Balkans

Gruevski’s Carefree Days in Hungary Perhaps Nearing an End

A change in government in Hungary could spell the end of a comfortable exile for North Macedonia’s fugitive ex-prime minister, but extraditing Nikola Gruevski would take more than political will alone.

Afugitive from justice in his home country of North Macedonia, and a political asylum seeker in Hungary under the protection of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban: for the past three years, that’s been the life of former authoritarian prime minister Nikola Gruevski, who fled a jail sentence in North Macedonia in 2018.

Turkey’s Pragmatic Policy in the Balkans has its Limits

The Recent crisis in Bosnia has highlighted the adaptability – and limitations – of Turkish policy in the Balkans.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently hosted in Ankara Milorad Dodik, the Serbian member of Bosnia’s tripartite presidency, to discuss the political crisis in Bosnia triggered by Dodik’s threat to abandon state institutions. At the beginning of November, Bosnia’s Bosniak leader, Bakir Izetbegovic, visited Erdogan in Istanbul to address the same issue.

Russia Establishes Its Modus Operandi In Bosnia and Herzegovina – Analysis

The latest session of the UN Security Council only reaffirmed once again the crisis caused in Bosnia and Herzegovina by the actions of the Serb Member of the BiH Presidency Milorad Dodik (SNSD) with the assistance of the Russian Federation. At the same time, no concrete solutions and conclusions were offered nor attempts made to prevent separatist actions aimed to annul the Dayton[2] peace agreement and destroy the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina. There is a silent generally accepted opinion that “an armed conflict of low intensity is possible in BiH”, which is an indication that the strongest global powers have already developed their military plans as well. Once again, aconflict in BiH would be an international conflict- this time with the assistance of NATO and the Russian Federation. In fact, the prolongation of introduction of concrete measures that would provide for political elimination and criminal processing of Milorad Dodik and several of his “executors” is a proof of the seriousness of the situation. Bosnia and Herzegovina could become a new hotspot, which could endanger the security of entire Europe.

Political Exhaustion Weighs on Voters in Third Bulgaria Poll

While the November 14 presidential election looks like a shoo-in for the incumbent Radev, the general election on the same day looks harder to call

Bulgaria is closing an unprecedented year: by the end of 2021, its citizens will have voted in no less than four elections: inconclusive general elections in April and in July, yet another general election on November 14 and, on the same day, presidential elections scheduled by default for 2021.

In Serbia, Justice Gets an Early Release

The release of the convicted war criminal Sreten Lukic and his return to Serbia highlights how the Belgrade authorities are still doing nothing to prosecute other high-ranking officials for wartime crimes in Kosovo and the subsequent cover-up.

Isaw him only once – in court. But I tracked the results of his work in bones and graves.

Sreten Lukic, Serbia’s head of police for Kosovo during the 1998-99 war, was granted early release from prison last month. He has returned to live in Serbia after serving two-thirds of a 20-year sentence for murder, persecution, deportation, and forcible transfer as crimes against humanity.

Bulgaria deploys 350 troops to stop Syria, Afghan migrants from entering

Bulgaria has deployed 350 troops and military equipment to strengthen controls along its borders with Turkey and Greece to prevent migrant inflows, Reuters reported the Ministry of Defence saying today.

European Union member Bulgaria, which borders Turkey and Greece to the south, has experienced a gradual rise in migrant arrivals since July.

Bulgaria has detained about 6,500 migrants, mainly from Afghanistan and Syria, in the first nine months of the year, three times more than in the same period a year ago, data from the border police showed.

What Will Trigger The Next Balkan Conflict? – OpEd

The current security cap imposed on southeastern Europe is no more durable than predecessors that have come and gone along with their great power overlords since 1878. However, this does not mean that the latest public squabbles in Bosnia and Kosovo are immediate existential threats. Since it became clear that Western policies there were not working well, officials and public intellectuals periodically have issued jeremiads about new conflicts and issued demands for the outsiders to club local miscreants into submission. The prevailing dogma is that approved transatlantic institutions, norms, and behaviors constitute the only possible path forward and that Western “help” is necessary because the ill-intentioned nationalists and benighted populations inhabiting the region cannot do “it” (the bundled Western fantasies of democracy promotion and nation-building) by themselves. The botched Butmir initiative of 2009 that capped serial failures to force constitutional reform on Bosnia was one notable example of this diplomatic and rhetorical pathology.

Greece: “The night of the fire I realized that Europe does not have humanity”

One year ago, Europe’s largest camp for displaced people—Moria camp on the Greek island of Lesbos—was destroyed by several fires that erupted across September 8 and 9, 2020. This tragic event, which left some 12,000 people stranded with no safe place to stay, starkly illustrated the complete failure of the European Union’s (EU) “hotspot” approach to migration.

EU Credibility In Western Balkans Undermined? – Analysis

The EU and Western Balkans countries summit scheduled to take place on 5 and 6 October 2021 in Brdo pri Kranj, Slovenia is a part of strategic cooperation between the European Union and Western Balkans.

The European Union was established as a peace project after the end of World War II and it facilitated establishment of enduring peace and long-term stability in Europe. In the recent history, the Western Balkans region experienced a number of wars, after which fragile and peace and latent stability was established.