♪ damien: hello and welcome to "focus on europe" - with some of the very best human stories behind the headlines. i'm damien mcguinness. and we've got a really great program lined up for you today. free speech in the spotlight in turkey. russia inching forward into georgia. and feathered friends fight loneliness in british nursing when it comes to the refugee crisis, all eyes are suddenly on turkey. the country is seen as crucial in helping to stem the flow of migrants to europe.

and so the eu is now trying to persuade turkey to police its borders better and to improve conditions for the millions of refugees already there. the hope is that all this stops more migrants making their way to europe. in return brussels is offering sweeteners such as financial aid, and starting up again the stalled negotiation process to get turkey into the eu. a win-win situation you might think. well, not quite. the deal is controversial. european politicians, who are desperate to resolve the refugee crisis, are accused of turning a blind eye to human rights abuses in turkey - in particular an alleged government clampdown on dissent. >> levent uzumcu's ensemble are performing an historical comedy tonight. it's about an ottoman sultan who tries to censor a theatre group's performances. similarities to present day turkey are intentional. the audience knows that the actors are walking a thin line.

for the city authorities in istanbul, levent uzumcu is a public enemy. in late august he lost the job he'd held for 25 years because he made a public speech and wrote on the internet criticizing the akp government. he is pessimistic about freedom of expression in his cultural sector. >> the people in charge of istanbul's state-sponsored theatre are slaves to authority. they decide on the repertoire, even though they know nothing about theatre. i have always expressed my opinion freely. i'm a well-known actor. everyone knows i won't keep my mouth shut. >> now he can only perform with private theater groups. he knows he's relatively fortunate other people who've criticized the government ended up in jail or were subjected to violence. >> the play shows what it's like in today's turkey. most theatres have no freedom any more.

cabaret artists and satirists in particular are being stripped of their creative freedom. the state does everything it can to impede their work. we're here to show solidarity. >> a general election is scheduled for november. but there's little evidence of any campaigning. the government's zero-tolerance policy towards its critics and the recent terror attacks have deepened the rift between president tayyip erdogan's opponents and his supporters who refuse to listen to criticism of their leader. >> whatever the akp does, it's right! it needs to regain its absolute majority. >> everyone makes mistakes, including the government. its critics should take a look in the mirror and ask themselves if they're always right.

a government should be treated with respect. >> we head to the city of edirne on the bulgarian border. a traditional secular stronghold. student kadir yavas and his friends are getting ready for another anti-government protest. even though he's still haunted by what happened at the rally for peace and democracy in ankara on october the 10th. he was just a few meters away from where the two bombs exploded , killing over 100 people. >> there were body parts everywhere. we had to climb over them. we were in shock. we didn't understand what had happened. indirectly the people responsible for this bloodbath are the same people who instigate fear and make out the country would be plunged into chaos if it weren't for them. >> the 22-year-old has to be careful what he says. he was given an 11-month suspended sentence for insulting the president.

his case made headlines across the country. he appeared before the judge in handcuffs for calling erdogan a thief and murderer. >> i wanted to defend myself before the judge. but i'd spoken only two sentences when he cut me off. he said it was enough. he'd already decided how to sentence me. i had no idea the legal system in this country had gone downhill this badly. >> yavas and his friends run a left-wing cultural center in edirne. they say they can't even speak openly at university any more. >> the professors are all under pressure by the government. they pass on that pressure to us. we're increasingly restricted in what we can say. >> spiralling violence, growing

repression. young democratic thinkers like kadir yavas are swimming against the tide. even though they could end up paying a high price. >> back in the istanbul theatre, the sultan has been outwitted and the ensemble perform the play. levent uzumcu has appealed against his dismissal and is willing to take his case to the supreme court if he has to. the ankara bombings have made him even more determined to fight for the future of his country. >> once again, they blame the people who criticize the government and the state is not to blame. it can't go on like this. the government just sits back and says it did what it could to protect the demonstrators. but it didn't. >> democratic thinkers like levent uzumcu are preparing for the long haul. the curtain won't be falling on the akp any time soon.

damien: ireland is a dangerous place to be pregnant -- that's according to one pro-choice campaigner who wants ireland to legalise abortion. another has described the fact that abortion is in most cases illegal in ireland as "abusive to women." those are controversial statements, which many people wouldn't agree with. pro-life campaigners say that abortion is morally wrong and so should not be allowed. either way though, the fact remains that every day around a dozen irish women do have abortions -- but have to go abroad to make it possible -- arguably making an already traumatic operation even worse. so now pressure is growing to change the law. particularly from the women who have suffered because of it. >> this woman doesn't want to reveal her real idenity. she wants to be known as lily. she's had an abortion. a crime in ireland that could get her 14 years in prison, her doctor, too even though, in her case, the

fetus was severely impaired. the decision to terminate the pregnancy wasn't easy for lily and her husband. >> there were two options available to us. that we could carry the baby to term, and that the baby would die after delivery, or we could travel out of the jurisdiction and have a termination. we left the hospital and went for a long walk on the beach and quickly decided that we didn't really have any other option but to travel to the uk. >> lily sought help at a clinic in liverpool, sneaking across to england in secret. even now she and her husband are very careful about who they confide in. >> only a small number of our family know about us travelling to the uk.

other people were just told that we had a miscarriage, because that's, i suppose, the more socially acceptable. it is something that is against the law here, so there is that conflict, but, i had to do what was right for me and for my family, so that is the most important. it is hard not to be able to talk about it openly and to be able to explain what really happened. >> amnesty international says irish women are being forced to go abroad for abortions. ireland has no jurisdiction over abortions carried out elsewhere but irish society stigmatizes both women and their doctors. >> regardless of whether or not there are prosecutions, to criminalize women and girls, to criminalize health professionals, when it comes to providing either information or access to abortions is a human rights violation.

it's contrary to best practice and medical ethics, as well. >> prenatal counselling centers are especially hard hit. radical pro-life activists have been known to report anyone involved in aiding the abortion process. sometimes resorting to extreme methods such as secretly video-taping counselors. >> clients came in to various clinics, pretending to be a client who had a non-planned pregnancy, and their intention was that we would be seen to be breaking the law by making phone calls or providing money or referring. i was taped; we were all investigated. it went to the dpp, which would be ireland's source, before it goes to court, and it wasn't brought to court. there was no case proven. >> nevertheless, supporters of legalized abortions are often socially ostracized as potential murderers. >> i think, even if the kid is

sick; even if the doctors say they're going to die hours after they're born, it's still their life. i think even a short life or a sick life is life. >> a majority of members of parliament agree with this view. so in a nation where some 80 per cent of the population are catholics, no liberalization of the abortion laws is in sight, even if polls show a large majority of irish citizens would favor it. >> i think abortion should be legalized yes! why? because i think, it's a woman's body, and she should have the right to choose. >> there's a lot of people who're still quite old-fashioned, and it's the old-fashioned voters, that always show up for the referendums. >> but that's what's really started to move. we're now seeing very significant levels of public support, and increasingly we're seeing political support, but we've a long way to go. politics and government and political leaders are very, very far behind public opinion on this issue..

>> around four thousand irish women are known to travel abroad for an abortion every year. the true figure may be much higher. most western countries describe their own more liberal abortion laws as an expression of a woman's right to decide over her own body. but lily and her husband felt they had little choice when they had the birth induced prematurely in liverpool. they knew the baby had virtually no chance of survival. >> and the following afternoon, our little boy was born. he was dead. and so it was late that night by the time i was returned to my lily is catholic, but she feels

the church has failed her. >> if we'd been able to have the termination here, we could've brought him home and had a wake for him or you know had a proper ceremony, but he arrived home by courier in a dusty old envelope. it's just a very undignified way to come home. >> ireland's ban on abortions forced lily to turn to a clinic abroad. but she hopes she can bury her child in irish soil. damien: a difficult and painful issue, which i'm sure many of you have views no. do let me know what you think about that or any of the other stories on today's show. always good to hear from you. thanks to all those who got in touch last week. chris hearn in maine wrote to say he found the story about norwegian prisoners being moved to the netherlands very interesting. and thanks to all of you who wrote to say that you enjoy the show.

we don't of course answer any emails or tweets judged to be racist or prejudicial - the current refugee crisis in europe has sparked some of those sorts of comments. but we do respond to everything else. so do drop me a line! always really interesting to hear your thoughts. when i lived in the former soviet state of georgia, the country had just fought a war with russia. and i can remember the effects were still being felt. georgia had lost the war. and moscow had won control of the breakaway territory of south ossetia. as a result tens of thousands of georgians were forced to leave the territory and abandon their homes. but friends in georgia tell me that the situation is now getting even worse. russian troops are gradually taking over more georgian land, by slowly shifting the border. and it's ordinary people who are being affected. we've been to meet one man who went to bed in georgia. and woke up the next morning to find out he was suddenly living, against his will, in south ossetia. >> a journey to a country that officially doesn't even exist.

we are on the way to the border with south ossetia, past a refugee village that is home to georgians who were driven from their homes there. we can only approach the barbed-wire fence that separates south ossetia and georgia with police protection. russian troops set up this border around south ossetia after the war in 2008. the georgian border guards tell us the russians keep moving it by a few centimeters. over the years, they've built a large military base there. ia tinikashvili has been reporting on the conflict for years. once during life coverage, she and her camera team were threatened by russian soldiers. >> the russian occupation force cameras are up there in the trees. and they saw that we'd arrived

without police protection, so they came and told my cameraman that, if he turned his lens in this direction, they'd open fire. >> we can only approach the border fence escorted by the border patrol. the journalist calls over to the farmer on the other side. she won't be intimidated. she regularly visits dato, an old georgian farmer, who's refused to leave his home. but the border fence cuts him off from his fields on the georgian side. >> recently, two women came to visit us. my wife and i had dinner with them. i don't know how the russians found out, but suddenly, they show that at midnight -- showed up at midnight. one of them sat on my bed, while another looked under the beds.

>> not even his own grandchildren are allowed to visit. dato tells us his wife's health is suffering. she's feeling more and more isolated. at first, they'd been hoping things would eventually return to normal, but that hope is fading as the years pass. >> my daughter lives in georgia, over on the other side. somehow, she managed to come and visit us. on the second day, people arrived and threatened to arrest her if she came again. i asked if they were crazy she is my own daughter. >> these people here are citizens of georgia, and they can't even collect their pensions. if you consider all this, you'd have to say that area over there is occupied. >> dato says he'll never give up hope

that not a day passes, when he doesn't look over with longing at his fields through the barbed wire, hoping one day, he'll be allowed to work them again. >> many georgians who were driven from their homes now live in the zerowani refugee camp down in the valley. among them is georgie. he used to be a well-to-do farmer. at first, he thought he could make a new start here, but now, he keeps just this one cow on land he doesn't own. he says the people here experienced long ago what ukrainians are suffering now. >> the russians destroyed my house right down to the foundations. you can't even see that a house ever stood there. i saw it on the internet. only ossetians and russians live there now.

>> he says, if he could, he'd fight for his land. but he knows full well, this conflict cannot be resolved by force of arms. and he realizes it's very unlikely he'll ever get his land back -- there's no going back to his old life. but his wife still clings to hope. >> god willing, some day we'll return to our own land. what's better than your own land? people live from hope. i probably won't live to see it, but she might. >> georgie's wife tries to keep the memory of their home alive and give their grandchildren a sense of where they came from. in the meantime, the family tries to live as well as they can in this settlement, where all the houses look alike.

but not many of their neighbors come from their home village which no longer really exists. they were scattered up and down this heavily fortified border. damien: terrible that so many people are still living like refugees in their own country so many years after the war. my hometown on the windy north-west coast of england is a place where people go to retire. no idea why as it's not exactly nice weather. but that means a lot of the big old victorian houses are now nursing homes for the elderly. and when i was a teenager i used to have a saturday job working in one retirement home which had a cat, which the residents loved. well it seems the cat was also doing the residents some good. research has since shown that animals are good for your physical and mental health as you get older. they fight loneliness. and help keep elderly people alert. and now some british nursing homes are going a step further than your usual household pet, and opting for a farmyard animal

which can also come up with breakfast. >> belle, betsy and hanni are >> belle, beery popular at thiss -- old people's home in the north of england. reporter hanni husch says she usually associates hens with breakfast eggs or chicken filet, so she wonders why people here are cuddling up to the birds. every morning at seven o'clock sharp, owen turnbull lets the hens out of their coop. then the 85-year-old does a head count. he knows every chicken by name. looking after his feathered friends is a pastime, but also a distraction. life hasn't been easy since his wife belle -- the love of his life -- was diagnosed with dementia. but being around hens does her good. the couple first met on a farm

60 years ago. and hens make great pets: they're soft and don't bite. >> the glint has gone, the glint has gone from her eye. but she's getting a little bit better, but the time will come when she gets worse, you know. but i think the hens might help her. >> the henpower project is the brainchild of jos forester-melville. at the retirement home she'd once heard a man repeatedly call out women's names. but he wasn't calling for his wife or daughters: he was calling his hens. that gave her the idea of keeping chickens to give residents something to care for. >> they've evaluated and found that through being involved in henpower -- particularly for difficult to reach older men -- it's reduced isolation, it's reduced loneliness. it's improved, generally, people's health and well-being. and in some of the care settings that we've worked in, they've

reported actually that it's reduced anti-psychotic medication, which is a brilliant thing for us. >> belle is getting some star treatment. she's relaxed and used to being in the limelight. here at the home, the women flock to the weekly craft class. meanwhile the men gather at the chicken coop. where 25 hens need feeding. the animals give the seniors something to talk about and help lonely residents find friends. >> it's a good project against loneliness. there have been some very good people and i think it's helped a lot of people in this area. it has, because people have come out of their bungalows which they wouldn't before. even in the winter they come over to make sure the hens are all right. and are we going out? yes, jos is coming over. >> because that's something else henpower does. take the birds on tour to help others. jos is visiting a home for people with alzheimer's and has

brought along some baby chicks. they've just hatched, and are soft and warm to touch. they provoke a reaction from the residents, often bringing back long lost memories. and that does these seniors good. the project has attracted a lot of attention; organizers have even received inquiries from germany. more and more retirement homes are using henpower to help people like widower ossie creswell overcome their loneliness. >> loneliness is a very terrible affliction. it's the second-worst affliction you can get. people should know about our project, because it's made us happy. >> so that's why residents at the gateshead retirement home like to give a hen a cuddle -- because it makes them happy.

bringing a social life to the elderly. brings a new phrase to the detriment to the phrase hen party. well, that's it for today. thanks very much for watching. remember do feel free to get in touch anytime with your thoughts and comments. what you liked. what you didn't like. it's always great to hear from you. i can be reached on twitter, email via the programme's website or on focus on europe's facebook page. but in the meantime, it's goodbye from me. and look forward to seeing you next week, same time, same place. ♪ ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]