podlist.gr

This Sunday supporters of SYRIZA, Greece’s second largest party, will head to the polls to select a new leader, as Stefanos Kasselakis, the surprise winner in the first round elections, faces Effie Achtsioglou in what’s expected to be a close showdown that will define the future of the party. As the race for who will take the reins of SYRIZA heats up, Greeks have begun to look more closely into...

17 λεπτά

Last week the Biden administration imposed sanctions on five Turkish companies and a Turkish national, accusing them of helping Russia evade sanctions and supporting Moscow in its war against Ukraine. US officials have repeatedly pushed Turkey to crack down on Russian circumvention of sanctions, particularly when it comes to the export of chemicals, microchips and other products that can be...

12 λεπτά

On Wednesday Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis held a much anticipated meeting with Turkish President Erdogan on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. The two leaders agreed to continue working to deepen the positive climate in Greek-Turkish relations that has been established this year, laid out a roadmap of contacts for the coming months, and discussed issues of common interest such as...

11 λεπτά

As the week kicked off at the UN in New York, Turkish President Erdogan sat with PBS NewsHour for a one on one interview, where he talked about Turkey’s relations with the US, with Greece, the state of human rights in his country, and his ties to Putin’s Russia. Aside from his outbursts at journalist Amna Nawaz over her questions on human rights, Erdogan also raised eyebrows with his statements...

13 λεπτά

A new political season has kicked off in Greece this month as voters went to the polls to elect a new leader for Greece’s main opposition party, SYRIZA, on Sunday, while Prime Minister Mitsotakis outlined his government’s priorities at the Thessaloniki International Fair in the wake of the devastating wildfires in August and the deadly floods in Thessaly. Amid these developments, voters are...

13 λεπτά

This week Washington DC turned its attention to Nagorno Karabakh - or Artsakh - once again, with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee holding a hearing on the failure to break Azerbaijan’s genocidal blockade of Artsakh that has left some 120,000 Armenians on the brink of starvation. Senator Menendez, the chairman of the Committee, was emphatic about the urgency of the situation in Artsakh,...

16 λεπτά

For years, the US has had an unshakable, yet unreasonable assumption: that Ankara is a normal ally. Washington has operated from this point of view even in the face of contradictory evidence, and has looked to avoid public disputes while pretending that disagreements are trivial. Instead, as Prof. Henri Barkey argues in Foreign Affairs, the US needs to meet Erdogan’s provocative...

14 λεπτά

Days after Storm Daniel passed through Greece, Thessaly - Greece’s agricultural heartland - is still under water, with locals describing apocalyptic scenes. With the plain accounting for 25 percent of Greece’s agricultural production, the threat of shortages and price hikes now looms large. On top of that, with the waters still high, there are now warnings that this could turn into a major...

11 λεπτά

Mastic - a unique product from the Greek island of Chios - has been at the heart of the island’s economy for centuries, linking it - and Greece - to the rest of the world, particularly the Middle East. Mastic found on Chios is used extensively throughout the Middle East, propelling trade and cultural links between Greece and the Arab world for centuries. As Greece takes steps to play a much...

15 λεπτά

As the US-Greece partnership reaches new heights, it is also touching on all aspects of both societies, and one of the areas where the US and Greece are working together is to advance the rights of persons with disabilities. This was the focus of US Special Adviser Sara Minkara’s latest trip to Thessaloniki. Sara Minkara, the US Special Advisor on International Disability Rights, and Chrysella...

13 λεπτά

Over the past few years it seems that the island of Imvros, a Turkish island in the Aegean Sea with a historic Greek population, is experiencing what’s been described by some as a small Greek renaissance, as some descendants of the Greeks who were largely displaced in the 1960s have begun trickling back. Elsewhere in Turkey, however, the picture is bleak. Out of a population of some 200,000...

14 λεπτά

Greece was battered this week by Storm Daniel, which has led to the death of multiple people, triggered landslides, road and bridge collapses, and is being described as a “biblical catastrophe”. The heavy rainfall, which comes on the heels of a devastating few weeks of wildfires, has turned many villages in the low-lying area of Karditsa, in the mainland Thessaly plain, into a lake. With rescue...

10 λεπτά

The leaders of Greece, Israel and Cyprus once again put energy cooperation at the heart of discussions earlier this week in Nicosia. The three leaders took it a step further to explore expanding their cooperation, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu referring to the possibility of an infrastructure and electrical link between Asia, the Arabian Peninsula, Israel, Cyprus, Greece and...

13 λεπτά

Greece’s foreign minister held a much anticipated meeting with his Turkish counterpart on Tuesday in which the two sides agreed on a “roadmap” to revive high-level contacts between their countries and seek “new approaches” to problems as part of an effort to improve ties. Constantinos Filis, the Director of the Institute of Global Affairs and an associate professor of international relations at...

12 λεπτά

In July Greece’s Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said he planned to legalize same-sex marriage in his new term. Many have noted that this would be a huge step forward for LGBTQI+ rights at a time when some governments - even in the West - are cracking down on the community. Jessica Stern, the US Special Envoy to Advance the Human Rights of LGBTQI+ Persons, and Nikos Efstathiou, a journalist...

21 λεπτά

As heatwaves – like the ones Greece has experienced this summer – become longer and more intense, modern cities like Athens need to develop new strategies in order to shield the city and its inhabitants from rising temperatures. This includes investing in public water reservoirs and drinking fountains, splash pads and fountains, pocket parks, green parking lots, trees in public spaces,...

15 λεπτά

In the months since Turkish President Erdogan’s reelection, we’ve heard a lot about the potential for a new page in EU-Turkey relations, and Erdogan even raised the issue of Turkey’s membership in the EU at the July NATO summit. Despite this signaling from Ankara, the main obstacles concerning EU-Turkey relations have remained the same, whether we are looking at rule of law and human rights...

17 λεπτά

Greek football - or soccer - teams have delivered some important performances on the European stage these past weeks, and fans are rightfully excited across the country. While fans celebrate these victories, a cloud hangs over the sport. Fan violence is back in the spotlight after a Greek fan was killed recently in an altercation with Croatian hooligans in Athens. The incident has sparked a...

18 λεπτά

The UN Security Council scheduled an emergency meeting on Wednesday to discuss the worsening humanitarian situation in Nagorno-Karabakh, or Artsakh, as a result of Azerbaijan’s blockade of the Lachin corridor. For over eight months, the region's 120,000 indigenous Armenians have been deprived access to food, medicine, fuel, electricity, and water. Gev Iskajyan, the Executive Director of the...

12 λεπτά

Every year on July 20th we remember the beginning of Turkey’s invasion of Cyprus. July 20th, however, only marks phase one of the Turkish invasion. On August 14th, 1974 - despite the collapse of the dictatorship in Greece, the restoration of a democratic government in Cyprus, and the diplomatic efforts underway to find a way forward - Turkey launched phase two of its invasion, or Attila II....

17 λεπτά