, mass migration, and the misapplication of distorted modernities. He studied Arabic and Modern Middle Eastern Studies at Oxford, Persian and Contemporary Iranian Studies in Tehran, and was a Nieman fellow at Harvard, before working for the United Nations between 2011 and 2018. He received the Anna Lindh Foundation’s Mediterranean Journalism Award for his coverage of the Arab Spring in 2011, and its 10th-anniversary alumni award for his commitment to using all media to tell stories of intercultural dialogue in 2017. He is a contributing editor of The Markaz Review.

8 May, 2023 • Iason Athanasiadis

The Refugees by the Lake, a Greek Migrant Story

Iason Athanasiadis reviews the film of a migrant story set in Greece that has just been nominated for 17 Greek Cinema Academy Awards.

1 May, 2023 • Iason Athanasiadis

Working the News: a Short History of Al Jazeera’s First 30 Years

Iason Athanasiadis on how the Arab world’s most famous product went from boisterous matchbox to counter-hegemon with an establishment role.

5 March, 2023 • Iason Athanasiadis

The Odyssey That Forged a Stronger Athenian

An Athens native returns to Greece after a 20-year sojourn across the Mediterranean and Middle East, covering turmoil and displacement.

15 December, 2022 • Iason Athanasiadis

The Greek Panopticon, Where Politicians Spy on Democracy

Senior correspondent Iason Athanasiadis attends a protest and critiques Greek government corruption.

5 September, 2022 • Iason Athanasiadis

Al-Koni’s Tuareg Perspective on Islam’s Conquest of North Africa

Iason Athanasiadis reviews the new Ibrahim al-Koni translation of a story that recounts Islam's conquest of North Africa.

15 January, 2022 • Iason Athanasiadis

Children in Search of Refuge: a Photographic Essay

Photographer, documentarian and journalist Iason Athanasiadis shares images from more than 10 years of reporting from Afghanistan to Greece and back.

15 January, 2022 • Iason Athanasiadis

Getting to the Other Side: a Kurdish Migrant Story

Iason Athanasiadis paints the portrait of Bahoz, a stateless Kurd who will keep fighting to become accepted for asylum in Europe.

1 November, 2021 • Iason Athanasiadis

Refugees Detained in Thessonaliki’s Diavata Camp Await Asylum

In which our columnist flies up to Thessaloniki and visits the Diavata camp for refugees seeking European asylum — no one is illegal, everyone merits a better life.

1 August, 2021 • Iason Athanasiadis

Revolution, Democracy and the Tunisian Exception

Our correspondent in Tunis looks at President Kaïs Saïed’s un-democratic attempts to save Tunisia from collapse.

14 February, 2021 • Iason Athanasiadis

Egypt’s Night of the Battle of Horses and Camels

Photojournalist Iason Athanasiadis shares his remembrance and unpublished photos from the decisive battle of the 18 days that shook the world.

14 January, 2021 • Iason Athanasiadis

The Sea That Binds and Divides: Our Mediterranean

Iason Athanasiadis on the cities of the Mediterranean and Levant and the exceptionalism that has diminished our shared cosmopolitan future.

10 January, 2021 • Iason Athanasiadis

Remember 2020 Not for Covid-19 or Trump Chaos, But Climate Change

Columnist Iason Athanasiadis remembers 2020 not so much for the pandemic or the chaos of Trump but what humankind has wrought on nature.