Balkans

Greek lawmakers have approved a government plan to purchase advanced fighter jets from France in a three-billion-dollar deal that is expected to infuriate Turkey, amid a dispute with Athens over energy resources in the Mediterranean.

Hostility to Jews has never been a state ideology in Montenegro, and so has never taken root among citizens, Luciano Mose Prelevic tells BIRN. Montenegro is one of few countries in the world where anti-Semitism does not manifest itself in public at all, the Chief Rabbi of Montenegro and Croatia, …

Christmas comments by outspoken Serbian Orthodox bishop Grigorije have fuelled talk of a potential political challenge to Serbia’s ruling Progressives. On January 7, when Orthodox Christians mark Christmas, a Serbian Orthodox bishop in Germany gave an interview to Balkan news outlet NewsMax Adria. His remarks, however, were more political than …

Research shows Orban’s allies exert control over more than 50 per cent of influential media outlets. And that does not mean the rest belongs to the opposition; rather these outlets operate as independent islands, which also act independently of each other.

With an election in June, former Grand Mufti Muamer Zukorlic has landed a powerful blow in the fight for ascendancy in Serbia’s mainly Muslim Sandzak region. Observers, however, say he is being used by the Serbian government.

The latest political pledge to amend Bosnia’s electoral law and constitution in line with rulings by the European Court of Human Rights looks destined to fail. It’s time the institutions of state take the lead, with the help of NGOs, academics and the international community.

Israel and Greece will soon sign a $1.68 billion agreement for the purchase of Israeli jets and the opening of a military flight school operated by an Israeli company. Israel’s Defense Ministry announced this morning that it is set to sign a $1.68 billion security agreement with Greece effective for …

Kosovo experienced a watershed moment in 2020 when four guerrilla leaders who became political heavyweights in the post-war years, including President Hashim Thaci, were sent to stand trial for wartime and post-war crimes. Adecade after explosive allegations were made against Kosovo Liberation Army fighters in a report by Council of …

At a time when the West desperately needs to coordinate its policy towards Bosnia, Berlin’s unilateral push to appoint a new international overseer for the country is a troubling development. Berlin wants to replace Bosnia and Herzegovina’s long-serving High Representative Valentin Inzko – responsible for monitoring implementation of the 1995 …

Razed or ‘restored’ with little regard for their original form, Ottoman-era mosques in a mainly Muslim pocket of Serbia face extinction. In mid-December, a group of men, some of them armed, set up a roadblock at a construction site in the southern Serbian town of Novi Pazar, where an Islamic …