Balkanalysis.com

By Ioannis Michaletos in Athens Water management is attracting the attention of businessmen in Greece, especially when it is related to the water cycle and energy production. Dams, water transmission pipelines, water depots, and seawater desalination plants are all included in the five-year plan that the Karamanlis administration has relayed recently to the press, as [...]

By Ioannis Michaletos in Athens Greek businesses today are increasingly looking into the prospects of further investments into waste management and possible applications for the bio-fuels industry. Already, some of the bigger companies are making plans for incorporating bio-fuel production into their portfolios, and the general trend towards renewable energy sources and the generous state [...]

Editor’s note: this special report comes to us from Dr. Jonathan Harris of Royal Holloway, University of London. It recounts the proceedings of an absorbing workshop recently held at London’s Hellenic Centre, which brought members of the general public into contact with some of the world’s leading experts on Byzantium- this time, in the unique [...]

By Ioannis Michaletos in Athens The electricity sector in Greece has expanded recently, and remains characterized by substantial profits made by companies due to the high system marginal prices. Currently there are several companies active in electricity trade in the country that mainly deal in imports of electricity from the Balkans and Italy to Greece. [...]

Population Exchange in Greek Macedonia: the Rural Settlement of Refugees 1922-1930 By Elisabeth Kontogiorgi Clarendon Press (Oxford) 2006 Reviewed by Melina Grizo* Over a decade ago, an anthropological study of Greek Macedonia conducted by scholar Anastasia Karakasidou resulted in violent reactions from Greek nationalists, and also generated great interest among the community of Balkan researchers. [...]

(Balkanalysis.com Research Service)- The first New Year’s gift of 2009 to the citizens of many Balkan countries has come in the form of the season’s first significant snowfall, blanketing large areas in Macedonia, northern Greece, Serbia, Kosovo, Bulgaria and Albania. In the Macedonian capital of Skopje, some 16cm of snow has accumulated in the past [...]

by Ioannis Michaletos in Athens Perception of an emerging Southeastern European electricity market is providing impetus for the creation of new companies seeking to take advantage of regional trade, and especially an increase in demand. In this pursuit, Greek and Italian interests are proving especially active. Already, the Italian energy company Edison has made the [...]

Professor Victor Friedman is one of the world’s foremost experts on Balkan languages, and has been studying them for almost four decades, since 1993 as a linguist at the University of Chicago. Professor Friedman has a special place in his heart for Macedonia, which he first visited in 1971. This year finds him back in [...]

By Ioannis Michaletos in Athens Editor’s note: the following exclusive repo, by longtime Balkanalysis.com contributor Ioannis Michaletos, analyzes new Greek government initiatives in countering pervasive fuel smuggling- and how deeply entrenched this practice is with other kinds of organized crime in Greece and the Balkans. ………………………………….. The Greek government recently began a significant law enforcement [...]

(Balkanalysis.com Research Service)- At a special press conference at 4pm today in Skopje, Macedonian Minister of Foreign Affairs Antonio Milososki announced that the government has opened a case against Greece at the International Court of Justice in the Hague. At issue is Greece’s blocking of Macedonian NATO membership at the alliance’s April summit, which occurred [...]