Balkans

In 2022, the EU announced plans to fund a new detention unit within the grounds of a Temporary Reception Centre near Bosnia’s north-western border with Croatia. In recent months, however, significant confusion and controversy has emerged surrounding the centre. In November 2022, the EU’s Neighbourhood and Enlargement Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi …

Statements by officials in Belgrade, Pristina, and in the West are full of demands to calm the tension in the north of Kosovo and Metohija, even though political and security moves are being made on the ground that go beyond the wildest ideas of “masterminds” from the Surrealist Top List …

The surveillance scandal made headlines but did not hurt the Greek government at the ballot box. Experts say this reflects a general ambivalence about privacy violations in the digital era.Whatever information Thanasis Koukakis had been sharing with his readers, it was not quite enough. Someone wanted more. Twice in the …

The cancellation of a joint meeting between the two governments due to the tense situation in Kosovo’s Serb-majority north has further damaged already frayed relations between Albin Kurti and Edi Rama.The final steps to organize the ninth annual joint meeting between Kosovo’s and Albania’s governments were still being taken late …

The recent escalation in Kosovo demonstrates the US and the EU have adopted a dangerous strategy of appeasing expansionist Belgrade. Images of pipe-wielding and stone-throwing Serb militant nationalists assaulting NATO peacekeepers in the northern Kosovo town of Zvecan in late May put the Balkan country in the international spotlight once …

The Balkans is a part of the European continent that can be divided into the Eastern Balkans and the Western Balkans. In the last two decades, some countries in the region are members of the European Union, some are members of NATO, and some are on the verge of joining …

Democracy and legality haven’t solved the problem so the US must also rely on humanity, reality, self-interest, and sheer common sense. In the appallingly complicated politics of the western Balkans, one thing at least is abundantly clear: that without the presence of Western troops, and the threat of NATO military …

With the West focused on Ukraine, Russia is taking the opportunity to nibble away at NATO’s borders and to sow discord. The impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on the Balkans can only be understood by considering Moscow’s malign influence in the region from a broader perspective. While Russia has …

There was, once upon a time, a communist, with an Orthodox religion background, but who could not publicly admit that, until 1990. Prior to 1990, he was an atheist, a young communist who was focused on developing a socialist community at the local level as the youngest ever Chairman of …

Violence flared in northern Kosovo last week between ethnic Serbs and NATO’s peacekeeping mission, KFOR. The clashes left NATO troops injured, Serbia emboldened, Kosovo weakened, Russia empowered, and the transatlantic community divided.