damien: hello and a very warm welcome to "focus on europe," with a look at some of the main stories shaping the lives of europeans all over the continent. i'm damien mcguinness. thanks very much for joining us. on the programme today -- syrian women in turkey, fled the war, but bought as brides. the romanian environmentalists -- big risks, fighting for the forests. and the cooks of the basque country, men-only in this kitchen. but first to our top story, something that threatens to tear the european single currency apart, greece's debt crisis -- it went from bad to worse this

week when talks collapsed between athens and international lenders, who have been propping up the country's economy. now greece is in danger of default. and the country's banks are closed, in an attempt to stop the entire banking system collapsing. greece's new government, led by the radical left-wing syriza party, blames the rest of the eurozone, saying the bail-out agreements weren't generous enough. but syriza's chaotic, and at times confrontational, negotiating style, and its apparent lack of willingness to compromise, has antagonized the leaders of all the other 18 eurozone countries. so many greeks are increasingly disillusioned with their government. reporter: nuts. the balamoutses family business has been processing, packing, and selling them abroad for generations. the company has 18 employees and a big problem. it has already paid their salaries by bank transfer, but the banks are closed, so the

employees can't access their money. >> we don't know how we should pay them. we'll probably pay our employees a small amount in cash so they can get by. reporter: cash is in wide use in greece. but the atm's are no longer providing it. the government wants to slow the flow of capital. older greeks in particular are hard hit, because they have no credit or debit cards and pay their rent and grocery bills in cash. >> of course i'm afraid! i don't even have money to buy anything. that's why i'm waiting here at the atm. >> we'll get our money, but the question is when? and how are we to live in the meantime? >> i need 20 euros to buy my medicine tomorrow. and i don't know where the money will come from. they can all go to hell!

reporter: this isn't the new era without austerity and humiliation that the tsipras government promised. but greek demands made no headway in the negotiations in brussels about an aid package. now the people are to decide in a referendum. tsipras hopes that will help him out of his jam. >> we here in the cradle of democracy will not beg the german finance minister schäuble or eurogroup president dijsselbloem for permission to vote on this. reporter: tsipras is broke, but he's rich in polemics. he compares the creditors' demands to a malicious attack. >> we are a peaceloving people, but if they declare war on us, we know how to wage it -- and win it. reporter: other members of tsipras' party cheer, but thousands of average greeks with frazzled nerves demonstrate in front of the parliament.

they don't want a currency war, just a normal life. >> we're in free fall. we can only hope someone will help us and we'll be rescued at the last minute. >> here we are 1 million 500 thousand people without jobs and they don't care for any of us. but they demand the taxes, electricity. and when it's food, when it's our clothes. so i feel very, very humiliated. >> we don't want these gangsters anymore. we merely want to die in dignity. no more, no less. reporter: for many greeks here at the cash machines, the referendum has already begun. their ballot is the euro -- and they don't want to give it up. damien: syriza still has strong support with some voters and

that's because in the eyes of many in greece, the country's economic problems are a result of the incredibly tough austerity measures demanded by international lenders. other eurozone leaders say that these budget cuts are the only way to turn greece into a functioning economy, either way though ordinary people have been hit hard, particularly when it comes to healthcare. reporter: in an athens suburb, we visit what's called a "solidarity health clinic" that is run by dr. giorgos vichas. it's open to uninsured patients who can't pay for treatment. together with colleagues, vichas set up the practice four years ago as rising numbers of people lost jobs and health insurance in the wake of the financial crisis. for many, a visit to the doctor had become an unaffordable luxury. unemployed, uninsured, with heart disease. fotini pipini is desperate. for years she ran a small textile store and also lived from occasional sewing jobs. but when the crisis hit, things fell apart. >> i've been unemployed since 2009, don't have health insurance any more, and have no

money for my medications. i have 3 children and 4 grandchildren. one son lives abroad, the others here. all are unemployed. reporter: dr. vichas shows us the room where they store the clinic's medications. all these medications were donated by private individuals from all over greece and from abroad -- especially from germany. even state-run clinics have now begun to ask if he can supply medications that are in short supply. there are now more than 40 solidarity clinics in greece, around 15 of them in athens alone -- where physicians, nurses and other volunteers treat patients for free. they prop up a crumbling public health system that has more or less stopped working. >> i desperately need a pacemaker to get my heart beating normally again. but i don't have any money.

i hope the doctor here can help me. otherwise i don't know what i'll do. reporter: over the last four years, dr. vichas and the other physicians here have treated around 40,000 patients at the clinic free of charge. >> patients like the woman with heart disease or the gentleman from mykonos are typical cases. they're casualties of years of austerity policies that have hit the healthcare sector especially hard. reporter: in june, the doctors who work at the clinic were awarded the european parliament's citizenship prize. >> at first we were happy about it, but then we got angry. the solidarity health clinic that they granted us the prize for was set up to help victims of eu austerity policies that are supported by the european parliament. it should be doing something to change them.

reporter: in the referendum, the doctor plans to vote against implementing the further austerity measures demanded by international creditors. damien: terrible situation, that could end up not only tearing the eurozone apart, but also creating real political tensions within the eu. so who's to blame? have brussels and berlin demanded too much austerity? or has athens overplayed its hand and not been open enough to compromise? let me know what you think by dropping me a line on twitter. another big story which europe is struggling to find a solution to, is the growing refugee crisis from war-torn syria. and neighbouring turkey in particular is struggling to cope with the huge influx of people desperate to escape the fighting. more than 1.5 million syrian refugees have fled to turkey.

many have lost everything, their homes, their jobs, and in some cases, in the ultimate sign of desperation, syrian families are even prepared to lose their daughters or rather sell them, as our reporter in eastern turkey has been finding out. reporter: 16-year-old nesrin had to flee from her violent turkish husband. now the young woman and her baby are back in safety, in emergency housing with her parents and siblings. nesrin's family comes from syria. a family friend, imam abdurrahim celik is present. otherwise the shy, frightened girl wouldn't speak with us. >> my husband threw me and the baby out on the street. my father-in-law beat me and the child. one time he even held a pistol to my head. reporter: nesrin's parents married her off for the bride price, for money to survive. but the "husband" just wanted a temporary fling. this is not an isolated case.

more and more turkish men are paying for a second wife from syria. most don't want it publicized. >> most of these men don't want a civil ceremony, just a religious one. that makes it easier for them to get rid of the women again. and many say they want a syrian as a second wife, but only secretly. i always ask them, aren't syrian women worth just as much as turkish women? don't they have the same rights? reporter: gaziantep, a city of a million and a half, is just a hundred kilometers from the syrian border. it has taken in more than 250,000 refugees from the fighting in syria, three quarters of them women and children. most of the women are widows, their husbands died in the civil war.

in their despair, they are easy prey. >> turkish men think these women can be had cheap -- as a wife or second wife. some of them couldn't get to know a woman in a normal way. they're too ill or too old. reporter: a syrian wife costs half as much as a turkish one, about 1500 euros. for a refugee family with nothing, that's a lot of money. word has spread that they are being exploited. >> i still wouldn't give up my daughter. they are merely abused for two or three months and then sent back again. reporter: polygamy is illegal in turkey, but in conservative, patriarchal anatolia, many men don't care about that law. the trade in women is now a flourishing business along the syrian border. just outside the refugee camps, "marriage" brokers display photos of women and girls. they make a commission if a deal is made.

we drive to one of the last still-open border crossing points between turkey and syria. beside it is a refugee camp with several thousand people. we're not permitted to film inside it. but street vendors in front of the camp confirm that trafficking in women is routine here. >> interested men are constantly coming and asking around. people from the camp help them find a girl or women. middlemen come on other days. reporter: it's estimated that thousands of syrian women have already been sold as wives. the turkish authorities feel no responsibility. only a few imams object to the practice in their sermons. imam celik reproaches his colleagues. he says that when they perform these dubious marriages, they become accomplices.

>> marriages performed by an imam have no legal standing if no civil ceremony is carried out. no imam should give his blessing to such temporary marriages that last only a few months. reporter: imam celik provides former bought wives like nesrin, and their families, with the absolute necessities. after expulsion or flight from their home country, now these women face rape and discrimination in an unfamiliar land. nesrin says she feels like an inferior being. >> a few days ago, my husband called up and said now he'll marry a proper woman, a turkish woman. >> men are constantly approaching me, but i won't be giving up any of my girls again. reporter: but nesrin isn't so sure of that.

she wants to watch out for her 13-year-old sister. men have already offered a bride price for her, too. damien: but now to romania, which has some of europe's largest tracts of forest, home to half of the continent's wild bears and wolves. well at least for now, there is now growing concern about the scale of illegal logging there. and thousands of romanians have been taking to the streets, calling on the government to act. but stopping the logging can bedangerous, as we discovered when we met up with one brave activist determined to save his country's forests. reporter: the valea cernei national park in romania's southern carpathians. this is a nature preserve. cutting down trees here is strictly prohibited. but on hikes, biologist gabriel paun increasingly comes across logging sites that have left massive scars on the landscape.

>> look at the way they've felled trees here. it looks like they must really hate this forest. this is a crime. it's a criminal offence. reporter: to stop it, paun founded the environmentalist organization "agent green". the biologist distrusts the country's environmental most forest rangers are corrupt, he says, and work hand-in-hand with the illegal loggers. that distrust comes to the fore when paun presents his findings to the park's local director. >> what you're telling me isn't true. when were you there? >> just now. i came straight here. >> it'll grow back. this is part of our regeneration program. >> what's going to grow there? it's been clear-cut! right in the middle of a national park!

>> there's been no clear-cutting. i have to go now. reporter: not long ago, the environmentalist catches illegal loggers red-handed, and films the loading and transport. he follows the trucks for hours until they reach their destination in a nearby valley. a call to a special center aimed at preventing illegal logging activities confirms his suspicions. >> the transport is illegal. please give me some more data so we can inform the police. reporter: but the police never arrive. the trucks bring the illegal wood to the romanian town of sebes -- to a plant owned by austrian company schweighofer. at the entrance, paun confronts security staff. tensions ratchet up. >> this wood has been stolen from the national park, and is being illegally brought into this factory. >> get out of here!

reporter: the argument escalates. a security guard sprays the environmental activist with tear gas. coughing and retching, he falls to the ground. the sector is hotly disputed in romania. foreign lumber firms are drawn here by the promise of high profits. they promise to create thousands of jobs. but where does the wood come from? schweighofer refuses our request for an interview. its director tapes a statement instead. >> i can't believe that we are accused of endangering forests in romania with illegal logging methods. we refuse to process any wood from national parks -- even though the country's forestry laws permit it for wood from certain regions in the parks. reporter: gabriel paun has heard very different stories from foresters who work in the nature preserves. >> anybody can buy wood here. doesn't matter who. they just have to pay the right price.

reporter: week after week, thousands of trees are felled illegally in the carpathians. in some regions, wastelands now spread where forests once stood. just a few environmental activists are trying to fight it -- often alone or in small groups. that's risky. we receive a call from gabriel paun. he has been beaten, and is now in the hospital. when we arrive, he's explaining what happened to his lawyer. together with three other activists, he discovered a new illegal logging site, he says. within minutes, they were assaulted. they documented the attack on their smartphones. the alleged perpetrators approach in a red off-road vehicle. around ten of them surround the activists. there's an exchange of words. then the attack begins. as paun is being beaten, the others leap into their own

vehicle and flee. through the rear window they are able to document how their fellow activist is beaten. the attackers break three ribs before leaving the activist lying on the ground. in the hospital, he can only speculate about who they were or where they came from. >> they were professionals. i fell down three times, and tried to run away. and another one of them always came up and hit me again. reporter: gabriel paun has since been released from the hospital, and he's once again roaming the carpathian forests. his attackers were never caught. and the unequal struggle to save one of europe's most beautiful landscapes continues.

damien: for my mother, a true child of the 1960's and a real first-generation feminist, too much time wasted in the kitchen is a let-down for the feminist cause. and certainly many european women would agree. but not in the basque country, in northern spain. traditional cooking clubs are a sort of cross between social-club, cooking school and place to swing by if you're a man that is. so the feminist rallying cry there has now gone from get out of the kitchen, to get back in to the kitchen. reporter: san sebastian is known for its culinary specialties, for its gastronomic societies, and its strong women. but some here don't think those things make for a good mix, which is why many cooking clubs only allow men to become

members. the renowned club aitzaki is one of them. >> getting together with friends gives you a boost. you can talk and they'll listen. it's better than going to a psychologist. here you can eat and talk, and you don't need to pay for a psychologist. reporter: every friday, txema alberdi meets up with his friends at the club house. >> today we're cooking cod cheeks, baked hake and mussels with tomato. reporter: aitzaki has 120 members -- and a long waiting list to join. people cook in groups, on different days. members can bring friends along and they split the cost of the foods they prepare. women can be invited as guests. >> they can come, sit and each lunch here every day if they wish. a club member prepares the food

and serves it to them. reporter: women are allowed everywhere -- except in the kitchen. that's a no-go area! at aitzaki, all the chefs are men. women can eat meals here, but not prepare them. are women too distracting? >> pretty much. reporter: so it's strictly men only. >> in our statutes we clearly decided that women can't be members -- at least not in this club. >> that's sexism. it's gender discrimination. reporter: but things don't have to be ths way. at the berabera cooking club men and women cook side by side. carmen diez has been a member for years. she's also conducts research into gender studies at the university of the basque country.

who's the boss here? >> me! >> here and everywhere. >> at mixed clubs, men and women have no problems working in the same kitchen. though teasing and wise cracks are often par for the course. >> this mania for distancing yourself from others is troubling. men here, women there. why do there need to be exclusively male domains? reporter: new cooking clubs are springing up and slowly things are changing. but many traditional ones don't intend to let women in. >> they have their own language, their own cameraderie and want to be among their own kind. they don't want to be disturbed by having a woman around when they're discussing certain topics.

reporter: the old cooking clubs were founded by fishermen. back then, men sailed the high seas and women cared for the children. these days there are few fishermen left. and the worlds men and women inhabit aren't so separate anymore. club members no longer catch the fish they cook. but some still long for the days in which men were the breadwinners and women stayed home. so, once a week, these men get to have things their way. >> i spend time with friends and get out of the house. >> we drink, talk and no one's controlling us. we're amongst ourselves. >> i'm sitting next to a banker and a labourer. >> the fellowship. reporter: equality of the sexes has no place at this table. >> we're different. we behave differently. not better and not worse. that's the way we are.

if that sounds macho then we're machos! reporter: that kind of attitude worries carmen diez. >> it's bad. it replicates a society based on masculine power, which makes it harder for women to achieve equality. reporter: aitzaki is keen to sweep such concerns under the rug. maybe that's little wonder as 'aitzaki' means 'excuse' or 'pretext'. damien: well that's it for today. thanks very much for watching. do feel free to get in touch anytime with your thoughts and comments. always great to hear from you. but in the meantime, it's goodbye from me and the whole team. thanks for watching. and see you next time. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accracy. visit ncicap.org]

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