The war in Syria has created tensions in Bulgaria’s Syrian community, one of the largest in Eastern Europe, and given some members a pretext to seek asylum elsewhere.
As protests swept Syria in 2011, Abu Kamal’s famous kebab restaurant in the heart of Sofia felt like an outpost of the revolution.
Abstract
Since the emergence of the Islamic State (The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant ISIL, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria ISIS) in early 2014, different countries have followed different paths in dealing with the problem of their citizens who have joined ISIS and have then tried to return to their home countries.
For the families of Albanian men who died fighting for Islamic State, the pain and uncertainty drag on.
Salushe Seferi’s ordeal began in 2013, when her daughter, Ruzhdie Balliu, left Albania for Syria. It ended, of sorts, eight years later in July 2021, when Ruzhdie was repatriated to a shelter in Durres, on the coast. Seferi, however, still suffers the scars of a war that was not hers. And she’s not alone.
Did social networks change a young plumber from normal Muslim believer to radical Islamist – or are Albania’s authorities over-reacting to a non-existent threat?
At sunset on August 2, Bledar Zeneli and his father were attending the Aksham Namaz, one of five daily prayers of Muslim believers, when police came knocking at the door of their home in a newly developed area on the outskirts of Durres, Albania second largest town and main seaport.
The Iranian cyberattack on Albania earlier this year threatened to paralyze public services and digital systems, hack into state records and further sow chaos.
Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama arrived in Israel on Sunday to strengthen his country’s cyber defense after a series of attacks from Iran that led his country to cut ties with Tehran.
Evidence in terrorism cases is proving difficult to find, while experts warn that the reintegration and rehabilitation of foreign fighters is an even greater challenge.
Since the mid-1990s, more than 200 people have been sentenced to more than 1,100 years in prison in six Western Balkans countries for terrorist acts, or for leaving to fight in a foreign war, according to BIRN analysis.
Războiul din Ucraina ar trebui să ne aducă aminte că primul conflict fratricid pe continentul nostru, după ultima mare conflagrație, a fost în Balcani, o regiune care a intrat în istoria modernă cu numele de ,,butoiul cu pulbere al Europei’’. Bagajul său istoric încă atârnă greu și astăzi iar recursul la valorile păcii și stabilității început acum mai bine de un sfert de secol este departe de a se fi încheiat.
Arhitectura intereselor Chinei în regiune – cauze și efecte. Pătrunderea Chinei în Balcanii de Vest este unul dintre primele 2-3 fenomene care compun matricea geopolitică europenă din ultimii 10-15 ani, ca de altfel și extinderea prezenței economice a Beijingului în vestul continentului nostru.
Former prime minister Boyko Borissov won the fourth parliamentary election in 18 months but is now finding it difficult to sell his anti-Putin coalition proposal as parties are concerned over his party’s poor record on corruption.
Russia says that European sanctions block the energy transfer to Turkiye and Balkan region, Reuters reports.
According to the report, the Russian operator of a pipeline that supplies Turkiye and the Balkans with natural gas, South Stream Transport B.V, would suspend some maintenance and repair work, citing European Union sanctions, a move that threatens to deepen Europe’s energy crisis.