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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

After several years of virtually nonexistent relations, Greek Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis spoke on the phone Wednesday with Najla Mangoush - the interim foreign minister of the government of national unity in Tripoli. According to diplomatic sources, Gerapetritis stressed the need to relaunch relations between Athens and Tripoli and to open direct channels of communication. Athens’...

11 λεπτά

This year marks the centenary of the Lausanne Treaty, a treaty that has survived a number of twists and turns in world history. While it continues to largely define the status quo between Greece and Turkey, the spirit of the treaty has also been interpreted differently in both countries, with Greeks seeing the treaty as a painful, but necessary basis for peace, while for Turks the spirit of...

10 λεπτά

Congressman Pete Sessions recently visited the Turkish occupied part of Cyprus, becoming the first American politician to fly directly into the unrecognized Turkish proxy state - against State Department advice - on a junket sponsored by the Turkish Cypriot Chamber of Commerce. The visit was condemned by the Republic of Cyprus as well, which denounced it as a violation of international law and...

10 λεπτά

It’s now been almost a year and a half since Russia invaded Ukraine, and the impact of Putin’s war can be felt from the geopolitical landscape to the global economy. A point of particular concern has been energy, as Europe has had to find ways to cut its reliance on Russian gas and oil. Georgia Nakou, a features editor at MacroPolis, a specialist website focused on political and economic...

13 λεπτά

It’s been a busy month in Washington, and Hellenic issues weren’t left out of the legislative agenda as Congresswoman Grace Meng and the Hellenic Caucus introduced an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that once again puts the US-Greece relationship in the spotlight. A part of the amendment that has gotten a lot of media attention - with some headlines misquoting the bill -...

10 λεπτά

Following a decade-plus of fractured relations with key Western partners, including the US, Turkey’s President Erdogan has made some moves to seemingly rebuild these relationships. His decision on Sweden’s NATO membership at the summit in Vilnius and the toning down of his aggressive posturing in the Aegean against Greece are but a few examples. Despite this, many in NATO, as well as officials...

14 λεπτά

A new movement is underway in Greece, and is taking place on its beaches in the middle of the tourist season. Citizens on a number of popular islands have been mobilizing to reclaim their beaches from private businesses, a number of which have illegally covered the seafront with umbrellas and sunbeds. These demonstrations are already starting to have an impact, with the so-called “beach towel...

12 λεπτά