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The end of May saw Greek sports teams reach the peak of Europe, with Panathinaikos kicking off the celebrations by winning a seventh EuroLeague basketball title, and Olympiakos following up and becoming the first Greek soccer team to win a European trophy. This high point comes after a year where Greek sports was in the headlines for the wrong reasons, as fan violence was in the spotlight....

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Over 52 years ago Turkey shut down Halki Seminary. Since then, its doors have remained shut. According to a recent report in Karar daily, a Turkish media outlet, Ankara is considering taking steps to reopen the seminary. This isn’t the first time that we’ve heard promises from Turkey that it is going to reopen Halki - including Turkish President Erdogan’s broken promise to President Obama in...

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This week Greece hosted members of the East Med Gas Forum in Athens, where the focus was on existing and future gas projects in the region, the East Med’s importance when addressing concerns over energy security in the broader region, decarbonization, and the green transition. Kostis Geropoulos, the co-founder and director of Energy and Climate Policy and Security at NE Global Media, joins...

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In recent years Greece’s general government debt has exceeded 350 billion euros and its debt-to-GDP ratio reached 160 per cent of GDP in 2023. Despite this, Greece has managed to fully repair its IMF loans and its economic performance has been a bright spot over the past years for the country, outperforming its Eurozone peers. Yiannis Mouzakis, the co-founder and editor of Macropolis.gr, a...

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This month Ankara moved to include the Blue Homeland doctrine, which expresses Ankara’s controversial maritime claims in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Aegean, in Turkish school curriculums. In the meantime, Turkish President Erdogan once again took the opportunity on May 29th, 571 years after the fall of Constantinople, to make reference to conquests of the past, tying them to his vision...

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Over the last year, a number of regional crises - from Ukraine to the Middle East - have taken the international spotlight off Turkey and President Erdogan. Combined with a number of sharp divergences with Western partners over Ankara’s contradictory foreign policy ambitions and rule-of-law deficiencies, it looks like Turkey’s overall standing on the international scene has diminished. That’s...

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Late last week Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama was in the ethnic Greek town of Himare, where he announced the restitution of some 400 titles to homes in the area to residents who have been suing the Albanian state for more than 30 years. Rama’s attempt to reconcile with the Greeks of Himare comes as the town’s mayor elect, Fredi Beleri, remains imprisoned, and for many this gesture does not go...

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With New Democracy set to cement its political dominance in the upcoming European elections, the battle for second place is heating up as SYRIZA and PASOK’s leaders turn up the heat to see who will take on the leading role on Greece’s center-left after the elections. The fight for second place is also viewed by many as a battle of survival for SYRIZA’s Stefanos Kasselakis and PASOK’s Nikos...

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After decades of negotiations and acrimony, Athens and Skopje signed the Prespa Agreement in 2018 that effectively put an end to the Macedonia name dispute and opened the way for North Macedonia to join NATO and start the process toward EU membership. Since the election win of the VMRO-DPMNE in early May, however, its leadership has taken a nationalist turn that could put this deal at risk. Tom...

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Since an economic overhaul in June last year, Turkey’s central bank has increased its main interest rate to 50 per cent from 8.5 per cent in an effort to tame rampant inflation. Despite this, and other steps, Turks continue to face nearly 70 per cent inflation rates, high borrowing costs and cuts in measures that in recent years helped soften the impact of rising prices. Almost a year since...

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Earlier this year Turkey completed the maiden test flight of its prototype Kaan fighter, a development celebrated in Ankara. Is this the groundbreaking achievement Turkish media is claiming, and what does it mean for Turkey’s defense industry? Rebecca Lucas, a senior analyst in defense and security with RAND Europe, and Stuart Dee, a research leader in the defense and security research group at...

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Last week the EU gave the final green light to a landmark overhaul of its migration and asylum policies, ending more than eight years of efforts to rewrite the rulebook. This was followed up by 15 EU states - including frontline states like Greece, Italy, and Cyprus - demanding further measures to tighten the bloc’s asylum policy, including sending asylum seekers to third countries. These moves...

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This week kicked off with Turkish President Erdogan stating that 1000 Hamas members were being treated in Turkey, a comment that Turkish officials tried to walk back, saw The Times report that Hamas may have been planning to establish a base in Turkey, and culminated with the Turkish leader suggesting that Israel would “set its sights” on Turkey if it defeated Hamas in Gaza. Expert Sinan Ciddi...

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Over 70 members of Congress sent a letter to the Biden administration this week, urging it to hold Turkey accountable for the 2017 attack by Erdogan’s security guards against American protesters at Sheridan Circle. Members of Congress are calling on the State Department to press President Erdogan and Turkish authorities on this issue as an essential element for relations between Washington and...

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With European elections on the horizon, Greek political leaders are not only hitting the road to campaign across the country, but are also increasingly leaning into social media platforms in their search for voters. While New Democracy will likely maintain its dominant position in Greek politics, attention is turning to SYRIZA and PASOK, and their battle for second place. International...

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This July, Turkey’s illegal occupation of the northern part of Cyprus will hit the 50-year mark. 2024 also marks another Cypriot “anniversary”, the 2004 rejection of the Annan Plan for the reunification of Cyprus. Endy Zemenides, the Executive Director of the Hellenic American Leadership Council, joins Thanos Davelis to break down why the rejection of the Annan plan needs to be revisited and...

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North Macedonia’s new president, Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova, has sparked a diplomatic crisis with Greece following her decision during her swearing in ceremony to refer to her country simply as “Macedonia” rather than the constitutional name “North Macedonia.” Prime Minister Mitsotakis slammed her decision, warning that further violations of the Prespes Agreement could jeopardize Skopje’s...

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Europe’s political landscape is changing dramatically, with the latest polls predicting that far right parties will gain across the EU in the upcoming European Parliament elections. Amid concerns over the rise of the far-right, radical-right forces are already influencing EU policies. Giorgia Meloni is the prime example, with the Italian prime minister proving pivotal in shaping Europe’s...

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Having been dealt a devastating blow in the municipal elections earlier this year, Turkish President Erdogan - who campaigned tirelessly everywhere and made this election about his rule - is now looking to bounce back. This will undoubtedly have consequences on both domestic and foreign policy. Henri Barkey, the Cohen professor of international relations at Lehigh University and an adjunct...

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Earlier this week Turkey formally opened the monastery of Chora, a former Byzantine church and UNESCO World Heritage Site in Istanbul, as a mosque. The move follows the conversion of the Hagia Sophia into a mosque in 2020, and has drawn international criticism. It also comes as the US Commission on International Religious Freedom once again recommended that Turkey be put on the special watch...

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