Balkans

Greek Consulate in Benghazi opened

A Greek delegation headed by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs for Economic Affairs, Kostas Fragogiannis, accompanied by the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for Economic Affairs, a member of the Greek Parliament, the Greek Ambassador to Libya and the Greek Consul in Benghazi visited Benghazi Municipality, where …

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HOW POLAND LOST ITS FOREIGN POLICY COMPASS

Recent weeks have demonstrated that Poland is rudderless and bobbing around on the waves of international politics with no clear course. Poland’s foreign policy can’t find its compass. The Western world is about to experience a redistribution in the global game, but Warsaw is more disoriented than ever. When it …

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Covert Operations: Unravelling Serbian Officials’ Links to Paramilitaries

As the UN court prepares to rule on whether the Serbian State Security Service chiefs Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic illegally controlled wartime paramilitary units, BIRN looks at how they were deployed in the Croatian and Bosnian conflicts. Asenior official from the Serbian State Security Service, Franko ‘Frenki’ Simatovic, arrived …

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Kosovo War Crimes Court’s First Trial Will Set a Precedent

After a six-year wait, the first trial at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague will open on September 15, with former Kosovo Liberation Army officer Salih Mustafa facing charges of illegally detaining, torturing and killing prisoners. It was announced last week that the first trial at the Kosovo Special …

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DEMOCRACY DIGEST: V4 DRAGGED INTO HUNGARY’S EU GAY RIGHTS SPAT

Hungary began the week at odds with the EU and ended the week even more so, dragging in its Central European neighbours along the way. EU leaders began a two-day summit on June 24 in Brussels having to deal with the fallout from Hungary’s recently passed anti-LGBT legislation – a …

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Stanisic and Simatovic, Belgrade’s Security Strongmen

Former Serbian state security officials Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic will hear the judgment in The Hague this week in their retrial for masterminding the most notorious Serb combat units that fought in the Croatian and Bosnian wars. “Milosevic’s men on the ground” was the most common description of these …

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La Hongrie accusée par Bruxelles: «L’opposition entre les deux Europe est plus affirmée que jamais»

La Commission européenne prévoit d’engager une procédure pour sanctionner la Hongrie après l’adoption d’une loi interdisant la «promotion» de l’homosexualité auprès des mineurs. L’essayiste Max-Erwann Gastineau voit dans cette controverse à l’échelle européenne un nouvel épisode d’une guerre culturelle. Une fois de plus, la Hongrie est le grand théâtre de …

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Ingyenbátorság

Gratismut, azaz ingyenbátorság. Ez a német közbeszéd józan részének kedvenc szava az elmúlt napokban E roppant találó kifejezést az olyan úgymond bátor kiállásokra használják, amikor az embert lényegében semmilyen kockázat, negatív következmény nem fenyegeti. A Németországot szivárványba borító hisztéria pontosan ebbe a kategóriába tartozik, nagyvállalatok, újságok, politikusok és hírességek egymás …

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Biden’s Balkans Order Underscores US Concern over Region’s Direction

The threat of US sanctions hangs over those deemed to be destabilising the Western Balkans, in politics and beyond. Who does Washington have in mind? An expanded executive order issued by US President Joe Biden and which takes aim at those deemed to be destabilising the Western Balkans is a …

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