The recent gunfire, sirens and border closings between the two Balkan countries have raised alarms. Here is an explainer on the region’s complex history.
Sirens sounded for three hours in the town of Mitrovica in northern Kosovo on Sunday, July 31, as Serb protesters blocked roads and shot at local authorities in the Balkan country.
Amidst escalating tension in Kosovo, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said: “No matter how difficult it is, there will be no surrender, Serbia will win,” he stated.
“We do not want conflict and we do not want war,” Vucic said in his speech.
He said: We will pray for peace and seek peace, but let me tell you right away. If they dare to start persecuting, harassing and killing Serbs, Serbia will win.”
With progress still fragile and vulnerable to Russian interference, the US and EU must remain deeply engaged, advancing Euro-Atlantic integration.
International mediation was indispensable to the recent deal between Bulgaria and North Macedonia, allowing the start of EU accession talks between Skopje and Brussels.
Western discussion of the country and the Western Balkans too often focuses on stereotypes about ethnic violence and intolerance – obscuring the real achievements.
Western coverage of Balkan politics too often focuses on the region’s challenges. Often this discussion is tied up with stereotypes about intolerance or violence. These stereotypes have been called “Balkanist” by a number of regional scholars. Discussion of the region in these terms obscures its successes.
Western discussion of the country and the Western Balkans too often focuses on stereotypes about ethnic violence and intolerance – obscuring the real achievements.
Albania’s former President Ilir Meta’s return to frontline politics did not come as a surprise to anyone, but some doubt that his newly rebranded party will be able to compete successfully with well-entrenched Prime Minister Edi Rama.
he rallies against acceptance of the French proposal for lifting Bulgaria’s blockade on North Macedonia’s EU talks draw on discontent felt across the political spectrum.
A new book tells the rarely-heard stories of Kosovo Albanians who were detained in grim conditions on the Croatian island of Goli Otok (Barren Island), a prison camp for political dissidents in the former Yugoslavia.
“When I arrived there, it was a very cold day and I was taken immediately to solitary confinement in a dark and frozen cell,” said Fadil Bajraktari, recalling the day in 1984 when he was sent to a detention camp on an isolated island off the coast of Croatia.
Hundreds of women and children who escaped war in Ukraine have found a welcoming place to stay on the coast of a country they knew little about before the war.
All that remains of Olha Yatsenko’s home in Irpin, a town north of Kyiv with a pre-war population of 60,000 inhabitants, are some photos of her brown-coloured furniture and white cups.
Returnees to Kosovo from former Islamic State territory in Syria and Iraq face slim prospects of finding work and only limited support from the state.
Within days of returning to her native Kosovo, N was racked by fear of the challenges that awaited her and her son – fear of financial uncertainty and of how her community would greet her.