A leading Arab world observer visits the Museum

On 26 March Abdel Bari Atwan, the founder of several independent pan-Arab media, an Arab world’s authority visited the temporary exhibition of the Museum. He met with Valters Nollendorfs, Chairman of OMB Board of Directors. 

The Museum was Mr. Atwan's first stop in Riga after his late-evening arrival. He showed particular interest in Latvian resistance to occupation and the Singing Revolution in the Baltic. He referred to them in his lecture in the Great Hall of the University of Latvia on the following day. His visit to Riga was organized by the Latvian Virotherapy Center and co-sponsored by the Latvian Institute and the University of Latvia.

Abdel Bari Atwan has been the editor-in-chief of the London-based independent Arab newspaper Al Quds Al Arabi for 25 years. As of 2007, the paper has grown into one of the major pan-Arab dailies and is known for its strident nationalist and idealistic position. It has been banned and censored repeatedly in several Arab countries for their governments’ vocal criticisms. Abdel Bari Atwan has become a well-known Arab public figure and is a regular guest on the news discussion programme Dateline London on BBC World, as well as on Sky News, Al Jazeera English, CNN World, and on several Arabic-language networks. He has contributed numerous opinion editorials to a variety of English newspapers including The Guardian, The Mail on Sunday, The Scottish Herald and others; he writes regularly for Gulf News and Turkish Star Gazette.

Abdel Bari Atwan has also written several books, of which the latest are After Bin Laden: Al-Qa'ida, the Next Generation and A Country of Words: a Palestinian Journey from the Refugee Camp to the Front Page.