The Greek prime minister’s visit to the United Arab Emirates comes amid tensions both states have with Turkey. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) welcomed Greece’s head of government for an official visit today. The two states signed a foreign policy and defense agreement as their mutual tensions with Turkey in …
Read More »Turkey’s Defence Industry Grows, with Western Help
Turkey is touting its domestic defence industry, but its expansion remains dependent on Western know-how. Acall by Greece last month for its European Union partners to consider an arms embargo on Turkey in a standoff over maritime boundaries in the Eastern Mediterranean has highlighted the growing collaboration between the Turkish …
Read More »Dayton 2.0: Deal that Ended Bosnian War Needs Rewriting, But How?
Twenty-five years ago, a peace deal crafted at a United States air base in Ohio ended the Bosnian war. Today, nobody likes it, but in a politically-divided country, agreement on any reform will be tough to reach. Some want it rewritten, smoothing Bosnia’s path to membership of the European Union. …
Read More »From Bulgaria, Connecting Refugees to Remote AI Jobs around the World
A Bulgarian startup has found remote work in the AI industry for hundreds of refugees in the Balkans and the Middle East. Two years into the Syrian war, in 2013, Shyar Ali fled his native Aleppo, ending up in a refugee camp in Iraq where he worked as a labourer …
Read More »Greece protests Turkey's new Navtex
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has responded to Turkey’s issuing of a new navigational warning (Navtex) extending the presence of research vessel Oruc Reis in the Mediterranean, including areas within Greece’s continental shelf, until November 14.
Read More »Balkans Become Unlikely Bridgehead In Europe For U.S.'s Anti-China Push
Romania’s announcement that the country would ban Chinese tech giant Huawei from its networks was the latest move to roll back China’s dominance in cutting-edge 5G telecommunication in Central and Southeastern Europe.
Read More »Officials’ Trial Could Verify Serbia’s Role in Croatian, Bosnian Wars
As the retrial of two top wartime officials of Serbia’s State Security Service enters its final phase, the verdict could establish the facts of Belgrade’s much-denied direct involvement in the 1990s conflicts in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. “Do you recognise the person we are looking at?”
Read More »Troubled Relationship: Kosovo’s Thaci and the Hague War Crimes Court
President Hashim Thaci’s uneasy relationship with the Kosovo Specialist Chambers has gone through many phases over the past five years. Accusations from the prosecution in The Hague last week that Thaci has been seeking to undermine the ‘Special Court’ are only the latest chapter in a story that has seen …
Read More »‘Serb-Hating Bieberhausen’: What the Slurs Say about Serbia’s Ruling Party
Baron Bieberhausen. A lonely dinosaur of a past era. Candeid fruit. These are some of the wittier terms Serbia’s president and leader of the ruling Progressive Party of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, has used to describe me in press releases, tweets and TV appearances over the past year. The less flattering …
Read More »London Calling: Albanians Count Cost of UK Illegality
By the time he was 14 years old, nine of Besi Handroj’s classmates had left their homes in the northern Albanian region of Puka for the United Kingdom. In 2014, aged 15, Handroj decided to join them, dreaming of a ride on the London Eye and a career that would …
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