>> hello and welcome to focus on europe, it's great to have you with us. for many people in turkey, day-to-day life has become far too expensive due largely to the dire economic situation the country is facing and soaring inflation. under president erdogan's government, the price of food has skyrocketed. meanwhile, energy prices have risen in tandem, as have the costs of renting an apartment or buying a home or condo. that's especially true in turkey's most popular vacation areas. but here, it's mainly russians

who are driving prices up. turkey is one of the only countries you can still fly to directly from moscow. and for russians, antalya on the mediterranean coast is not only a beautiful city to vacation in, but a refuge from the consequences of russia's war against ukraine. but the rising real estate prices mean that locals in antalya like mussa yashar and nermin tasha may soon no longer be able to afford their homes. >> antalya on the mediterranean coastline is one of turkey's biggest cities. even in winter, you can spend a day at the beach here. so it's no wonder that antalya's real estate market is booming. but the main reason for the weekly price hike is the growing number of russians who've been coming ever since the war in ukraine started, looking to buy or rent homes . it's left residents like musa yasar and nermin tasçi struggling.

>> in some cases real estate prices are up by 800% to 900%. >> even civil servants can't afford to live in here anymore. i know several who've asked to be transferred because of the high rents. >> yasar und tasci created a group on social media called rent victims. they are visiting a pensioner who has been served notice by his landlord. he can't afford his rent after a fivefold increase. >> the flat will now go to a foreigner. they have more money to spend in a month than we do in a year. >> it's high time for the state to step in. they need to provide social housing, so that we low-income families also have a place to live. >> they feel the main reason why real estate prices have

skyrocketed is the growing number of foreign buyers. most buyers are russian and there are nearly 60,00 russians currently living in antalya. according to real estate agents, this has drastically impacted the market. >> apartments that were put on the market for 5000 liras, or about 2 hundred and fifty euros, could suddenly be rented to foreigners for three times the price. when neighbors caught on to this, they began demanding the same rents. >> the rent activists are feeling increasingly frustrated. >> anyone who comes here should be allowed to live as they please. that's absolutely fine. it's when it's at the expense of our children, our future, that it becomes a problem. >> the city's orthodox parish serves as a meeting place for many russians. several of the men here came in case russia introduces a draft, the metropolitan bishop tells

us. others came to turkey because of the international sanctions against their country. david tsarev already came to antalya before the war broke out. for him, the church choir offers a connection to home. he says it has become increasingly difficult to gain a foothold in antalya, even for russians. >> especially in the first weeks it's hard to find an apartment or even a job. people ask me for advice all the time. but unfortunately, i'm not always able to help. you have to own a business or real estate. >> tsarev is an it specialist. he likes sitting on the turkish riviera working away on his laptop. but he's aware that although he can afford a rent upwards of 5 hundred euros, many turkish people are being left behind.

>> we follow the requirements made by turkish authorities and otherwise let the market guide us when looking for housing. you can't blame us for the economic and social consequences of that system. >> but in musa yasar's eyes there is blame to go around when it comes to the housing crisis. and some lies with politicians. he wants to confront the head of the inner-city district where most russians have settled. >> in the past, foreigners used to come here on vacation. they'd book one or two week package holidays. they didn't buy houses and settle here. >> if the percentage of foreign tenants or homeowners in a district exceeds 20%, the real estate market is closed to foreigners. three districts here in antalya already have such a ban in place since last july.

>> can you at least help affected citizen's like me to find an apartment? >> well, that's not my job. that's up to the agents. >> when yasar picks his daughter up from school, he still doesn't have a new apartment to tell her about. he puts on a brave face. but his despair is growing. the rising rents in antalya may soon force residents like musa yasar to leave their hometown. >> having financial worries is a struggle all too many romanians know as well. the country is one of the poorest in the eu, and in rural regions, even a visit to the doctor can strain a monthly budget to the breaking point. in the village of hohtarelay many people don't have health insurance. and the nearest doctor is so far away that the journey alone is prohibitively expensive. luckily, there are doctors who help, like the ones behind me

here. their motto is, if the patient can't come to the doctor, then the doctor has to go to the patient free of charge. >> it is 630 bank a.m. -- 6:30 a.m. in the romanian capital, bucharest. vera mardale is meeting a friend who will be taking her to the remotest parts of the country. she's training to be a nurse and volunteers for the aid organization caravana cu medici, or doctors' caravan”. vera has a long day of work ahead of her for which she won't get paid, but she's committed to helping disadvantaged people in her home country. >> as part of the campaign we are promoting good health by offering screenings to those in need. with the help of other volunteers such as myself, we can provide a number of complex medical screenings people just wouldn't have access to

otherwise. >> this time she's heading to hotarele, a remote village in southern romania. its gymnasium is being repurposed as a medical center for the day. by evening, the three doctors and five nurses sent by the organization will have examined over 75 patients. one of the first in for a check-up is lenti?ia vasilache. the 72-year-old has lived alone since her husband died in august. no doctor was there to help him. >> he passed very quickly. he had a thrombosis in his left leg, which went untreated. then his heart failed, and he died on the spot. >> lenti?ia vasilache has only 200 euros a month, which leaves no money for health insurance or private doctors. it's a situation familiar to many here. places like hotarele are typical of rural romania.

there are hardly any jobs here and incomes are low. many don't have health insurance. and get by on the little they grow on their farms and in their gardens. mihaela varasteanu is one of them. she lives on a farm with her husband, who is ill, and grandma. >> i never really went to the doctor. i've been with my husband, but i myself haven't been to the doctor since the birth of my last child. i haven't even had a check-up since then. >> the fact that she can get a free check-up today is nothing short of a miracle for mihaela. it will be the first cancer screening she's ever had. >> if you go to bucharest, you need to have the money for a screening. they don't do it f free there, like they did for us here. whoever had the idea to come to us in hotarele it was a great one. >> lorenzo radu organized the visit from the medical caravan

with the help of private donations. the doctors are paid, but their assistants work for free. during the campaign, over 60 doctors and volunteers spend eight weekends working in rural areas. they're always sent to poor villages. in the end, up to 1400 people will have received free examinations and consultations. >> there are villages without family doctors, as we call it, or gps. there are areas where there's only one for maybe 4000 people. and also, when it comes to investigations like an ultrasound, people often do have to travel more than 30, 40 kilometers. >> today, nurse vera mardale is assisting gynecologist larissa buduluca. she's conducting ultrasounds as part of breast cancer screenings and examined 30 patients before noon. >> the youngest was 22, the oldest was 63.

most of them have never had a breast cancer screening before and didn't even know that they should have. >> all day long, patients keep flocking to the center. these older women also make use of the opportunity to see a doctor for free, even though they all feel perfectly fine. this woman is the last patient of the day. after 11 hours, vera mardale's work day is finally done. >> i'm exhausted, but happy too. the day didn't just pass. on the contrary, it was exciting. a day like no other i've had. and i hope to repeat this experience, because it also helps me to become more aware of things. >> overall, the results were positive, too. just one patient is thought to have a potentially serious cancer which might have gone undetected, were it not for the

aid organization. >> as any parent will tell you, raising a child can be tough. that's also true for hannah reuter. she's trying to provide her daughter with a well-rounded life. but she herself navigates in the dark. hannah reuter is blind, and so is her husband. their daughter, mila, is the only one in the household who can see. but even if that means a few more obstacles in their day to day lives, togehter, they manage to overcome them. >> it is 7:00 on a regular a.m. schooland work day. hannah is making her daughter mila's lunch. >> where's the egg? >> by the sink. >> by the sink. aha. found it. it's funny having two blind people at home, as you always have to make really clear where you've left something, or the other one will be feeling around for it for ages, running their hands over all the surfaces. sometimes i think how nice it'd

be to just take a quick look around. >> gendun is at the computer this morning. a special program tells him what's on the screen. >> mila? >> yes? >> check that you've got everything your pencil case and stuff? >> well, i don't want to take your stick! >> thanks, i would've needed that later. what do you need today? a folder? >> got it. >> pencil case. >> got it. >> pencil pouch, or whatever you call it? >> yes, got it. >> does mila also help out when mom and dad can't find something? >> well, first they have to look and if they can't find it, then i help. >> we'd have to do that if mila wasn't here anyway, and that's

an important principle for us. she's not our servant, after all. she's just a child and if she doesn't want to, then she doesn't have to. >> before the family leaves the house, hannah takes the time to apply some makeup. she learned how at a course for blind people. even if she can't see how she looks, hannah feels that making a good impression helps combat prejudice. >> if, for example, my child was running around outside with tomato sauce on her t-shirt, people would very quickly assume that it's dirty because her poor mom couldn't see it. so i've become a bit of a perfectionist. i prefer to check things five times because people look at us to see how we look, what we do, if we get across the road safely. >> while mila is at school, gendun makes lunch.

he works as a masseur. he went blind almost 15 years ago after a retina detachment. hannah has been blind since birth. she works in public relations and as a writer. what was their first meeting like? >> it was a feeling. here comes a woman with a great voice. a feeling. of course i couldn't see her, but i felt she was beautiful. then i told myself, forget it. it'll never work. [laughter] >> they got married three years later. then mila arrived, along with a few worries. >> i think it's a ge challenge for all rents, whether sighted, blind or with any kind of impairment. and when people, instead of saying, oh, congratulatis, you're having a baby, how wonderful! say, oh, have you thought it through? how will that work?

then that's quite unsettling. >> in the afternoon, hannah and mila take a walk with guide dog daica. the family lives in central berlin. >> so you go up to the corner and wait for me there. >> boring! >> and bye-bye. as usual. see you soon! >> bye. >> let's go, daici! it's always nervewracking to let her rush off like that, but it wouldn't work without trust. i know she's very careful on roads and, so far, we haven't had any problems. >> mila is increasingly aware of how people react to her family, and she knows what she wants from them. >> they should have more respect. because my mom's also a normal person. >> whether sighted or blind, all parents want to be able to stand tall. hannah says hers is just a

normal family. for her daughter's sake, she'd like to see more acceptance and fewer preconceptions. >> sure, it's irritating for her that people stare at us whenever we go out as a family; we're always the focus of attention. sometimes i think it's good we don't see it. i'd really like people to regard it as just something very normal. after all, there've always been blind parents and for us it was always normal, not an issue at all. but unfortunately, some still don't see it that way. and i'd really like that to change. ♪ >> chinese dissidents who manage to flee to europe think they are safe. at least, this was what wang jingyu believed. he moved to the netherlands

several years ago after he got in trouble for criticizing china's government. but wang jingyu says he still feels threatened by beijing. according to a report, china runs illegal police stations across europe that put pressure on dissidents. in the netherlands, this has caused quite a stir. dutch politicians in the hague have made clear they want to see such oversees chinese police stations shut down. >> wang jingyu is heading to his adversary the chinese embassy in the hague. the 21 year old fled china in 2019 when he was just 17. he had posted content online questioning the government's response to protests in hong kong. now based in the netherlands, he says his anti-government activisism in europe has also caused trouble for his family back home. >> i want them to explain to me why they have detained, arrest, my parents. the second is to protest also

for other chinese dissidents because the chinese government in china arrests a lot of chinese dissidents and prosecutes them. >> wang tells our crew that he expects the dutch police to be called as soon as he arrives outside the embassy. >> lease coming. [laughter] arco his prediction materializes within just a couple of minutes. the police say it is routine for them to ask people what they're doing if they linger outside the foreign embassies based here in the hague. wang's chinese passport is invalidated. he says fake bomb threats are regularly called in to hotels around the world using his name. on his phone he shows hundreds of calls which he says he receives most days threatening him. he claims he was recently followed into this cafe by someone he believed to be a government agent. >> for me, also for my girlfriend, we just want a normal life. they keep threatening me,

harassing me, even send people to follow me or make problem to me, or just make phone call say i'm the overseas police, you should come here or otherwise i come to your house. it's really making me a little bit crazy. >> laura harth works for safeguard defenders, a human rights ngo, which released a 2022 report claiming chinese authorities have established over 100 overseas police stations in 53 couries around the world. >> they also found proof that over 230,000 chinese citizens were persuaded to return to china between april 2021 and july 2022. >> what we found were accounts by chinese authorities saying that these stations are being run to provide services such as renewal of passports, driver's license and so on. but also to form a link with the public security bureaus and the chinese prosecution service of courts back home, to monitor the sentiment and public opinion within the community. and to assist in this kind of persuasion to return operations.

>> we reached out to the chinese embassy in the netherlands but there was no response. the chinese foreign ministry categorically denies the existence of overseas police stations. >> china abides by international law, and respects the sovereignty of all countries. the so-called chinese overseas police stations do not exist. >> the dutch foreign minister tells us they've asked china to shut down the police stations. >> we have been crystal clear to the chinese about what we have seen. any type of state activities can only take place if the host country is aware and is ok with that. this was clearly not the case so we told them to close them asap, which they have done, and we're currently investigating the exact specifics of the matter. >> wang insists the stations are still active and wants authorities in the netherlands to do more. >> they should ask police to search the overseas police

station. they should sue the criminal, i mean the chinese overseas police. i hope they can deport the chinese ambassador, because he already made a fake report to dutch police to say i have a bomb. >> the european commission says while it condemns all foreign interference on the territory of its member states, it won't launch an eu-wide action. >> this is a matter of national security and sovereignty of the eu member states. some member states have already launched investigations and the commission welcomes very much this fact because it is a matter of huge importance to shed light on this worrying phenomenon. >> for wang, the harassment and the fear by the chinese authorities is nothing compared to the worry he feels for not knowing how his actions have affected his family. he is unable to contact them. >> i tried to call my mother.

>> the number you have dialed is not in service. please check the number and dial again. >> dancing. it brings us together, it connects us, and for these dancers here, it also keeps cultural heritage alive. many armenians love the traditional dances of their country and see them as an important part of their identity. even armenians who live abroad will travel back to their homeland, and come together with others in the capital of yerevan for evenings of song, dance and laughter. >> night has fallen in the armenian capital of yerevan. but this little courtyard is buzzing with life. inside, armenians from all over the world meet once a month to learn and practice traditional dances. seda has travelled all the way from germany to join. >> the past years have seen us lose touch with a lot of our culture, and that includes armenians who live here.

these dances are something that unites us. there's real passion in the steps. >> hand in hand, celebrating togetherness. armenians are a small people; just three million live in the country; more than twice as many live abroad. >> i'm an armenian who lived in the diaspora in russia. growing up there meant studying russian culture, reading russian literature. but at some point the question arises. well, this is russian culture, and though it's very interesting and diverse, i want to know my own, too. >> everyone is welcome. young and old, experienced and new dancers. the course instructor stresses the importance of this. and it's free. >> it's about restoring our people's identity. how we see ourselves. as armenians, we have lost a

lot of our culture throughout the years. in the soviet union, for example, we were forced to be communists, rather than armenians, georgians or russians. >> this dance is unique. it is traditionally performed in wartime, before combat. these cadets are still in training, but others here have first-hand experience after several wars against azerbaijan. >> it's such a shame we're always at war. i wish we'd just -- both sides, theirs and ours that we could stop this hate, because hate doesn't lead anywhere. >> many here think it's just a matter of time before tensions boil over again. but for tonight, this dance school is filled with unity and joy. >> that's it from us for today. on behalf of the whole team here at focus on europe, thanks for watching, stay safe, and

see you next time. ♪

02/23/23 02/23/23 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> the one-year mark of russia's invasion of ukraine stands as a milestone for the people of ukraine and for the international community. that invasion is an affront to our collective conscious, are violations of the united nations charter and interon