TURKEY Turkey has begun restoring names of Kurdish villages and is considering allowing religious sermons to be made in Kurdish as part of reforms to answer the grievances of the ethnic minority and advance its EU candidacy. Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has said his government will push democratic reforms to …

SERBIA, ALBANIA Belgrade-Tirana relations can sharpen after Sali Berisha’s statement about national unity of Albanians in the mother land and Kosovo, representative of the Ministry for Kosovo and Metohija in the Serbian government Oliver Ivanovic said. Tirana’s official response to Belgrade’s protest note about “cooperation between Republic of Albania and …

BULGARIA The Belene nuclear power project is not vital for Bulgaria’s energy security, Energy Minister Traicho Traikov said. In an interview with bTV, he downplayed speculation that the country must bring the proposed station onstream if it is to guarantee supplies by 2020. If it builds capacity at the coal-fired …