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The official launch of the new floating storage regasification unit (FSRU) at Alexandroupoli is taking place on Tuesday this week. This marks an important milestone not only for Greece’s role as a regional energy hub, but also for the Balkans. The launch will take place with the prime ministers of Greece, Bulgaria and North Macedonia, and the president of Serbia in attendance, along with the...

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It was recently announced that Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis will visit the White House next month and deliver what’s been described as a historic address to a joint session of Congress. This week we also saw two marathon hearings in the Senate and the House, where Secretary Blinken was grilled by members of Congress on the administration’s broader foreign policy strategy that covered...

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In a decisive turn in the war in Ukraine, Russia announced this week that it was cutting gas to Poland and Bulgaria. This move has put the spotlight on the efforts underway in the Balkans to show Gazprom that they have real alternatives to Russian gas. Nektaria Stamouli, Politico’s Athens-based correspondent covering the region, joins me today to look at how the Balkans are breaking their...

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This week a Turkish court condemned Turkish philanthropist and civic leader Osman Kavala to life in prison, a verdict that’s been described as a “travesty of justice.” The State Department also chimed in, expressing its deep concern. Its statement only mentioned Osman Kavala, however, failing to call out Turkey for upending the lives of the other defendants, including Professor Henri Barkey, a...

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The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom released its Annual Report this week, and once again recommended that the State Department place Turkey on its Special Watch List for engaging in or tolerating severe violations of religious freedom. Tugba Tanyeri Erdemir, a non-resident scholar at the Middle East Institute and an expert on religious minorities and cultural...

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Last week evidence emerged of a disturbing act of vandalism at Hagia Sophia, with photos showing the historic Imperial Gate badly damaged. This is raising concerns over the repercussions of Turkish President Erdogan’s decision in 2020 to turn Hagia Sophia, then a museum, into a mosque. Dr. Elizabeth Prodromou, a leading expert on issues of religion and human rights, joins our host Thanos...

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Dealing with the energy crisis and the rising costs Greek households are facing as a result is at the top of the Greek government’s agenda, and this week we saw Prime Minister Mitsotakis announce a commitment to take action if the EU does not step up to the plate. Georgia Nakou, a political and financial analyst for MacroPolis, joins our host Thanos Davelis to look at how the government is...

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Today US Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt joins our host Thanos Davelis for a look at the latest high level congressional visits to Greece, Greece’s important strategic position in the region and its role in the battle to wean Europe off of Russian gas in light of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, and the strong confidence on both sides of the Atlantic in the US-Greece partnership. You can read the...

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Climate change is set to asymmetrically impact the Mediterranean over the next decades. The stakes couldn’t be higher for Greece and Cyprus, both of which were identified as the most vulnerable to climate change among the EU member states. Katerina Sokou, a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Europe Center of the Atlantic Council and the Washington DC correspondent for SKAI TV and Kathimerini,...

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Today HALC’s Executive Director Endy Zemenides joins our host Thanos Davelis to break down whether the US is warming up to Turkey amid the war in Ukraine, look at the mixed signals the State Department has been sending to countries in the region, and introduce us to George Tsunis, the next US ambassador to Greece.You can read the articles we discuss on our podcast here:Έντι Ζεμενίδης προς State...

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Today expert Constantinos Filis, the Director of the Institute of Global Affairs and a professor of international relations at the American College of Greece, joins our host Thanos Davelis to break down how the war in Ukraine is impacting Greece’s relations with Russia, including a look at the Kremlin’s propaganda campaign in Greece, the recent expulsion of 12 Russian diplomats from the...

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Greece recently hosted the Iniochos 2022 military exercise, bringing together a robust list of countries, including the US, France, and Israel, and giving them the opportunity to hone their military capabilities and enhance their defense cooperation to meet key regional security challenges. Expert Bradley Bowman joins me today to break down the significance of this exercise for Greece, the US,...

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Today the Hellenic American Leadership Council and a coalition of partners launched their campaign to prevent the sale of American F-16s to Turkey, and the hashtag #NoJetsForTurkey went viral, hovering in the top ten trends in the United States throughout the entire day. As our focus is on Turkey’s request for F-16s, we are re-upping an episode from this past October with Aaron Stein, the...

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Today we turn to the Aegean Sea, where Turkey has upped the ante with a series of violations of Greece’s airspace and illegal overflights with fighter jets over Greek islands - some of them inhabited - since the beginning of the week. These provocations come as the leadership in Ankara is looking to convince the US to sell Turkey upgraded F-16 fighters. Vassilis Nedos, Kathimerini’s diplomatic...

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The French presidential election is heating up with the first round this past Sunday setting up a showdown in two weeks between French President Emmanuel Macron and far-right challenger Marine Le Pen. Yannis Palaiologos, Kathimerini’s Brussels correspondent, joins our host Thanos Davelis with the latest analysis on France’s presidential elections, which NATO members, the EU, and the broader...

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Today we are looking at Pennsylvania, where former President Donald Trump waded into the state’s Senate Republican primary, throwing his support behind Dr. Mehmet Oz, a Turkish-American TV physician. Georgia Logothetis, HALC’s Managing Director, joins our host Thanos Davelis to break down why this endorsement has infuriated some of Trump’s most fervent supporters, and look at why Oz’s close...

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HALCs Executive Director Endy Zemenides joins our host Thanos Davelis to discuss Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland’s trip to Turkey, Greece, and Cyprus, which unfortunately was marked by a major gaffe Nuland make while in Cyprus - where she referred to the Turkish Cypriot leader as “president”. We break down why this demonstrates the need for Biden administration officials to get the...

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A new letter to Congress from the State Department has caused an uproar as it suggests that the potential sale of F-16s to Turkey would be in line with US and NATO interests. The letter was a response to more than 50 members of Congress who urged the Biden administration to reject Ankara's request, citing Turkish President Erdogan's lack of commitment to NATO and his "vast human rights abuses."...

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Does Russia’s war in Ukraine present an opportunity for President Erdogan to end his country’s isolation and advance the idea that Turkey is a global leader, and is this more about luck rather than shrewd diplomacy? Steven Cook, an expert on Turkish politics and the Eni Enrico Mattei senior fellow for Middle East and Africa studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, joins our host Thanos...

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Ukraine is home to a sizable Greek ethnic minority, and this is one of the reasons why Greece has adopted a forward-leaning diplomatic presence in the country. This is often brought up in reports, but without any historical context. Alexander Kitroeff, a Professor of History at Haverford College who has written extensively on the Greek diaspora, joins our host Thanos Davelis to talk about this...

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