Tag: European Union

Nearly every summer, tensions between Turkey and Greece rise in step with national elections on either side of the Aegean; this time, however, both countries’ nationalistic discourses are reaching an unprecedented fever pitch.

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.

Ukraine was lured by the West for many years, but in its time of greatest need it was betrayed. Instead of protecting it militarily against the Russian invasion, the West has only been willing to engage the aggressor in economic warfare.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine incentivizes Berlin and Ankara to recalibrate their bilateral relations, but Scholz’s visit to Turkey isn’t the harbinger of a breakthrough.

A recently published academic article explains the nature of contemporary Bosnian-Turkish relations as a collision of myth and reality.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine may create new fronts within Europe’s most fragile region. Throughout the Balkans, pro-Russian groups have eagerly awaited a Russian agenda that could topple current regional peace and security dynamics.

While Ankara’s relations with the West have soured in recent years, its relations with Moscow have come to a more stable footing. Nonetheless, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine may cause Turkey to reassess its adversarial approach to old Western partners.

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.

EU inaction, stalled accessions, and government divergence from EU reform have created “stabilitocracies” in the Western Balkans. This poses a significant test for the EU’s role as a promoter of democracy in the region, says a recent report by the Netherlands’ Clingendael think-tank.

Representatives of the pro-ethnic Turkish party in Bulgaria and associations Turkish migrants from Bulgaria in Turkey encouraged all dual Turkish-Bulgarian citizens living in Turkey to go to the polls. The main motivation behind this enthusiastic call was to display in no uncertain terms the true homeland of Bulgaria’s Turkish minority.