PHOTOGRAPHY: EurasiaNet's 2013 Photos of the Year (eurasianet.org)

(eurasianet.org) Istanbul's city center exploded in protest during the summer, Syria's civil war continued through the year, the targeting of undocumented workers in Russia intensified, and America's use of the Manas airbase in Kyrgyzstan soon comes to an end. These, and hundreds of other stories, were covered by our contributing photojournalists and documentary photographers in 2013. It is through their eyes and by capturing with their cameras that EurasiaNet.org can present unique stories of people, events, and humanity in the South Caucasus, throughout Central Asia, across the Anatolian Plain, and over the rolling steppe of Mongolia.

These images are a look back at EurasiaNet's best photo coverage of news and stories from 2013. Although all of the excellent photos and hard work from our photographers cannot be featured on this select gallery of images, you can review all of our posted Photo Essays hereand our posted Audio Slideshows here.

A fence erected along the border of Georgia and breakaway South Ossetia is disrupting daily life in area villages. (Molly Corso)

Nakhshun Gasparova shows one of the few things she took with her when she fled the Nagorno Karabakh war. (Anahit Hayrapetyan)

The Firuza sanatorium in Borjomi is the only operational spa left almost untouched from the Soviet era. (Justyna Mielnikiewicz)

Women comfort each other during a Tbilisi ceremony memorializing the conflict over Abkhazia. (Justyna Mielnikiewicz)

Georgian soldiers disembark at the Manas Transit Center, in Kyrgyzstan, after a charter flight from Tbilisi. (David Trilling)

A Rustavi steel factory in Georgia is among the major buyers of scrap metal, which is melted and re-used. (Temo Bardzimashvili)

Students with the Tbilisi public school for visually impaired children rehearse for an upcoming concert. (Temo Bardzimashvili)

A history of Borjomi bottles is displayed in the entrance hall of Borjomi Bottling Factory # 2. (Justyna Mielnikiewicz)

War vet Mnats Sarkisian fought for Armenia 25 years ago during the conflict over Nagorno Karabakh. (Anahit Hayrapetyan)

Anton Pilossian pauses behind the curtain before the start of a show of Tbilisi’s 125-year-old circus. (Justyna Mielnikiewicz)

Georgia’s famous Borjomi mineral water winds it way through the Borjomi-Kharagauli National Park. (Justyna Mielnikiewicz)

Scrap metal workers strip rebar from an abandoned factory in Rustavi, Georgia. (Temo Bardzimashvili)