Balkanalysis.com

Archive for December, 2004

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War and the Tsunami: Putting it in Perspective

With a death toll rising above 120,000, and large affected areas still inaccessible to rescuers, the Asian tsunami disaster has become a truly global crisis. Millions from all over the world have been affected, whole industries, villages, even tribes destroyed in an instant. Although the human casualties alone are so far [...]

Balkanalysis.com Wishes Its Readers a Happy New Year

Balkanalysis.com would like to wish its readers a happy new year. Thanks for reading and let’s wish the whole region a peaceful and prosperous 2005.

AMBO Trans-Balkan Pipeline Agreement Finally Signed

Top representatives of Macedonia, Bulgaria and Albania met on Tuesday in Sofia to ink a memorandum of understanding with Ted Ferguson, president of the AMBO (Albania-Macedonia-Bulgaria Oil) pipeline project. The American-based corporation has been struggling since 1994 to get the attention of key political and industrial backers, in order to begin [...]

Albaniaís Strela Missiles Meant for New Macedonian Conflict Zones

When the Albanian newspaper Panorama reported that 3 Strela shoulder-fired missiles, of alleged Bosnian provenance, had been intercepted by the government en route to their final destination with Albanian militants in Macedonia, the interior ministry of the latter state issued a firm denial: “…as a result of the information in certain [...]

Among the Others: Scott Taylor on the Turkmen of Iraq

Among the Others: Encounters with the Forgotten Turkmen of Iraq
By Scott Taylor
Esprit de Corps Books (October, 2004), 208 pp.
Reviewed by Christopher Deliso
In early September, on his last visit to Iraq, Canadian war reporter Scott Taylor was looking forward to delivering some presents: copies of his brand new book, Among [...]

Current Tactics of al Qaeda-linked Groups in Macedonia, Kosovo

A recent interview with European terror expert Claude Moniquet – which states that parts of Macedonia are currently being used by Al Qaeda-linked terrorist “sleeper” cells – is remarkable, in that it is one of the only such admissions to have ever been made by a spokesman for the “international community” [...]

Istanbul Residents React to Turkey-EU Negotiations

By Nese Mesutoglu
After long and difficult negotiations, the European Union has agreed that accession talks can finally begin next year for Turkey.
But what do average Turks think about the developments? A survey of Turks in Istanbul today showed general happiness with the prospect of EU membership, but also reservations and doubts.As everyone [...]

New Government, Old Problems in Macedonia

The Macedonian Parliament today swore in a new government, following weeks of negotiations between Prime Minister Vlade Buckovski and his coalition partners. The new line-up, consisting of figures from the same SDSM-LDP-DUI coalition, features several new faces but also retains several incumbents. While the incoming officials stressed their hope for positive [...]

Journalism Pressure Group Defends Macedonian Media Over Kondovo

An advocacy group of editors, media executives and journalists with a common interest in Balkan journalism has spoken out against the obstructionist tactics employed by Albanian political leaders in Kondovo on 6 December, when journalists were turned back from entering the village during tense negotiations with armed militants.The South East Europe [...]

Albanian Bus Hijacking Raises Unpleasant Issue for Greeks

Television viewers around the world watched a drama unfold in Athens on Wednesday morning, when two unknown hijackers took hostage 26 Greek bus passengers and threatened to detonate the bus. While initial reports suggested that the hijackers might have been Russian, the operation’s quick descent into harmless farce indicated that the [...]

Transforming Turkey’s E-Capacities

By Murat Caglar, Attorney-at-Law
(Note: an author bio and contact info is found at the end of the article).
A new project called “E-Transformation Turkey” has been launched in Turkey. This project aims to bring about the social and economic transformation necessary for adapting to global competition, by means of determining all of [...]

Can Turkey Talk Tough with the EU? (Part 2)

By Christopher Deliso
With the implementation of a wide range of reforms and the pro-European development of Turkish foreign policy, the EU has gradually lost the right to deny Turkey entry to the club, according to the rules it set out from the beginning. The former therefore is scrambling to find new hoops [...]

Can Turkey Talk Tough with the EU? (Part 1)

By Christopher Deliso
In September 1999, when I was first becoming acquainted with the realities of Turkish life, I encountered an American soldier in Istanbul. He had been stationed at Incirlik for some time, knew Turkish, and possessed a keen understanding of the country and its culture. What he told me then, [...]

Readerís Picks: Popular Holiday Books

With the addition of an Amazon.com search box on the right side of our page, the amount and range of Balkan-interest goods purchased through us keeps on growing. While the onset of the holiday shopping season here will mostly be marked by readers seeking intriguing Balkan book gift ideas, we certainly [...]

Turkey Playing Hardball Over EU Campaign

Turkish PM Erdogan is irritating European leaders with his increasingly strong stance of not accepting “any new conditions” in the country’s quest to join the EU. His attitude has been necessitated politically by Turkish frustrations over the seemingly endless list of demands that the flustered Union is putting up, in order [...]

Pilots Not Responsible in Trajkovski Crash, Prosecutor Says

MIA reported Thursday that according to the latest findings of the Skopje Public Prosecutor’s office, pilots Marko Markovski and Branko Ivanovski will not be blamed for the crash that killed President Boris Trajkovski in February.The pilots were at the helm of the Macedonian government’s Beechcraft Super King Air 200 on February [...]

Will Del Ponte Get the Boot Before She Can Start a War?

Serbia’s B-92 reported yesterday that Hague Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte may soon be handed her walking papers. Citing Predrag Pajic of the European Sector of the US Congressional Library, B-02 alleged that she “…is likely to be relieved of her position in the first half of next year.”The peroxide-blonde Swiss matron of [...]

Kondovo: If Government Won’t Do It, Will Macedoniaís People Defend Themselves?

An exasperated recent article from Macedonian professor Dr. Ljubomir Cuculovski asks whether the current standoff in Kondovo represents a mere rerun of the situation in Tanusevci, 2001, the initial wintertime outburst of violence that resulted in a war. There are indeed many similarities. However, there is one big difference: location. [...]

Kosovo Wreaking Havoc with Macedoniaís Security, Still

In the negotiations that brought Macedonia’s 2001 war to an end, Albanian militants were amnestied and took up new jobs in the state administration – some even in the ministry of defense. With the farcical situation now unfolding in Kondovo, you have the lunacy of the same people who benefited in [...]

Crunch Time in Kondovo: West Reacts to Islamic Fears

It was clear that the Western media’s interest in Kondovo was limited to its relation with the failed referendum. However, now that the “rebels” with murky goals are demanding to “negotiate” once again, they will no doubt come back to sympathize with their side. Could we see a new mutation – [...]

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