Balkans

On August 20, two Russians and a Ukrainian were arrested in Albania as they tried to enter a defunct military factory in the city of Gramsci. According to Albanian authorities, the detainees were trying to film the factory, and one of them, Mikhail Zorin, sprayed a “nerve-paralytic” substance in a …

While Greece shares some demographic characteristics with richer Western European countries, it is also converging in terms of its worst problems with the Balkans. Shrinking, ageing, emigrating: Greece’s demographic woes get worse by the year and its leaders are painfully aware of them. They are a “ticking time bomb,” said …

Latest Turkish-Greek war of words linked to electoral campaigns Turkish Greek bickering continued apace this week with Erdogan repeating his stock threats about descending on Turkey’s foes “unexpectedly in the night,” spurring further overwrought takes on how the two NATO allies might slip into war.

TÜRKIYE-GREECE President Erdoğan accused Athens of militarising what should be demilitarised Eastern Aegean islands, threatened to “do what was necessary”, and warned of a “heavy price” should Greece harass Turkish F-16 fighter jets. The latter warning follows Ankara’s accusation that Greece in August used the Russian-supplied S300 air defence system …

The Turkish and Greek foreign ministers write dueling letters to key international actors as leaders exchange barbs after Erdogan’s one-liner that Turkey “can come suddenly one night.” The volatile waters of the Aegean Sea heated up again as Athens and Ankara sent dueling letters to the United Nations, the European …

Albanian counter-terrorism police searched the empty Iranian embassy in Tirana on Thursday, hours after Iranian diplomats burned papers inside the premises following the severing of diplomatic ties over a cyberattack.

In September last year, when the mother and younger brother of Greek-Nigerian NBA star Giannis Antetokounmpo were granted honorary Greek citizenship in a special ceremony in Athens, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis was in attendance. When historian Mark Mazower received the honour in January, Interior Minister Makis Voridis was present, while …

What always astonishing me was and it is a double face and hypocrisy of exactly every politician on the political scene on the area of former Socialist Federal Republic Yugoslavia (SFRJ or just ex-Yugoslavia). Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Kosovo…, are the places where live people …

Premier Mitsotakis gibt sich als Reformer, der Griechenland saniert. Tatsächlich regiert er zunehmend wie ein Autokrat. Die EU muss einschreiten. Diesen Sommer haben Millionen Europäerinnen und Europäer wieder die hellen Seiten Griechenlands erlebt, die Sonne, die Strände, die Gastfreundschaft. Griechenland ist eines der beliebtesten Ziele für Touristinnen und Touristen in …

Η χθεσινή παρουσία του πρωθυπουργού στη Βουλή ήταν τραγική. Κι αυτό γιατί ήταν ομολογία και αποκάλυψη της απόλυτης πολιτικής παρακμής. Ο άνθρωπος που διοικεί τη χώρα δεν ήταν σε θέση να εγγυηθεί τη δημοκρατική νομιμότητα, απέφυγε να δώσει ουσιαστικές και πειστικές απαντήσεις στα καίρια ερωτήματα της αντιπολίτευσης, κατέφευγε διαρκώς σε …