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The Greek Current
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The Greek Current

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A podcast on Greece, Cyprus and the region brought to you by The Hellenic American Leadership Council and Kathimerini. Hosted by Thanos Davelis.

επεισόδια 1411
διάρκεια 359 ώρες
συχνότητα εβδομαδιαία
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Greece offers incentives for young people to get vaccinated

The Greek government announced it will offer a pre-paid card with 150 euros to young people aged 18-25 to get at least one shot of a vaccine against Covid-19, as part of an incentive to increase the number of vaccinations in the country. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis called the card a “freedom pass”. The move comes as the government is hoping to fully reopen its economy after recently...

Greek banks and the new landscape for bad debt in the post-Covid era

During the peak of the financial crisis, Greek banks were weighed down by over 100 billion euros of non-performing loans. Since then, a new set of tools has emerged to help manage this bad debt, and a large amount has been transferred from the banks to other entities. While this has improved the overall outlook for Greece’s banks, the problem of bad debt remains. In her latest report for...

EU summit focuses on relations with Turkey and Russia, migration, Covid-19, and Hungary's anti-LGBTQ+ bill

EU leaders travelled to Brussels today for a two day summit, with the agenda formally focusing on relations with Turkey and Russia, migration, and COVID-related travel rules. There was also growing anger over an anti-LGBTQ+ law passed by Hungary’s parliament, and 17 EU leaders, including Prime Minister Mitsotakis and President Anastasiades, signed a letter prior to the summit vowing to fight...

Turkey looks to play a role in Afghanistan following US withdrawal

Turkey is seeking to play a vital role in Afghanistan following the withdrawal of US forces by offering to provide security to Kabul's international airport, and has been holding talks with the US on logistic and financial support for the mission. Jake Sullivan, President Biden’s national security adviser, said last week that the US and Turkey had agreed to a plan for the Turks to continue...

Top Turkish court accepts indictment seeking to ban the third largest party, the HDP

Turkey’s Constitutional Court on Monday accepted an indictment filed by a top prosecutor seeking a ban on the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) for alleged ties to the outlawed PKK, paving the way for a case to shut down Turkey’s third-largest party. The HDP denies formal links to PKK, and says any attack by Erdogan’s ruling party and its far-right nationalist allies is retribution...

Turkey’s drone program and its war propaganda on social media

Over the last year Turkey’s drones have seen action in conflicts ranging from Nagorno Karabakh, to Syria, to Libya, with the flagship of Turkey’s drone fleet, the Bayraktar TB2, at the center of international attention. In a recent piece in War on the Rocks, expert Aaron Stein highlights Turkey’s drone program, with an eye on how Ankara has pioneered drone use for the social media age. As a...

Bulgaria's pre-election political scandals, US sanctions, and the EU

As Bulgaria prepares for its second election in three months on July 11th, Bulgarians are confronted by a number of political scandals and allegations of corruption. Some of these allegations include accusations against the former Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, who has dominated Bulgarian politics over the last decade. Meanwhile, the United States has also upped the pressure on Bulgaria,...

The latest from Greece: The vaccine rollout, lifting lockdown restrictions, protests, and tennis

This week has seen a number of developments in Greece, from news related to the pandemic, to tourism, to protests over a labor reform, to tennis stars Maria Sakkari and Stefanos Tsitsipas having a historic run in the French Open. Nikos Efstathiou, a journalist with Kathimerini, joins The Greek Current to discuss these news items. We look at the status of the country’s vaccination campaign, the...

The rumors about a US-Turkey agreement over Russian S-400 missiles

In the lead-up to President Biden’s meeting next week with Turkey’s President Erdogan on the sidelines of the NATO summit, there have been some rumors circulating that there is an agreement or a deal on the table over the Russian S-400 missiles that may help salvage relations between Turkey and the US. Diplomatic sources, however, have denied that there is any agreement in place. Expert Alan...

The US-Greece Defense and Interparliamentary Partnership Act

On Wednesday Senator Bob Menendez, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Senator Marco Rubio introduced new legislation in the Senate to strengthen the United States’ defense partnership with Greece. The bipartisan legislation, titled the US-Greece Defense and Interparliamentary Partnership Act of 2021, aims to increase support for Greece’s military modernization, authorizing...

Greece, the migration crisis, and the ongoing negotiations over the EU's migration pact

Developments in Greece and at the EU level this week have put the migration crisis back in the spotlight. On Monday Greece declared that Turkey is a safe destination for asylum seekers from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Somalia and Syria. In theory this could stem the number of arrivals at Greece borders, as it would allow it to return asylum-seekers from these countries to Turkey. In the...

Turkey waters down NATO statement as Erdogan saves Putin’s Belarusian ally

Last week Reuters broke a story that Turkey had used its veto power within NATO to water down an official condemnation of Belarusian strongman Alexander Lukashenko for forcing down a passenger plane flying from Greece to Lithuania to arrest Roman Protasevich, a dissident journalist that was on board. Lukashenko’s actions drew criticism from around the world, and the EU introduced sanctions in...

Secretary of State Blinken's call to Cypriot Foreign Minister Christodoulides and US-Cyprus relations

On Tuesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the Foreign Minister of the Republic of Cyprus Nikos Christodoulides. During the call Secretary Blinken and Foreign Minister Christodoulides reaffirmed their commitment to deepening the strong US-Cyprus bilateral relationship. Secretary Blinken also pledged US support for a federal solution to the Cyprus issue, expressed support for the 3+1...

Turkey's new drone base and the dangers it poses to Cyprus and the region

In late 2019 the head of Turkey’s Defense Industry Directorate announced that Turkey had flown its first drones to Lefkoniko Airport in the occupied northern part of Cyprus. Turkey has continued to transform this airport into a drone base, even moving many attack drones such as the Bayraktar-TB2 onto the base. Expert Michael Rubin joins The Greek Current to discuss this new Turkish base and why...