July 21, 2009 Balkan News, Eurasia News, Turkey
NICOSIA, Cyprus Greek Cypriots are refusing to speed up negotiations to reunify the island and won’t until the international community exerts pressure on them, Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat told a press conference Saturday (July 18th). While Turkey is actively supporting ongoing efforts to find a solution to the …
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July 21, 2009 Balkan News, Eurasia News, Turkey
ATHENS, Greece Athens and Nicosia have reacted sharply to Turkey’s decision authorising the Turkish Petroleum Corporation to launch an oil exploration project in the Mediterranean Sea, Greek media reported on Monday (July 20th). Last week, Ankara announced that a Turkish vessel will start exploring hydrocarbon resources in four areas off …
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July 21, 2009 Balkan News, Eurasia News
ATHENS, Greece The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Friday (July 17th) it is suspending its participation in advisory committees examining asylum requests in Greece to protest newly adopted rules on granting asylum.
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July 21, 2009 Balkan News, Bosnia Hertegovina, Eurasia News
A year after the wartime president of Republika Srpska was arrested, war victims and legal analysts in Bosnia say it is high time for his trial to begin. Exactly one year since the arrest of Radovan Karadzic in Belgrade, it is still unknown when his trial, considered by many as …
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July 21, 2009 Balkan News, Eurasia News, Macedonia
According to the latest survey done by the US-based International Republican Institute, IRI, Macedonian citizens, on average, give their country 6.2 years to enter the European Union. Therefore, they expect Macedonia to enter the EU sometime in 2015.Public support for Macedonia’s NATO entrance remains high at around 93 percent, the …
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July 21, 2009 Balkan News, Eurasia News
Civilian possession of illicit weapons remains a serious problem in Kosovo and the region, Saferworld said in a press conference in Pristina on Tuesday. According to a new Saferworld report, around 350,000 illicit small arms and light weapons remain in private possession in households across the country. Kosovo is currently …
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July 21, 2009 Balkan News, Bosnia Hertegovina, Eurasia News
The Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) religious leadership and media and many European officials and politicians warn that the EU’s visa-liberalisation plan could lead to the radicalisation of Muslims in Europe and seriously destabilize the entire region. “Bosniaks feel squeezed into a corner from which they do not see a way out. …
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July 21, 2009 Balkan Press, Bosnia Hertegovina, Eurasia Press, Special Reporters
Genocide, mass graves, excavations, bags of bones, endless burials, denials despite the facts, politics and a general lack of humanity continue to characterize the annual 11 July Srebrenica memorial services, Anes Alic comments for ISN Security Watch. The bulk of news on Bosnia in the western media since the war …
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July 20, 2009 Balkan News, Bosnia Hertegovina, Eurasia News
Tensions are running high in Mostar, in southern Bosnia and Herzegovina, following the murder of a member of a local radical Muslim Wahhabi sect. “The town is still tense,” Mostar journalist Mirsad Behram told Balkan Insight on Monday. Local police are continuing their investigation into the incident, which took place …
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July 20, 2009 Balkan News, Eurasia News, Macedonia
Macedonia will present evidence against neighbouring Greece to the International Court of Justice in The Hague, ICJ, on Monday.At the end of last year, the country submitted a complaint against Greece for breaching a 1995 UN-brokered Interim Accord on the “name” row. The prolonged row escalated when Athens, a veteran …
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