Interview

Israeli violence against Palestinians has increased in frequency and intensity over the last year. In Fenikspod’s most recent episode, Dana El Kurd from the University of Richmond talks about the Palestinian issue and Palestinian activism within the context of recent developments. She also discusses how to address the issue and how Israeli-Arab rapprochement might affect Palestinians.

Germany’s reluctance to take on a more active role in the conflict in Ukraine has become an issue of public debate. In the latest episode of FeniksPod’s Atlantic Series, Dr. Mehmet Yegin spoke with Dr. Nele Marianne Ewers-Peters from Leuphana University of Lueneburg. Dr. Evers-Peters discussed Germany’s reaction to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the impact it has had on NATO-EU relations.

Chatham House’s Mathieu Boulegue told FeniksPod’s Atlantic Series that Russia has been using the Ukraine crisis to extort Western concessions in what has become the greatest test to European and global security since the Cold War.

Europeanization had once been the starting point of Turkey’s relations with the Balkans, but over the last decade both have drifted away from the EU orbit. Ahmet Erdi Ozturk and Basak Alpan explain how and why on FeniksPod’s Balkan and EU Series.

After years of crisis, President Erdogan has decided to repair Turkey’s relations with Israel and Egypt, but it won’t be easy. Louis Fishman, an expert on Turkey and the Middle East, explains why on FeniksPod’s Middle East Series.

The Turkish government fails to produce comprehensive green policies amid worsening environmental crises. In a recent report, environmental researcher Gokce Sencan and her colleagues at the Ivme Movement urge the Turkish government to act before it’s too late.

Bulgaria will likely form a government after its third round of snap elections this Sunday. The country’s ethnic Turks are hoping to use their performance to influence the presidential pick.

In her recent interview with FeniksPod, former Deputy Foreign Minister of Afghanistan Naheed Esar points outs that Afghan women were the first to take to the streets against Taliban rule. She notes that women’s resistance will continue, making it more difficult for the Taliban to provide stability despite its ability to maintain security in the country.

While Montenegro, a tiny Balkan country on Adriatic coast, was hit by violent events and political crises evoked by the new head of the Serbian church in Montenegro, Metropolitan Joanikije’s ceremony in Cetinje, the former capital city of the country we spoke to Ljubomir Filipovic, Executive Coordinator of Civil Initiative May 21 and a political analyst at Café del Montenegro.

With the 2016 EU-Turkey refugee deal coming to an end, the next agreement should be more comprehensive as Turkey grapples with an influx of Afghan refugees amid domestic economic downturn and a wave of political polarization that places refugees front and center.