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Late last week a bipartisan group of lawmakers in the House of Representatives introduced a piece of legislation that would redesignate Turkey as a Near Eastern country at the State Department, rather than a European country. The legislation followed a hearing in the House on Turkey, where serious concerns about Turkey’s role as a US and NATO ally were expressed. Endy Zemenides, HALC’s...

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Turkey’s Erdogan has once again played up his country’s importance on the world stage - especially when it comes to defense issues - telling Europeans that their security is “unthinkable without Turkey.” These comments come despite Ankara’s well documented and aggressive moves in the region, from the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean to the Caucasus. Michael Rubin, the director of policy...

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Despite the Trump administration’s 90-day freeze on foreign aid, the State Department announced it was unfreezing $95 million in military assistance to Lebanon. The move is seen as a vote of confidence from the US in the new political order emerging in Lebanon, and in its efforts to continue to degrade Hezbollah. Steven Howard, the Director of Policy and Outreach at the American Task Force on...

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Last week, a fake news report claiming the US was going to ditch Alexandroupoli put the northern Greek port city in the spotlight. This report even reached the Oval Office, where President Trump quickly shut down the story. In the wake of the story, Kathimerini recently took a deep dive into the numbers, looking at how Alexandroupoli has become an essential hub for both commercial and military...

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Germany’s recent election paved the way for the leader of the opposition conservative Christian Democrats, Friedrich Merz, to take over as chancellor once coalition talks wrap up. The election is also raising broader questions about German and European politics, with the far-right AfD making big gains, while the question remains whether Merz is up to the challenge given the new geopolitical...

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Last week Abdullah Ocalan, the imprisoned leader of the PKK, called on the movement to lay down its arms and dissolve. Ocalan’s historic announcement has many hoping that it will bring an end to nearly 4 decades of conflict between Ankara and the country’s Kurds. On Friday, Thanos Davelis spoke to Giran Ozcan, the Executive Director of the Kurdish Peace Institute and a former representative of...

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On Wednesday President Trump said the EU was formed to “screw the United States,” then announced he would hit the EU with 25% tariffs. This has prompted a reaction from European officials and capitals, who point out that the EU has had the opposite effect, fostering closer business ties and trade links with the US. Maria Demertzis, the chief economist for Europe at the Conference Board in...

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President Donald Trump’s return to office has been described as an “electroshock” in Europe, with leading politicians like Germany’s Friedrich Merz openly pledging “independence from the US.” Aside from his antagonistic approach toward Europe - from security to tariffs - Trump is also sending a clear signal that he wants to leave European affairs to Europeans while the US pivots toward China....

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Greece is bracing for demonstrations that will bring the country to a halt this Friday, as it marks the two-year anniversary of the Tempe rail crash - the country’s worst ever rail disaster in which 57 people died. The public outcry is testing the political system, from the government to the opposition, with Prime Minister Mitsotakis acknowledging public demands for truth and justice while...

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Monday, February 24, marked three years since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. As President Trump looks to bring a swift end to the war, his and his officials’ statements on Ukraine, President Zelensky, and European security, along with the decision to bypass allies and engage in talks with Russia’s Putin, have left many in the West with a deep sense of unease. Thomas Graham,...

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While Turkey may have expected that a second Trump term would mean improved ties with the White House, the first month of the Trump administration has shown us that Washington still views Turkey as an unreliable partner. In fact, Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s recent engagements with the Middle East point to a regional strategy that seems to marginalize Ankara. Sinan Ciddi, a non-resident...

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Earlier this week Cypriot President Christodoulides was in Egypt where the two countries signed two energy agreements that he described as “pivotal”. The deals would enable the export of gas from Cyprus’s offshore fields to Egypt for liquefaction and re-export to Europe, and, as President Christodoulides posted on X, “are game changers for the region and beyond”. Dr. Theodoros Tsakiris, a...

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Earlier this week we saw Turkish police detain 282 people accused of ties to the PKK. This included journalists, politicians, and academics. These arrests are taking place as Ankara continues to remove elected pro-Kurdish mayors from their posts. At the same time, they coincide with reports that a deal could be at hand over the country’s Kurdish question. Piotr Zalewski, The Economist's Turkey...

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It’s safe to say that Steve Bannon, a one-time close adviser to Donald Trump and the voice of the MAGA movement, has a unique role in both the Republican camp and in driving the conversation in Washington, DC in the Trump 2.0 era. Kathimerini’s Iliana Magra, who met with Steve Bannon last week in Washington, joins Thanos Davelis to discuss her in-depth interview with Bannon, which touched on...

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The past week has thrown the Transatlantic relationship into turmoil, with the shocks for Europe coming one after the other. First Defense Secretary Hegseth said the US is no longer the “primary guarantor” of European security. This was followed up by President Trump’s phone call with Russia’s Vladimir Putin that seemed to sideline Ukraine and Europe. Then at the Munich Security Conference,...

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Greece’s two-year term as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council began at the outset of 2025. Since then, Greece has been at the heart of key discussions and initiatives - from playing a role in renewing the mandate of the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus to the Security Council adopting its resolution on maritime security in the Red Sea. Lena Argiri, the DC correspondent...

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World leaders met in Paris earlier this week for the AI Action Summit, a global summit on artificial intelligence. While France and the EU pledged to mobilize hundreds of billions of dollars in investments in the AI sector, Greece’s Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who was also in Paris, put a spotlight on how Greece is helping to shape European developments in this critical sector. Yannis...

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This past weekend voters in Kosovo went to the polls in an election that many saw as critical for the future of its relations with the US and the EU, but also when it comes to stalled talks with Serbia to normalize ties. Prime Minister Albin Kurti, who has pushed hardline policies vis-a-vis Kosovo’s Serbs, won the general election, but his party fell short of a majority and will need to find a...

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For the past decade, Cyprus, the EU’s easternmost state and the closest to the Middle East, has stood as one of the EU’s frontline states when it comes to the migration crisis. The fall of the Assad regime in Syria and the conflicts in Lebanon and Gaza are now raising new questions about migration and regional security. Nicholas Ioannides, the Deputy Minister of Migration and International...

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We’re coming to you from the sidelines of the 6th Delphi Forum in Washington DC, a two-day conference organized by HALC, Kathimerini’s English Edition, and the Delphi Economic Forum today, where the spotlight is on Greece, Cyprus, Southeast Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean. This is a region at the crossroads of three continents and at the heart of exciting developments. Georgia Logothetis,...

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