Handcuffed by a ‘necessary’ IMF loan that has forced stringent austerity measures on a country that continues to struggle from the lagging effects of war, Bosnia once again finds itself caught in the middle of competing agendas. As Serbia warms towards Moscow after alienation from Brussels over the issue of Kosovo and accession, ethnic tensions have begun to simmer once …
What is Turkey doing in Serbia?
Erdogan’s visit to Serbia late in 2017 was received with much pomp. The Serbians were clearly happy to receive him and the Turks were just as pleased with the warm bilateral relations reflected in agreements that will see a significant increase in trade. So what brings about this rapprochement between two historic rivals? And what drives Erdogan to risk the …
Strangling the Balkans: The Price for Europe
Contrary to popular belief, the main obstacle to the economic development of these countries is in fact the restrictive policies of the European Commission and the IMF
The ‘Butcher of Bosnia’ jailed for 40 years
The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia found former Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic guilty on Thursday of some of the worst atrocities in Europe since World War II. (the precise charges are listed at the end of the article). Karadzic and other Serb leaders effectively conducted a regimented and systematic ethnic cleansing of Bosniak (Muslim) and Croat people …
War, Politics, and Football: Albania’s journey to Europe
“When I first started playing for Albania 12 years ago, I never thought this day would come but we always tried and have now managed to do it thanks to the willpower of this group, this fine generation of players…” – Albania captain Lorik Cana “This qualification is historic. We did not deserve the defeats at home [to Portugal and …
The Haunting Spectre of Genocide still looms over the Balkans
July 11th marks the 20th anniversary of the genocide in Srebrenica, where over 8,000 men and boys were slaughtered by Bosnian Serbs. This was one of the final heinous acts of the three and a half year Bosnian War which claimed hundreds of thousands of lives. This war, along with the other Yugoslav Wars in the 1990s, has fundamentally shaped …
Srebrenica 20 years on
20 years ago Europe was gripped by one of the most divisive wars in its arduous history. The Balkans, a melting pot notorious for ethnic conflict over centuries, was the site of a deadly war that ripped apart the fabric of a society in dire need of stability. Post-Tito life in Yugoslavia had given rise to an array of ethnic …