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Balkans

Greece to extend territorial waters south, west of Crete: Local media.

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Amid rising tensions between Ankara and Athens, Greece plans to extend its territorial waters to 12 nautical miles to the south and west of the island of Crete in March, local media reported on Sunday.

The government made the decision based on favorable international and regional developments and to gain an upper hand over the opposition by (Watch Video Here) delivering on a long-held demand ahead of parliamentary elections slated for summer 2023, online news outlet In.Gr reported, citing sources from the office of the presidency.

According to the news outlet, a unilateral decision by Egypt on Dec.11 to demarcate its western maritime borders with neighboring Libya and exploration work by U.S. energy giant ExxonMobil off Crete also prompted the move.

Greek authorities did not expect a particularly harsh reaction from neighboring Türkiye amid heightened tensions over several issues including the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean Seas, Cyprus, and arms accumulation, the publication said. (Watch Video Here)

The move would also significantly help Athens’ wider regional strategy to curb Ankara and its influence over Libya. Since early November, Exxon Mobil has been conducting seismic surveys in two blocks off Crete hoping to discover energy resources.

In response, Libya accused Greece of exploiting the Libyan crisis to impose a fait accompli and decried Athens’ “irresponsible behavior” of striking a deal with international companies to launch research and exploration efforts on the maritime borders between them.

Türkiye and Greece are at odds over several issues, including competing claims to jurisdiction in the Eastern Mediterranean, overlapping claims over their continental shelves, maritime boundaries, airspace, energy, the ethnically split island of Cyprus, the status of the islands in the Aegean Sea and migrants. (Watch Video Here)

Relations deteriorated after Erdoğan said Mitsotakis “no longer exists” for him, when the Greek premier Kyriakos Mitsotakis lobbied to block sales of F-16 fighter jets to Türkiye during a visit to the United States, despite previously agreeing with Erdoğan “to not include third countries in our dispute.”

In May, Erdoğan cut ties with Mitsotakis and declared all other channels of communication between the countries closed. (Watch Video Here)

The most recent incidents to have triggered tensions include two Greek coast guard boats opening fire on a cargo ship in international waters, continued pushbacks by Greek elements recorded by Turkish UAVs and previous harassment of Turkish fighter jets on a NATO mission by Greece’s Russian-made S-300s.

On the other side, Türkiye on Friday accused the Greek Cypriot administration of increasing tension in the Eastern Mediterranean after a consortium of Italian and French energy companies found more natural gas off the island earlier this week. (Watch Video Here)

The Greek Cypriot administration’s hydrocarbon activities “have been carried out unilaterally” and “violate the rights of the Turkish Cypriots, who are one of the co-owners of all natural resources of the island,” the Foreign Ministry said.

“These activities also increase the tension, and threaten peace and stability in the Eastern Mediterranean,” he said in a statement, adding that Türkiye “would not allow hydrocarbon exploration or exploitation activities in its continental shelf without consent.”

A consortium of Italy’s Eni and France’s TotalEnergies found more natural gas off Cyprus, the country’s Energy (Watch Video Here) Ministry said on Wednesday.

The Greek Cypriot administration’s exploration program is hotly disputed by Türkiye, which cites overlapping jurisdictions either on its own continental shelf or in the waters of the Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC).

The island of Cyprus has been doomed to a decadeslong struggle between its two people, Turkish and Greek Cypriots. Ethnic attacks starting in the 1960s forced Turkish Cypriots to withdraw into enclaves for their safety and a 1974 coup aiming at Greece’s annexation led to Türkiye’s military intervention.

The conflict has been ongoing for long years, drawing multiple international efforts for a solution. The U.N. has been working for years to reach a comprehensive agreement on the Cyprus issue, proposing a reunification plan for a federation and sponsoring peace talks that eventually broke down. (Watch Video Here)

While Greece and the Greek Cypriot administration support the U.N.’s suggestion of a federal Greek Cypriot administration, the TRNC and its guarantor Türkiye have been resolutely calling for a two-state solution, stressing that “the sovereign equality and the equal international status of the Turkish Cypriots are non-negotiable.”

As guarantor power, Türkiye is also at loggerheads with its Aegean neighbor Greece over both the Cyprus issue and gas and oil exploration rights in their shared waters.

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Politics Today

Turkish officials congratulate new mufti in Greece’s Western Thrace.

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Turkish officials on Saturday congratulated Mustafa Trampa on becoming the new Muslim cleric (mufti) of the Turkish minority in the Xanthi (Iskeçe) region of Western Thrace in Greece.

Parliament Speaker Mustafa Şentop called Trampa to wish him Allah’s support and success in this difficult but important position, adding: “As Türkiye, we will always continue to stand by our compatriots.”

The head of the Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet), Ali Erbaş, also congratulated Trampa on the same day.

Upon the passing of Mufti Ahmet Mete, the Turkish Minority in Xanthi elected their new mufti in an election held in unity and solidarity, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said.

“We congratulate Mustafa Trampa on winning the elections, held with a high turnout and wish him every success in his efforts to protect and promote the rights and freedoms of the Turkish minority in Western Thrace,” the ministry said in a statement.

It added that it also appreciated the efforts of the Turkish minority advisory board in Western Thrace, “who, against all the pressures, has made great efforts to organize the elections so that the results would reflect the will of the minority.”

“In this regard, we expect Greece to respect the religious rights and freedoms of the Turkish minority, guaranteed by international agreements, in particular the Lausanne Peace Treaty, and human rights standards, as well as the will of the Turkish Minority,” it continued.

“As is the case until now, we will continue to defend the rights and freedoms of our kinsmen,” the ministry highlighted.

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Meanwhile, Greece recently proceeded with new legislation allowing the appointment of Muslim clerics by Greek authorities in Western Thrace despite the Turkish minority’s opposition to the move.

Greece does not recognize the muftis elected by the Turkish minority in Western Thrace and appoints those who manage religious affairs in the region. Athens has maintained its stance with the new law and has also recognized the muftis as bureaucrats under the Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs.

Thus, the Greek government has received criticism from the Western Thrace Turkish minority for treating the muftis as an ordinary state authority.

Most Muslim Turks in the cities of Komotini (Gümülcine) and Xanthi do not recognize the muftis appointed by Greece and instead elect their own, who in turn are not recognized by the Greek state.

In Western Thrace, muftis have legal jurisdiction to decide on family and inheritance matters for the local Turkish Muslim community.

Mufti elections have been an issue since 1991.

Greece’s Western Thrace region – in the country’s northeast, near the Turkish border – is home to a substantial, long-established Muslim Turkish minority numbering around 150,000, or around a third of the population. The rights of the Turks of Western Thrace were guaranteed under the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, but since then the situation has steadily deteriorated. After a Greek junta came to power in 1967, the Turks of Western Thrace started to face harsher persecution and rights abuses by the Greek state, often in blatant violation of European court rulings. The Turkish minority in Greece continues to face problems exercising its collective civil and education rights, including Greek authorities banning the word “Turkish” in the names of associations, shuttering Turkish schools and trying to block the Turkish community from electing its own muftis.

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Balkans

Greek boats harass cargo ship in international waters: Sources.

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Two Greek coast guard boats opened harassment fire on a cargo ship in international waters in the Aegean some 18 kilometers (11 miles) off Türkiye’s southwestern coast of Bozcaada on Saturday, diplomatic sources said.

The Comoros-flagged “Anatolian” ship with a crew of 18 – six Egyptians, four Somalis, five Azerbaijanis and three Turkish nationals – was attacked while sailing in international waters, the Turkish Coast Guard Command said in a statement.

After learning about the incident, the Turkish coast guard dispatched two boats and the Greek boats left the area.

No one was injured on the ship, it added.

The Turkish Coast Guard Command shared a video on its website of the harassment fire and a map pinpointing the location where the incident occurred

Diplomatic sources said that an explanation and investigation into the incident “that is totally in violation of international laws” has been demanded from Athens and protested.

Following Turkish accusations of harassment fire, the Greek coast guard confirmed it fired warning shots at a ship that was “moving suspiciously” in Greek territorial waters off the island of Lesbos.

The Anatolian was anchored Sunday in the Dardanelles Strait off the Turkish coast, Anadolu Agency (AA) reported.

The alleged incident comes at a time of heightened tensions between the two NATO ally neighbors.

Ankara recently accused Athens of “occupying” some Aegean islands and harassing Turkish jets with Russian-made S-300 defense systems stationed there. Athens denies the claims.

Türkiye has stepped up criticism of Greece stationing troops on islands in the Eastern Aegean, near the Turkish coast and in many cases visible from shore. These islands were required to be demilitarized under the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne and the 1947 Treaty of Paris, so any troops or weapons on the islands are strictly forbidden.

It was reported recently that Turkish jets on a reconnaissance mission, flying in international airspace, had been harassed by the Greek defense system stationed on Crete.

Türkiye is planning to submit to NATO and its allies the radar logs showing how a Greek S-300 air defense system harassed Turkish F-16 jets during a mission in international airspace.

On the other side, this week, the Greek government wrote letters to NATO, the European Union and the United Nations, asking them to formally condemn increasingly aggressive talk by Turkish officials and suggesting that tensions could escalate into open conflict.

Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias said the behavior of Türkiye risked “a situation similar to that currently unfolding in some other part of our continent,” referring to the war in Ukraine.

Historic rivals while also fellow members of NATO, Türkiye and Greece have been at odds over issues ranging from overflights and the status of Aegean islands to maritime boundaries and hydrocarbon resources in the Mediterranean, as well as ethnically split Cyprus.

The tensions between Türkiye and Greece are also likely to come up in a potential meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan later this month, which is under discussion, Reuters reported quoting a Turkish official.

Meanwhile, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Sunday during a news conference in the northern city of Thessaloniki that Athens would try to keep communication channels with Ankara open.

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Two Greek coast guard boats opened harassment fire on a cargo ship in international waters in the Aegean some 18 kilometers (11 miles) off Türkiye’s southwestern coast of Bozcaada on Saturday, diplomatic sources said.

The Comoros-flagged “Anatolian” ship with a crew of 18 – six Egyptians, four Somalis, five Azerbaijanis and three Turkish nationals – was attacked while sailing in international waters, the Turkish Coast Guard Command said in a statement.

After learning about the incident, the Turkish coast guard dispatched two boats and the Greek boats left the area.

No one was injured on the ship, it added.

The Turkish Coast Guard Command shared a video on its website of the harassment fire and a map pinpointing the location where the incident occurred

Diplomatic sources said that an explanation and investigation into the incident “that is totally in violation of international laws” has been demanded from Athens and protested.

Following Turkish accusations of harassment fire, the Greek coast guard confirmed it fired warning shots at a ship that was “moving suspiciously” in Greek territorial waters off the island of Lesbos.

The Anatolian was anchored Sunday in the Dardanelles Strait off the Turkish coast, Anadolu Agency (AA) reported.

The alleged incident comes at a time of heightened tensions between the two NATO ally neighbors.

Ankara recently accused Athens of “occupying” some Aegean islands and harassing Turkish jets with Russian-made S-300 defense systems stationed there. Athens denies the claims.

Türkiye has stepped up criticism of Greece stationing troops on islands in the Eastern Aegean, near the Turkish coast and in many cases visible from shore. These islands were required to be demilitarized under the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne and the 1947 Treaty of Paris, so any troops or weapons on the islands are strictly forbidden.

It was reported recently that Turkish jets on a reconnaissance mission, flying in international airspace, had been harassed by the Greek defense system stationed on Crete.

Türkiye is planning to submit to NATO and its allies the radar logs showing how a Greek S-300 air defense system harassed Turkish F-16 jets during a mission in international airspace.

On the other side, this week, the Greek government wrote letters to NATO, the European Union and the United Nations, asking them to formally condemn increasingly aggressive talk by Turkish officials and suggesting that tensions could escalate into open conflict.

Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias said the behavior of Türkiye risked “a situation similar to that currently unfolding in some other part of our continent,” referring to the war in Ukraine.

Historic rivals while also fellow members of NATO, Türkiye and Greece have been at odds over issues ranging from overflights and the status of Aegean islands to maritime boundaries and hydrocarbon resources in the Mediterranean, as well as ethnically split Cyprus.

The tensions between Türkiye and Greece are also likely to come up in a potential meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan later this month, which is under discussion, Reuters reported quoting a Turkish official.

Meanwhile, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Sunday during a news conference in the northern city of Thessaloniki that Athens would try to keep communication channels with Ankara open.

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Europe

Greek navy leaves area after Turkish retaliation over harassment.

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Two Greek coast guard boats, which harassed a Comoros-flagged ro-ro ship in international waters, left the area after Turkish naval forces intervened.

According to a statement released by the Turkish coast guard on Saturday, the Greek navy opened “harassment fire” on the ro-ro ship 11 miles off Turkey’s southwestern island of Bozcaada.

The ship named “Anatolian,” which has a crew of 18 – six Egyptian, four Somalian, five Azerbaijani and three Turkish nationals – was attacked while sailing in international waters, Turkish Coast Guard Command further said in the statement.

After learning about the incident, the Turkish coast guard dispatched two boats and the Greek boats left the area.

No one was injured on the ship, the statement added.

The ship is being escorted by two boats and an investigation has been initiated regarding the incident, the statement further read.

On its website, the Turkish Coast Guard Command also shared a video on the harassment fire and a map, pinpointing the location where the incident took place.

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Middle East

Türkiye congratulates newly elected mufti in Greece.

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The Foreign Ministry congratulated the newly elected mufti of the Turkish Muslim minority in the Xanthi (Iskeçe) region in Greece’s Western Thrace.

Mustafa Trampa replaced the late Mufti Ahmet Mete following the elections.

“Upon the passing away of Mufti Ahmet Mete, Turkish Minority in Xanthi elected today their new mufti in an election they held in unity, solidarity,” the ministry said.

Hailing the “high turnout” at the elections, Ankara wished Trampa “every success in his efforts to protect and promote the rights and freedoms of the Turkish Minority in Western Thrace.”

“We also appreciate the efforts of the Advisory Board of the Turkish Minority in Western Thrace, who, against all the pressures, has made great efforts to organize the elections so that the results would reflect the will of the minority,” it added.

Ankara called on Greece to “respect the religious rights and freedoms of the Turkish minority, guaranteed by international agreements, in particular the Lausanne Peace Treaty, and human rights standards, as well as the will of the Turkish minority.

“As is the case until now, we will continue to defend the rights and freedoms of our kinsmen,” the statement said.

Türkiye has repeatedly urged Greece to respect the rights of the Turkish minority in its Western Thrace region and to recognize their elected religious leaders.

Türkiye on Monday again urged Greece to respect the rights of the Turkish minority in its Western Thrace region and to stop denying recognition to elected Muslim clerics.

The Foreign Ministry said that Türkiye expects Greece to respect the right of the Turkish minority to elect their religious leaders, “which is guaranteed by international agreements, especially the Lausanne Peace Treaty, and to end its pressures in this regard.”

In a statement, the Western Thrace Turkish Minority Advisory Board, on behalf of the Turkish minority, stressed that it will stand by its rights to elect its religious leader and protect its elected muftis.

The statement had also called on minorities to fill all mosques this Friday to show solidarity and to protect their identity, religion, muftis and usurped rights.

Greece’s Western Thrace region in the country’s northeast, near the Turkish border, is home to a substantial, long-established Muslim Turkish minority numbering around 150,000.

The rights of the Turks of Western Thrace were guaranteed under the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, but since then the situation has steadily deteriorated.

After a Greek junta came to power in 1967, the Turks of Western Thrace started to face harsher persecution and rights abuses by the Greek state, often in blatant violation of European court rulings.

The Turkish minority in Greece continues to face problems exercising its collective and civil rights and education rights, including Greek authorities banning the word “Turkish” in the names of associations, shuttering Turkish schools, and trying to block the Turkish community from electing its muftis.

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In addition to violating longstanding treaties, these policies are also often in blatant violation of European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) rulings.

In Western Thrace, muftis have legal jurisdiction to decide on family and inheritance matters for the local Turkish Muslim community.

The mufti elections have been an issue since 1991.

The election of muftis by Muslims in Greece was regulated in the 1913 Treaty of Athens with the Ottoman Empire and was later included in Greek law.

However, Greece annulled this law in 1991 and started appointing muftis itself.

Most Muslim Turks in the cities of Komotini (Gümülcine) and Xanthi in Western Thrace do not recognize the appointed muftis and instead elect their own, who are not recognized by the Greek state.

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Diplomacy

Greece calls Türkiye ‘aggressive’ in letters to NATO, UN.

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The Greek government sent letters to NATO and the United Nations on Wednesday, complaining about President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s “aggressive” statements and asking the bodies to condemn Ankara’s actions.

Earlier this week, the European Union expressed concern about Erdoğan’s comments after he accused Greece of occupying demilitarized islands in the Aegean and warned that Türkiye is prepared to “do what’s necessary” when the time comes.

However, Ankara also sent letters to the European Union, NATO and the U.N. explaining its stance and views on issues such as airspace, territorial waters and the demilitarization of Aegean islands.

Greek diplomatic sources said on Wednesday that Türkiye’s letters distorted the facts, calling its arguments baseless and a violation of international law. According to Reuters, sources said that Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias also sent letters to the United Nations and NATO.

One local Greek newspaper reported that all the letters sent by Greece to the EU, NATO and U.N. had been received.

“These statements made to the public by the President of Türkiye are unjustified, unacceptable, and insulting to Greece and the Greek people. This general stance of Türkiye risks destabilizing our wider region and has consequences that are difficult to assess,” the letters sent to the international bodies read.

‘Türkiye acts methodically and strategically’

On the other hand, Evangelos Apostolakis, who served as the chief of general staff and minister of defense during the rule of the main opposition Syriza party in Greece, evaluated Turkish-Greek relations in a live broadcast where he was a guest and emphasized that Greece should take Erdoğan’s warnings seriously.

“It is extremely risky to argue that Erdoğan speaks like that because of the situation in Türkiye’s domestic politics. Türkiye acts methodically and strategically,” Apostolakis said.

He said Greece should not remain silent but also warned that the country must be careful as Ankara may want Athens to escalate tensions.

Earlier, a letter signed by Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu was sent to 25 capitals of the European Union, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council as well as NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

Explaining Türkiye’s position and views on how to solve the issues in the Aegean, the letters also drew attention to Greece’s unlawful actions and maximalist demands.

Emphasizing that there are a number of closely related and interrelated problems in the Aegean Sea, such as the breadth of territorial waters, national airspace and continental shelves, the letter also noted that Greece has violated the non-military status of the Eastern Aegean islands, according to the sources.

It also emphasized that Greece claims to have 10 nautical miles of airspace despite the width of its territorial waters in the Aegean being 6 nautical miles. The letter underlined that Greece is the only country in the world that has non-overlapping territorial waters as well as airspace borders that are not recognized by any other country.

Furthermore, Türkiye expressed that it believes issues in the Aegean can be resolved within the framework of international law through the mutual recognition of the fundamental rights and legitimate interests of the two countries.

According to the sources, the letter affirmed that Ankara is pro-dialogue and cooperation despite Athens avoiding talks and escalating tensions while bringing the EU into the Aegean equation.

According to Turkish Defense Ministry sources, Greece violated Türkiye’s airspace and territorial waters over 1,100 times in the first eight months of 2022 alone.

Türkiye, a NATO member for over 70 years, has complained of repeated provocative actions and rhetoric by Greece in the region in recent months, including arming islands near Turkish shores that are demilitarized under the Treaty of Lausanne, saying such moves frustrate its genuine efforts for peace.

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Middle East

Greece intimidates Turkish minority for public fountain in Komotini.

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Far-right Greek lawmakers submitted a petition after the Turkish minority living in Komotini (Gümülcine), Western Thrace, erected a water fountain commemorating Turkish journalist Mustafa Cambaz, who was killed by putschist soldiers during the July 15 failed coup attempt in Türkiye, as well as a poem by U.N. recognized famous Turkish-Islamic folk poet Yunus Emre.

The public fountain was built jointly by the Arriana (Kozlukebir) Municipality in Greece and Bursa Osmangazi Municipality in Türkiye.

The Komotini Prosecutor’s Office launched an investigation following the petition, and Arriana Mayor Rıdvan Ahmet and many others from the Turkish Muslim minority were summoned to gendarmerie stations to testify.

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“This is not the first time we have had such an issue. We’ve had similar issues in the past, and we face immense pressure from the far-right every time,” Ahmet said.

The deputies were allegedly disturbed by the Turkish writing on the fountain, according to Ahmet, who noted that everything written on the fountain was also written in Greek.

The fountain had Yunus Emre’s poem in Turkish and Greek, as well as a description saying that it was constructed jointly by the Bursa Osmangazi Municipality and Arriana Municipality in both languages.

The mayor continued by saying that police asked them why they constructed the fountain, why it commemorates Mustafa Cambaz and other questions during the interrogation aimed at intimidating them.

“This is all done to intimidate us,” Ahmet said, adding that with their actions the Greek authorities are giving them the message that they are on the Turkish minority’s back, that they should not engage in any further activities and not make any “wrong moves.”

Türkiye has criticized Greece for violating the rights of the Turkish minority, as well as welcoming coup supporters following the failed coup attempt in 2016.

The community of Western Thrace Turks in Greece is estimated to be between 100,000 and 150,000 members. The rights of the Turks in the region were guaranteed under the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, a pact forged in the aftermath of the Turkish War of Independence following World War I. Since then, however, the situation has steadily deteriorated. After a Greek military junta came to power in 1967, the minority community started to face harsher persecution and rights abuses by the state. Following Turkey’s 1974 peace operation in Cyprus to protect Turkish Cypriots there, the Greek military junta eventually fell, but tight restrictions on the minority group persisted and tightened. By the early 1990s, some rights of the Turks were partially restored, but problems regarding collective and civil liberties continued, and new challenges have emerged.

The mufti election issue has been a chronic problem for the Muslim Turkish minority since 1991. The election of muftis by Muslims in Greece was regulated in the 1913 Treaty of Athens between Greece and the Ottoman Empire and was later included in the country’s Act 2345/1920. However, Greece annulled the law in 1991 and started appointing the muftis itself.

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Economy Today

Greater economic links with Balkans in focus as Erdoğan visits Bosnia.

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Strengthening bilateral ties and revving up economic cooperation are topping the agenda of the Turkish president’s three-nation swing through the Balkans, a region that has been recently plagued by multiple political stalemates.

Accompanied by a large delegation, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan arrived in Bosnia-Herzegovina’s capital Sarajevo on Tuesday, before he held one-on-one and inter-delegation meetings with the three-member Presidential Council of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The council includes Bosniak member Sefik Dzaferovic, Croat member Zeljko Komsic and Serb member Milorad Dodik.

Addressing a joint press conference following the talks, Erdoğan dubbed relations with Bosnia-Herzegovina as “exceptional,” stressing support for the country’s territorial integrity and stability.

For his part, Dzaferovic said Türkiye and Bosnia-Herzegovina enjoy friendly relations, and their historical and cultural ties are strong, adding they want to further enhance ties.

He also said plans were in place to expand bilateral trade to $1 billion (TL 18.23 billion) in the near period.

Dzaferovic also voiced Bosnia-Herzegovina’s will to commence passport-free travel with Türkiye, a practice that Erdoğan said would become effective soon.

Before heading to Sarajevo, Erdoğan said Türkiye pursues a policy that supports the stability and development of the Balkans and its integration process into Euro-Atlantic structures.

“We will be endeavoring to find a solution to the political crisis in Bosnia-Herzegovina during our visit,” he said.

The Balkans is a priority for Türkiye not only for political, economic and geographical reasons but also due to its historical, cultural and human ties with the region.

Erdoğan was expected to meet members of the House of Representatives and the House of Peoples of Parliamentary Assembly, the highest legislative bodies in the country, and attend a business forum later Tuesday.

He will also visit the grave of Alija Izetbegovic, the first Bosniak president of the country who died in 2003.

In recent years, the Balkans region has become an attractive market for Turkish investors with its qualified workforce, business-friendly investment environment, and tax and financial incentives.

The region – which has deep historical and cultural ties with Türkiye – is often described as Türkiye’s gateway to the EU thanks to its geographical location.

After Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Turkish leader will head to Serbia and Croatia, respectively.

All three nations are aiming to improve their economic relations with Türkiye, according to their officials.

Zdravko Marinkovic, head of Bosnia-Herzegovina’s Chamber of Foreign Trade, said Erdoğan’s Balkan tour is important for the region.

“Türkiye invested $265 million in Bosnia-Herzegovina last year. Türkiye is one of the most important investment powers in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The trade volume increased to approximately $600 million last year,” Marinkovic told Anadolu Agency (AA).

Marija Sepi, head of the Center for Europe at Serbia’s Chamber of Commerce, said economic relations with Türkiye were at the highest level.

“The economic relations between Türkiye and Serbia have made great progress in recent years. The foreign trade volume reached $1.73 billion in 2021,” said Sepi.

Moreover, imports from Türkiye increased by 43%, she added.

“We have come a long way in terms of foreign trade volume and investment, but we are below the real potential. Thanks to good political relations, the economic relations of the two countries are at their highest level,” said Sepi.

Sepi added that there are 699 Turkish companies registered in Serbia and these companies employ approximately 10,000 people.

Silva Stipic, director of the International Employment Center at Croatia’s Chamber of Economy, said the bilateral trade volume reached $845 million in 2021.

“We reached $501 million in the first five months of this year. I can say that we are getting closer to the target,” said Stipic.

Erdoğan is also expected to attend business forums in Belgrade and Zagreb, organized by the Foreign Economic Relations Board of Türkiye (DEIK).

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‘Greek missiles locking on Turkish fighters over Med challenges NATO’

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Greece has challenged NATO and its allies, not Türkiye, by locking its air defense systems on Turkish jets carrying out a NATO reconnaissance mission, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Tuesday.

The Greek air defense system’s harassment of Turkish jets is a “hostile act,” the president said ahead of a celebration concert for the centenary of Türkiye’s Victory Day at the presidential complex in Ankara.

Greek surface-to-air missiles locked on to Turkish F-16 fighter jets carrying out a reconnaissance mission in international airspace, it was reported on Sunday. The F-16s were at an altitude of 10,000 feet to the west of Greece’s Rhodes island when the Russian-made S-300’s target tracking radar locked on.

Last week, Türkiye summoned the Greek military attache and filed a complaint with NATO after Greek F-16s harassed Turkish F-16s that were conducting a mission for the alliance.

Greece rejected the Turkish version of events. The Defense Ministry said five Turkish jets appeared without prior notification to accompany a flight of U.S. B-52 bombers – which hadn’t been due to have a fighter escort – through an area subject to Greek flight control. “Greece is not our political, economic or military equivalent or interlocutor,” Erdoğan added. “Establishing bases on Aegean islands by Greece does not hold any importance for Türkiye,” he said.

Although both NATO members, Türkiye and Greece have decades-old disputes over an array of issues, including territorial claims in the Aegean Sea and disputes over the airspace there.

Tensions flared in 2020 over exploratory drilling rights in areas of the Mediterranean Sea where Greece and the Greek Cypriot administration claim exclusive economic zones, leading to a naval standoff.

Türkiye has accused Greece of violating international agreements by militarizing islands in the Aegean Sea. But, Athens says it needs to defend the islands – many of which lie close to Türkiye’s coast.

The president further said that he is curious about the United States’ response to the Greek air defense system’s harassment of Turkish jets.

“By serving Greece the F-35s it has denied us, the U.S. has with its own hands opened the way for these jets to be in the same bag with Russian air defense systems,” he added.

‘Issue not S-400s, but Türkiye’
Citing the U.S. sanctions waiver for India despite a similar S-400 purchase, Erdoğan said the issue isn’t the use of Russian air defense systems and U.S. products together, but Türkiye in particular.

Ankara’s purchasing of S-400 air defense systems, of which the first delivery arrived in July 2019, has been a point of long-standing contention between Türkiye and the U.S.

The U.S.’ response to the purchase was to unilaterally expel NATO ally Türkiye from the F-35 fighter jet development program, where it was a major manufacturer and buyer.

Türkiye has called the move unjust and demanded reimbursement for its $1.4 billion payment.

Washington argues that the S-400s could be used by Russia to covertly obtain classified details on the F-35 jets and that they are incompatible with NATO systems.

Türkiye, however, insists that the S-400 would not be integrated into NATO systems and would not pose a threat to the alliance.

Türkiye is able to produce every product that it is denied of, Erdoğan said, criticizing the U.S. for blocking the sale of F-35 jets to Ankara over Russian S-400 defense systems.

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Diplomacy

Greece harassing Türkiye in different ways: Hulusi Akar.

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Defense Minister Hulusi Akar evaluated the fact that the radar lock of Turkish jets flying missions in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean by the Greek S-300 air defense system is “reckless and pertness” and emphasized that this was unacceptable.

The insignia of the personnel who were promoted to a higher rank in the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) were given in a ceremony held at the Defense Ministry on Monday. At the ceremony, 29 promoted generals and admirals, 31 officers and 12 sergeants received their new insignia.

Defense Minister Hulusi Akar, Chief of General Staff General Yaşar Güler, Land Forces Commander Gen. Musa Avsever, Naval Forces Commander Adm. Ercüment Tatlıoğlu and Air Force Commander Gen. Atilla Gülan as well as deputy ministers attended the ceremony.

Speaking at the ceremony, Akar stated that appointments and promotions are important for military personnel and congratulated the personnel who were promoted to a higher rank.

Stating that August is the “month of victories,” Akar said that the great wars that determined the future of Turkish history took place in this month.

Reiterating that Türkiye was subjected to an “attempted invasion” 100 years ago, Minister Akar said, “Everyone should know that there is no subjugation in the soul of our nation. We have successfully survived this disaster, as always, by saying ‘either freedom or death.'”

Noting that as ranks increase, so do duties and responsibilities, Akar stated that personnel should work harder than the previous day while performing their duties.

Underlining that there have been serious developments in the world recently, Akar said, “The economic crisis has spread all over the world, everyone is struggling with this crisis. On the one hand, there is a grain crisis, on the other hand, there is a security crisis as a result. If we had not solved this grain crisis, the security problems in Africa would reach much larger dimensions and cause serious problems.”

Akar stated that under the leadership of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Türkiye has become a “subject” with its personality and identity policy in the international arena, and its sphere of influence has expanded.

Stating that the TSK carried out the most intense and most comprehensive operations and exercises in the history of the Republic, Akar said that Turkish soldiers are on duty in Libya, Azerbaijan, Somalia, Kosovo, Bosnia- Herzegovina, and both inside and outside the country’s borders. Minister Akar emphasized that counterterrorism operations will continue until the last terrorist is eliminated.

Referring to the recent air violations and harassment by Greece, Akar said, “Greece is harassing us in different ways in the Aegean. Let us make it clear once again, our navy, land and air forces do not and will never compromise when there is any harassment.”

In addition to this, Akar emphasized that Greece armed the Aegean islands in violation of the Lausanne and Paris Agreements.

“There was an incident on Aug. 23. In the past, we talked to the United States for long-range regional air defense systems to defend our airspace, but they did not provide the Patriot air defense system. We talked to France, they did not give the SAMP-T. So we went and bought the S-400. Now “On Aug. 23, a sub-model of this, the S-300s, took the Turkish F-16s under radar lock. Greece’s action must be seen. Such reckless and pertness are unacceptable.”

Reiterating that Greece stated that “we do not know the plans,” Akar said, “We have published the plans everywhere. On Aug. 22, Turkish Air Force elements will escort U.S. planes, a few days later the Greeks will escort them, they lie by saying that they did not know about this.”

Neighbors and NATO allies Türkiye and Greece are at odds over a number of issues, including competing claims over jurisdiction in the Eastern Mediterranean, overlapping claims over their continental shelves, maritime boundaries, air space, energy, the ethnically split island of Cyprus, the status of the islands in the Aegean Sea and migrants.

In recent months Türkiye has stepped up criticism of Greece stationing troops on islands in the Eastern Aegean, near the Turkish coast and, in many cases, visible from the shore. These islands were required to be demilitarized under the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne and the 1947 Treaty of Paris, so any troops or weapons on the islands are strictly forbidden. Also, Türkiye and Greece have traded accusations of air space violations in recent months.

Despite saying that it has no intention of entering into an arms race with its neighbor and NATO ally Türkiye, Greece also continues to carry out an ambitious rearmament program for its armed forces. Greece’s burgeoning arms program is designed to counter the protection of Turkish interests in the Eastern Mediterranean. Türkiye has often warned Greece against indulging in an arms race, offering to resolve all outstanding issues, including in the Aegean, the Eastern Mediterranean and the island of Cyprus, through dialogue

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Diplomacy

Greece uneasy about Türkiye’s new drillship in East Med: Erdoğan.

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Greece is uncomfortable with Türkiye’s new drillship in the Eastern Mediterranean, which was recently launched for hydrocarbon exploration, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Thursday.

“We sent our Abdülhamid Han drillship from the Mersin Taşucu port, but Greece was very uneasy about it.”

“Greek officials have asked, ‘What is Erdoğan doing?’ Erdoğan is doing nothing, Erdoğan is doing his duty,” the president said in response to remarks while speaking in the capital Ankara at a mass opening ceremony for 34 hydroelectric power plants.

Türkiye on Tuesday sent its fourth drillship, the Abdülhamid Han, from the Taşucu port in the country’s southern Mersin province to the Eastern Mediterranean for hydrocarbon exploration.

Erdoğan added that Türkiye has strengthened its position with its four drillships and two seismic research vessels.

As part of Türkiye’s strategy for hydrocarbon exploration, Abdülhamid Han has recently arrived at its first destination, the Yörükler-1 well offshore in the southern province of Antalya.

The ship, dubbed the strongest of the country’s current fleet of four, will drill exploration wells in the Eastern Mediterranean while other ships, the Yavuz and Kanuni, will continue drilling operations in the Black Sea.

Erdoğan also said: “From the moment we extract the natural gas, you will see how the weather changes in the whole region.”

The new addition to the fleet is a seventh-generation vessel and one of five worldwide with the capability of drilling to depths of up to 12,200 meters (40,026 feet).

The two NATO allies have long been at odds over a number of issues including offshore rights, ownership of uninhabited islets, competing claims over jurisdiction in the Eastern Mediterranean, overlapping claims over their continental shelves, maritime boundaries, airspace, energy, the ethnically split island of Cyprus, the status of the islands in the Aegean Sea and migrants. They have come close to war three times in the past half-century, while NATO stepped in when a dispute over drilling rights for potential oil and gas deposits in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea led to a tense naval standoff in the summer of 2020.

Türkiye says Greece is stationing troops on islands in the Aegean in violation of peace treaties signed after the world wars, demanding that Greece demilitarize its eastern islands, citing the 20th-century treaties that ceded sovereignty of the islands to Greece.

Greece counters that the islands need defenses given threats of war from Türkiye, which has NATO’s second-biggest military and maintains a large landing fleet on its Aegean coast.

Türkiye in recent months has stepped up criticism of Greece stationing troops on islands in the eastern Aegean, near the Turkish coast and in many cases visible from shore. These islands were required to be demilitarized under the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne and the 1947 Treaty of Paris, so any troops or weapons on the islands are strictly forbidden.

Starting with the Treaty of London in 1913, the militarization of the eastern Aegean islands was restricted and their demilitarized status was confirmed with the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923. The Lausanne pact established a political balance between the two countries by harmonizing vital interests, including those in the Aegean.

The 1947 Treaty of Paris, which ceded the Dodecanese islands from Italy to Greece, also confirmed their demilitarized status.

However, Greece argues that the 1936 Montreux Convention on the Turkish Straits should be applied in this case, while Ankara says Greece’s obligation to disarm the islands remains unchanged under the Montreux Convention, highlighting that there is no provision that differentiates it from the Treaty of Lausanne on the issue.

‘Yusufeli dam almost completed’
About the Yusufeli dam in Türkiye’s northeastern Artvin province, Erdogan said it is nearly completed.

“Our highest dam, ‘Yusufeli,’ which will boost Türkiye’s annual electricity production capacity by nearly 1.9 billion kilowatt-hours, is almost completed,” he said.

Erdoğan said the most important opportunity for Türkiye in domestic and renewable energy production is water resources and the structure of the country’s geography has advantages in this regard.

He added that Türkiye has now 605 new hydroelectric power plants, saying: “We no longer suffer from drought, even during the driest seasons, thanks to the fact that we have raised our country’s overall water storage capacity to over 180 billion cubic meters.”

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energy

Greek tankers continue to ship Russian oil as war rages: Report.

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Greek oil tankers continue to transport Russian oil as the war in Ukraine rages on, according to a report on Friday.

The report by Reporters United, an investigative journalism network in Greece, said between March 9 and June 30, more than 50% of Russia’s oil exports were transported by Greek tankers.

Accordingly, the list of Greek shipping magnates involved in the lucrative business include the owners of the country’s biggest private broadcasters, which have harshly criticized Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The report reiterated that Ukrainian officials, including President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Ukrainian Ambassador to Greece Sergei Sutenko, repeatedly denounced the role of Greek tankers in exporting Russia’s oil and pressed Greece to stop but those pleas have had no results.

Previously, data showed that fuel oil arrivals offshore Greece jumped to record levels in April as Moscow saw ship-to-ship (STS) loadings as a new way to export Russian oil under sanctions.

In April, shipments of Russian fuel oil with Greece as a destination reached nearly 0.9 million tons, about double March levels and could reach new records in May, Refinitiv Eikon said at the time.

The bulk of this was shipped from Russian ports to Greece’s Kalamata port, the data showed.

The Greek energy ministry at the time declined to comment on what it said was private companies’ business

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Diplomacy

Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu slams Greek-Cyprus for breaking negotiation process.

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Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu criticized the Greek Cypriot administration for trying to “dilute” negotiations on the Cyprus issue by repackaging and selling the issues they brought to the agenda as “confidence-building steps or measures,” as he said Turkey will continue to protect the rights of Turkish Cypriots at all costs.

Çavuşoğlu, along with Deputy Foreign Minister Sedat Önal and Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) Interior Minister Ziya Öztürkler met with Turkish Cypriots in the town of Lapta in the coastal city of Girne.

Çavuşoğlu said Turkish Cypriots are “precious” to Turkey and it has never left them and the TRNC alone and will never do so.

Emphasizing that he had fruitful meetings with representatives of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) as part of their visit to the TRNC, Çavuşoğlu added that he will meet with his Turkish Cypriot counterpart Tahsin Ertuğruloğlu, TRNC President Ersin Tatar and the negotiation committee to evaluate the latest developments in Cyprus.

“Ahead of Crans Montana, we said ‘we are negotiating for the federation for the last time. After that, there is sovereign equality, not political equality. So, the two-state solution,” Çavuşoğlu underlined.

The initiative in Crans-Montana, Switzerland in July 2017 under the auspices of guarantor countries Turkey, Greece and the United Kingdom ended in failure.

“Two states that will live side by side can cooperate with each other in any way. This is quite natural. We are working to make everyone accept the sovereignty of the Turkish Cypriots,” he added.

Noting that Turkey proposed the 5+1 Cyprus talks held in Geneva last year, Çavuşoğlu said they also clearly expressed their stance on a two-state solution in these talks.

In his meeting with Ertuğruloğlu, Çavuşoğlu said Turkey strives to find solutions to ongoing global crises, including the war in Ukraine and the food crisis, through diplomatic initiatives. He continued by saying that despite the busy schedule, Ankara always prioritizes the TRNC and Turkish Cypriots.

Noting that Turkey has a clear stance regarding the negotiations, Çavuşoğlu said he has highlighted Ankara and TRNC’s position in his meeting with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

“It is about time that we restart negotiation talks between two sovereign and equal states,” Çavuşoğlu said, adding that Turkey tries to make the voice of Turkish Cyprus heard on international platforms.

The top Turkish diplomat also said the Greek Cypriots and Greece spread propaganda claiming that the Cyprus issue started in 1974, contrary to the fact that it started in 1955 and grew toward the 60s and 70s.

In the early 1960s, ethnic attacks forced Turkish Cypriots to withdraw into enclaves for their safety. In 1974, a Greek Cypriot coup aiming at Greece’s annexation of the island led to Turkey’s military intervention as a guarantor power to protect Turkish Cypriots from persecution and violence.

The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) was founded in 1983.

The island has seen an on-and-off peace process in recent years, including a failed 2017 initiative in Switzerland under the auspices of guarantor countries Turkey, Greece and the United Kingdom.

The Greek Cypriot administration entered the European Union in 2004, the same year that Greek Cypriots thwarted the U.N.’s Annan plan to end the decadeslong dispute.

The status of the island remains unresolved, in spite of a series of negotiations over the years.

While Greece and the Greek Cypriot administration support a federation on Cyprus, Turkey and the TRNC insist on a two-state solution reflecting the realities on the island.

The island of Cyprus has been mired in a decadeslong struggle between Greek and Turkish Cypriots, despite a series of diplomatic efforts by the U.N. to achieve a comprehensive settlement. Five decades of Cyprus talks have led nowhere.

The island has been divided since 1964 when ethnic attacks forced Turkish Cypriots to withdraw into enclaves for their safety. In 1974, a Greek Cypriot coup aiming at annexation by Greece led to Turkey’s military intervention as a guarantor power. The TRNC was founded in 1983.

The Greek Cypriot administration, backed by Greece, became a member of the European Union in 2004, even though in a referendum that year most Greek Cypriots rejected a U.N. settlement plan that envisaged a reunited Cyprus joining the EU

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Greek PM Mitsotakis ‘no longer exists’ after US trip: Erdoğan

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President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Monday said Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis “no longer exists” for him after the latter’s remarks and criticism of Turkey during his recent trip to the United States.

In a televised address following a Cabinet meeting, Erdoğan said Mitsotakis spoke against Turkey and urged the U.S. Congress not to allow F-16 fighter jets to be sold to Ankara.

The Biden administration has informally reached out to Congress to seek approval for a proposed sale of advanced weapons and other equipment for NATO ally Turkey’s fleet of F-16 fighter jets.

The package is separate from the multibillion-dollar upgrade deal that Turkey requested from the U.S. last October, asking to buy 40 Lockheed Martin F-16 jets and nearly 80 modernization kits for its existing warplanes.

During his visit to Washington last week, Mitsotakis warned a joint session of Congress against supporting the Biden administration’s proposed military sales to Turkey, claiming such a move could create additional instability in the region.

“We had agreed with him to not include third countries in our dispute,” Erdoğan said. “Despite this, last week, he visited the U.S. and spoke at Congress and warned them not to give F-16s to us,” he noted.

Erdoğan also said Turkey is calling off a key meeting that was planned to be held between the two governments this year.

“This year we were supposed to have a strategic council meeting. There’s no longer anyone called Mitsotakis in my book. I will never agree to have a meeting with him because we only walk on the same path as politicians who keep their promises, who have character and who are honorable,” the president said.

The U.S. is likely “to make up its own mind on selling F-16s to Turkey without needing to consult the Greek premier,” he added.

Erdoğan also accused Greece of harboring members of the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ), the culprit of the July 15, 2016 coup attempt, and of establishing military bases against Turkey.

Greece this month formally extended its bilateral military agreement with the United States for five years, replacing an annual review of the deal that grants the U.S. military access to three bases in mainland Greece as well as the American naval presence on the island of Crete.

“Who is Greece threatening with these bases? Why is Greece establishing these bases?” Erdoğan asked.

Erdoğan also reiterated that Turkey made a mistake by re-accepting Greece into NATO’s military wing in 1980.

Turkey and Greece are at odds over a number of issues, including competing claims over jurisdiction in the Eastern Mediterranean, air space, energy, the ethnically split island of Cyprus and the status of the islands in the Aegean Sea.

A dispute over drilling rights for potential oil and gas deposits in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea led to a tense naval standoff in the summer of 2020. Greece has since embarked on a major military modernization program.

But the two countries also cooperate on energy projects, including a newly built pipeline that transports natural gas from Azerbaijan to Western Europe. The pipeline, which crosses Turkey and Greece, is part of Europe’s effort to reduce dependence on Russian energy.

Turkey, which has the longest continental coastline in the Eastern Mediterranean, has rejected maritime boundary claims by Greece and the Greek Cypriot administration, stressing that their excessive claims violate the sovereign rights of Turkey and the Turkish Cypriots.

Turkish leaders have repeatedly stressed that Ankara is in favor of resolving outstanding problems in the region through international law, good neighborly relations, dialogue and negotiations.

Officials from both countries resumed exploratory talks in 2021 after a five-year pause to lay the groundwork for formal negotiations to begin but haven’t made much progress

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energy

Greece turns into new hub for Russian ship-to-ship fuel oil exports.

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As sanctions on Moscow drive traders to find new ways to export Russian oil via ship-to-ship (STS) loadings, fuel oil arrivals offshore Greece jumped to record levels in April, data showed and sources said.

Trading Russian crude and oil products remain legal for now as the European Union is yet to fully agree on a proposed embargo, but banking and other financial sanctions on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24 have made it increasingly more difficult to do so.

In April, shipments of Russian fuel oil with Greece as a destination reached nearly 0.9 million tons, about double March levels and could reach new records in May, according to Refinitiv Eikon data.

The bulk of this was shipped from Russian ports to Greece’s Kalamata port, the data showed.

The Greek energy ministry declined to comment on what it said was private companies’ business.

Traders said the fuel oil – a by-product of refining crude oil into lighter, cleaner products like auto fuels – is being stored and blended offshore onboard tankers and being loaded via ship-to-ship transfer for re-export.

While it is not uncommon for fuel oil to load offshore Greece for exports to other destinations, the level of activity was very high compared to normal April levels, one industry source said.

The Evridiki tanker, which has the capacity to load 130,000 tons, loaded a Russian fuel oil cargo in mid-April off Kalamata, two shipping sources said.

The tanker then made its way to the United Arab Emirates oil hub of Fjairah, Refinitiv data shows. Russia has been increasing fuel exports to the hub, with arrivals set to jump to about 2.5 million barrels according to data from oil analytics firm Vortexa.

Another tanker, Okeanos, with the same capacity, loaded fuel oil via STS off Kalamata earlier this month and is currently heading to India, the data shows.

The Kriti King, which loaded a 130,000-ton fuel oil cargo offshore Kalamata in early May, is currently heading to China, according to Refinitiv data.

Shipping sources told Reuters that Russian oil sellers have restored STS operations in Rotterdam and near Spain’s Ceuta, after EU sanctions and activist protests derailed such operations in Denmark.

Moscow calls its invasion of Ukraine a “special military operation” to rid the country of fascists, an assertion Kyiv and its allies say is a baseless pretext for an unprovoked war.

Fuel oil is used as a shipping fuel, in power generation, or as feedstock for some refining units which upgrade it into other fuels.

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Balkans

Serbia vows to fight Kosovo’s joining of European Council.

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Kosovo applied to become a member of the Council of Europe Thursday, with officials in Belgrade vowing to prevent Pristina from joining any international organizations and stepping up their anti-recognition campaign.

The application was filed weeks after Russia, a key ally of Serbia, pulled out of the body in March after calls grew for Moscow’s expulsion over its invasion of Ukraine.

Being accepted into the continent’s top human rights organization requires a two-thirds vote by members, and with Russia not recognizing Kosovo as an independent state, there had been a risk any previous application would fail.

Kosovo says it now has enough backing from the 46-member body to be accepted and the government said it had ordered the foreign ministry to start membership procedures.

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Ethnic Albanian-majority Kosovo proclaimed independence from Serbia in 2008. But Serbia as well as its powerful allies China and Russia still do not recognize the move.

Kosovo has incorporated the European Convention on Human Rights, a founding document of the Council of Europe, in its constitution. The Council of Europe, which was set up after World War II to promote human rights, the rule of law and democracy, already has an office in Kosovo to assist with democratic reforms.

“Kosovo is the most democratic country in the (Western Balkans) region,” Foreign Minister Donika Gervalla-Schwarz said on her ministry’s Facebook page, as she announced the application.

But Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said his country would “do everything” to oppose Pristina’s move in a “peaceful and diplomatic way.”

He previously warned Serbia would renew efforts to convince countries that have recognized Kosovo’s independence to change their minds.

“In the coming weeks, we will do our best to show that we can fight and preserve our country,” he told a local television channel Thursday.

Vucic called for a national security council meeting Friday on the issue.

“There will be no retreat, no surrender in the face of blackmails and ultimatums,” he added.

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Serbian Foreign Minister Nikola Selakovic also said on Friday that four countries have withdrawn the recognition of Kosovo’s independence.

“Through the work of our security services, we have come to the information that at least two large countries are working to support Pristina on new recognitions and to prevent the campaign of withdrawing recognition,” he said.

He said that the Government of Serbia and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would “continue to fight fiercely” and work on withdrawing the recognition of Kosovo.

Gervalla-Schwarz, however, said that Pristina has no information that four countries have withdrawn their recognition of Kosovo.

“We are under pressure to accept the violation of territorial integrity, the violation of international public law, the legal order, to our detriment. The U.S. Government, through a statement from the State Department, issued on the occasion of the first anniversary of the Washington Agreement, made it clear that the U.S. considers the agreement valid and called on Belgrade and Pristina to respect the agreement,” Selakovic said.

Kosovo agreed to freeze for a year its efforts to join international organizations, based on the terms of a U.S.-mediated deal in September 2020.

Serbia, for its part, agreed to halt its campaign to persuade countries to revoke their decision to recognize Kosovo’s independence.

Tensions between Belgrade and Pristina have remained high since the 1998-1999 war between ethnic Albanian militias and Serbian forces in Kosovo, then a Serbian province stripped of its autonomy.

The conflict left more than 13,000 dead and 1,617 people still missing. NATO’s intervention in the form of a bombing campaign on Serbia ended the war.

Kosovo is already recognized by 117 countries, including the U.S. and most of the European Union member states. Spain, Romania, Greece, Greek Cyprus and Slovakia are EU nations that have not recognized Kosovo, a landlocked country with a predominantly Albanian population of 1.9 million, as an independent state.

In November 2015, Kosovo failed to become a member of the U.N. cultural organization UNESCO after Belgrade lobbied against the application. But Kosovo joined the European football body UEFA and the international soccer body FIFA in May 2016.

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Turkey help escape Greek citizen, UN staff from Ukraine.

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As Turkey continues its large-scale evacuation efforts in Ukraine amid the Russian invasion of the country, diplomatic sources have revealed that Ankara also helped evacuate personnel belonging to several international organizations as well as foreign citizens.

Among the individuals who Turkey helped facilitate the evacuation of were personnel from the United Nations and Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the sources told Daily Sabah, adding that citizens from several countries, including a Greek national, were also evacuated.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also praised Turkey’s efforts in a phone call with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Sunday.

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“Turkey is making great efforts to achieve a cease-fire in the Russia-Ukraine war and to re-establish peace. It is also working hard on the issues of humanitarian aid and evacuations,” Erdoğan told Guterres, according to a statement from the Communications Directorate.


Since Russia launched its war on Ukraine on Feb. 24, more than 2.5 million people have fled to other countries, with some 2 million more displaced within the country.


Balkans

Erdoğan, Mitsotakis emphasize importance of Turkey-Greek union.

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The meeting between President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis focused on the regional benefits of enhancing bilateral cooperation and emphasis of positive developments between the two countries in their meeting held on Sunday.

According to a statement by the presidential communications directorate, the two leaders also highlighted the idea that Turkey and Greece have a special responsibility in building Europe’s security in the face of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

They also agreed on keeping communication channels open and improving bilateral relations despite disagreements between Turkey and Greece, the statement said.

Touching on the steps taken by Turkey to turn a new page in relations with Greece, Erdoğan said he believes they will take steps to address problems in the Aegean Sea, minorities, counterterrorism initiatives, irregular migration and more.

Noting that the problems can be solved through sincere and honest dialogue, Erdoğan said the two neighboring countries need to always keep in touch and just during crises.

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The luncheon started at 2.00 p.m. local time (1100GMT) at the Vahdettin Mansion. The meeting was held behind doors.

According to a statement released by Ankara, bilateral relations and regional issues would be discussed during the reception.

“The meeting is expected to evaluate issues related to bilateral relations, as well as current geopolitical developments and regional and international issues, including the reflections of the Russia-Ukraine War,” it added.

The meeting comes as Ankara seeks to shore up its credentials as a regional power player by mediating the conflict.

On Thursday, the Turkish resort city of Antalya hosted the first talks between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba since the start of Russia’s invasion.

However, Ukraine’s Dmytro Kuleba said the meeting yielded “no progress” in achieving a cease-fire to the fighting that has displaced 2.2 million people and forced them to flee across Ukraine’s borders. Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow wanted to continue negotiations with Kyiv.

Turkey stressed that humanitarian corridors in Ukraine should be kept open without any obstacles, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said underlining the need for a sustainable cease-fire.

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Earlier on Sunday, Mitsotakis attended a service at Istanbul’s Fener Greek Orthodox Patriarchate and met with the Istanbul-based Greek Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew.

The Greek government spokesperson this week said Mitsotakis was already due to visit Patriarch Bartholomew on Sunday and had been invited for lunch by Erdoğan at the presidential mansion on the banks of the Bosphorus.

Mitsotakis had said he was heading to Turkey in a “productive mood” and with “measured” expectations.

“As partners in NATO, we are called upon … to try to keep our region away from any additional geopolitical crisis,” he told a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

“It’s our long-standing position that the door to dialogue must remain open, just as the door to threats must remain closed,” Mitsotakis also said of his scheduled meeting with Erdoğan.

Alongside its European partners, Athens strongly condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, calling it a “revisionist” attack and “flagrant violation of international law.”

NATO allies and neighbors Turkey and Greece are at odds over a number of issues, including competing claims over jurisdiction in the Eastern Mediterranean, air space, energy, the ethnically split island of Cyprus and the status of the islands in the Aegean Sea.

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A dispute over drilling rights for potential oil and gas deposits in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea led to a tense naval standoff in the summer of 2020. Greece has since embarked on a major military modernization program.

But the two countries also cooperate on energy projects, including a newly built pipeline that transports natural gas from Azerbaijan to Western Europe. The pipeline, which crosses Turkey and Greece, is part of Europe’s effort to reduce dependence on Russian energy.

Turkey, which has the longest continental coastline in the Eastern Mediterranean, has rejected maritime boundary claims by Greece and the Greek Cypriot administration, stressing that their excessive claims violate the sovereign rights of Turkey and the Turkish Cypriots.

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Turkish leaders have repeatedly stressed that Ankara is in favor of resolving outstanding problems in the region through international law, good neighborly relations, dialogue and negotiations.

Senior Turkish officials continue to question Greek sovereignty over parts of the Aegean Sea but, last year, Ankara resumed bilateral talks with Athens.

Balkans

‘Greek discrimination against Turkish minority violates EU laws’

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A European political party criticized Greece for its discriminatory policies toward the Muslim Turkish minority, saying that it violates the country’s obligations under European Union law.

In a letter to the European Commission on Wednesday, the president of the European Free Alliance (EFA), Lorena Lopez de Lacalle, asked about the steps they would take to ensure that Greece’s Muslim Turkish minority can exercise their right to education without compromising their religious duties, the EFA said in a statement.

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The letter, which was sent to European Commissioner for Equality Helena Dalli, expressed the party’s concern about a recent decree banning minority primary schools in the regions where most of Greece’s Muslim Turkish minority is concentrated from closing early on Fridays to allow their students to attend prayers, according to the statement.

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“Preventing school children from attending Friday prayers constitutes discrimination against the Muslim community and (there are) fears that the goal of such a decision is ‘assimilation,'” the statement said.

Against this background, the party said: “Will the commission open an investigation to establish whether the actions of the Greek authorities in this case constitute a violation of their obligations under European law?”

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The statement also drew attention to the current situation of Turkish minority schools.

It underlined that the number of schools offering curricula in both Turkish and Greek had declined from 230 to 103 in the last two decades.

“Taken together, these measures suggest a deliberate campaign to undermine the community’s rights both to practice their religion freely and to receive education in their native language.”

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A Greek court ruling Wednesday denying an application by the Turkish Union of Xanthi, one of the three most important organizations of the Turkish minority of Western Thrace, to reregister came in response to a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) more than a decade ago that Greece has never carried out.

Under the 2008 ECHR ruling, the right of Turks in Western Thrace to use the word “Turkish” in names of associations was guaranteed, but Athens has failed to carry out the ruling, effectively banning the Turkish group’s identity.

Greece’s Western Thrace region is home to a Muslim Turkish community of 150,000.

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In 1983, the nameplate of the Turkish Union of Xanthi (Iskeçe Türk Birliği) was removed and the group was completely banned in 1986 on the pretext that “Turkish” was in its name.

To apply the ECHR decision, in 2017, the Greek parliament passed a law enabling banned associations to apply for re-registration, but the legislation included major exceptions that complicated applications.

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Turkey has long decried Greek violations of the rights of its Muslims and the Turkish minority, from closing mosques and shutting schools to not letting Muslim Turks elect their religious leaders.

The measures violate the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne as well as ECHR verdicts, making Greece a state that flouts the law, Turkish officials say.

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In the news

North Macedonia former minister’jailed’

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The 55-year-old reappeared Tuesday afternoon, claiming he had been in isolation for possible Covid-19 symptoms.

North Macedonia’s former secret police chief was handed 12 years in prison Friday for running a sprawling illegal wiretapping operation that plunged the country into a political crisis in 2015.

Saso Mijalkov, one of the most powerful figures in the former regime led by ex-prime minister Nikola Gruevski, was among 11 people sentenced for the surveillance campaign by the criminal court in Skopje.

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While delivering the verdict, which can be appealed, a judge said it was a message that “there are no untouchables” in the Balkan state.

“When officials with that kind of power break the law, it is a demolition of the foundations of the state”, said the leading judge in the case, Dzeneta Begtovic.

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According to the verdict, the secret service tapped almost 5,000 telephone numbers without a court order between 2008 and 2015, with the goal of gaining political and economic advantages.

Among the targets were politicians from both the government and the opposition, journalists, NGO leaders and other influential figures.

The scheme was revealed by then-opposition leader and now Prime Minister Zoran Zaev in February 2015, precipitating a political crisis that ended with Gruevski’s ouster after more than a decade in power.

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The former strongman later fled to Hungary to evade a corruption conviction in 2018.

Former intelligence chief Mijalkov, who is Gruevski’s first cousin, was feared to have followed a similar path earlier this week when police could not locate him for some 48 hours starting on Sunday.

The 55-year-old reappeared Tuesday afternoon, claiming he had been in isolation for possible Covid-19 symptoms.

He was taken into prison custody after the ruling.

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Also convicted was former interior minister Gordana Jankulovska, who was sentenced to four years in prison.

The harshest sentences of 15 years were delivered in absentia to two former secret service agents who have decamped to Greece.

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#Newsworthy

In the news

News+: Building collapse amid powerful earthquake in Petrinja

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The Balkan region lies on major fault lines and is regularly hit by earthquakes.

A powerful 6.4 magnitude earthquake tore down buildings in central Croatia on Tuesday, striking near the town of Petrinja where rescue teams raced to comb through the rubble.

The tremor, one of the strongest to rock Croatia in recent years, collapsed rooftops in Petrinja, home to some 20,000 people, and left the streets strewn with bricks and other debris.

“We are pulling people from the cars, we don’t know if we have dead or injured,” Darinko Dumbovic, the mayor of Petrinja told regional broadcaster N1.

“There is general panic, people are looking for their loved ones,” he added.

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Rescue workers and the army were deployed to search for trapped residents, with no casualties initially reported.

“I’m scared, I can’t reach anyone at home as the phone lines are dead,” one worried woman in Petrinja told N1.

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The quake was also felt in the capital Zagreb, 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of the epicentre, where tiles were ripped off roofs and panicked residents gathered streets, according to an AFP reporter.

Electricity was cut in the city centre.

Two quakes
The quake, which struck around 1130 GMT according to the US Geological Survey (USGS), rattled Petrinja just one day after a smaller earthquake struck the town, causing some damage to buildings.

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The tremors reverberated across neighbouring countries, including Serbia, Slovenia and as far away as the Austrian capital Vienna.

As a precaution, Slovenia moved to shut down the Krsko nuclear power plan it co-owns with Croatia.

European Union leaders said they were closely following the “devastating earthquake” in member state Croatia.

“We are ready to support,” European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen wrote on Twitter, adding that the bloc’s civil protection team was “ready to travel to Croatia as soon as the situation allows”.

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Charles Michel, president of the European Council, said “our thoughts go out to the injured and frontline workers”.

In March, Zagreb was damaged by a 5.3-magnitude quake, the most powerful to hit the capital decades.

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#Newsworthy

In the news

COVID-19: Greece Gov’t shut down schools amid new virus surge.

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This lockdown started November 7 and is to last until November 30, although experts suggest it might last longer.

Greece announced on Saturday the closure of its primary schools, kindergartens and daycare centres amid a surge in coronavirus cases that has saturated the national health system.

“The Greek government decided the suspension of the functioning of schools until November 30,” said a statement from Health Minister Vassilis Kikilias.

“Closing elementary schools was the last thing we wanted to do. This is a measure of how serious the situation is,” he added.

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Secondary schools have already closed and all lessons have taken place remotely since Monday.

Most European countries have kept schools open during the second wave of cases that have hit the continent since September, unlike in March and April when they were shuttered during the first lockdowns.

The World Health Organisation recommends that schools only be shut as a last resort.

Since late October, the daily number of deaths in Greece has quadrupled with 50 deaths reported some days, while the number of infections has doubled to around 3,000 cases daily.

Out of the 1,143 total, intensive care unit beds nationwide on Friday 830 were occupied.

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“The coming weeks will be extremely critical”, Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis said Thursday in the Greek Parliament where he was briefing MPs for the second lockdown since March.

Since Friday night a curfew from 9 pm to 5am has been imposed all over Greece.

The country with a population of 10.9 million people has experienced 997 deaths and 69,675 contaminations since the beginning of the pandemic in late February, most of them in the last four months.

The most hard-hit area is the northern city of Thessaloniki, the second-largest city in Greece.

“The health system is in the red,” Health Minister Kikilias has warned.

#Newsworthy…

In the news

Montenegro’s Bosniaks in ‘fear & anxiety’ after election.

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Bosniak minority has been targeted in series of attacks after election ends in a new majority dominated by nationalists.

Bosniak citizens of Montenegro say fear and anxiety pervades their communities after a series of attacks and vandalism targeted the minority population following the country’s parliamentary election, which ushered in a new majority government dominated by right-wing nationalists.

The intense election campaign pitted President Milo Djukanovic’s pro-Western Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) against the right-wing “For the Future of Montenegro” (ZBCG) bloc, comprised mainly of Serb nationalist parties that seek closer ties with Belgrade and Moscow.

ZBCG, combined with two other opposition alliances, achieved a razor-thin majority grabbing 41 out of 81 seats in parliament, bringing the DPS rule to an end after leading the NATO-member country for 30 years.

The campaign largely focused on a dispute over a law on religious rights introduced in late 2019, staunchly opposed by the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC).

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The SPC argued the law allows the state to confiscate its property in order to set up a separate church, sparking protests over the last 10 months supported by the opposition. The government has denied the allegation.

Opposition supporters celebrate after parliamentary elections in front of the Serbian Orthodox Church of Christ’s Resurrection in Podgorica, Montenegro [Risto Bozovic/AP]

Attacks and provocations against Bosniaks began as soon as exit poll results were released last Sunday and opposition supporters began celebrating on the streets.

Bosniaks are the third largest ethnic group in the small Adriatic nation of 622,000 after Montenegrins and Serbs.

Two Bosniaks, a young man and his father, were attacked at a cafe in the city centre of Pljevlja on Sunday evening

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Abid Sabanovic, 22, from the town of Pljevlja told Noble Reporters Media‘s known Media some far-right supporters drove through Bosniak neighbourhoods with the sole aim of provoking residents there.

“These parts of the city aren’t situated on the main roads so there was no reason to go there,” Sabanovic said, adding the supporters were singing ultranationalist Chetnik songs about Draza Mihajlovic – a World War II-era Chetnik Serb figure .

“Such lyrics have nothing to do with the election, rather they represent an expression of nationalism,” Sabanovic said, adding there is “fear, anxiety” among Bosniaks.

Mihajlovic was the leader of the Serb nationalist Chetnik movement, many members of which collaborated with Nazi forces. According to historians, Chetnik forces killed tens of thousands of Bosniaks, Croats and other non-Serbs in the former Yugoslavia.

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History repeated itself in the early 1990s when Serb forces identifying with the Chetnik movement committed genocide and war crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina, killing Bosniaks and Croats to make way for a Greater Serbia.

Bosniaks in neighbouring Pljevelja, situated 40km east of the Bosnian border, were not exempt from violence either. In 1992, with the outbreak of war in neighbouring Bosnia, authorities persecuted and killed Bosniaks in and around Pljevlja.

By July of that year, more than a dozen Bosniak villages near Pljevlja were “ethnically-cleansed”, and in September a series of 27 explosions targeted Bosniak stores and homes. Mosques were destroyed.

“It’s not surprising [they were singing ultranationalist songs] considering that both the SPC and the leading opposition party nurture ultranationalism and the Chetnikism,” Sabanovic said.

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Threats of genocide
On Tuesday, unknown assailants broke the windows of the Islamic community’s local office in Pljevlja and left a note reading: “Plevlja will be Srebrenica”, referring to the genocide against Bosniaks committed by Serb forces in July 1995 in Srebrenica, Bosnia.

The attacks continued until Thursday when the head imam in Pljevlja posted photos on Facebook showing graffiti scrawled on the brick wall and windows of a property reading “Turks” and “Srebrenica”.

An opposition supporter holds up a flag reading Russia after general elections in Podgorica, Montenegro [Savo Prelevic/AFP]

Also drawn was the 4S cross, an old Serbian symbol used by Serbian far-right nationalists.

Photos were shared on social media of messages written on roads and signs in a village near Pljevlja reading: “Move out Turks”, “Srebrenica”, 4S and “92”.

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“Some are really afraid. We often hear from elders how this all reminds them of 1992 when the terror against the Bosniak population of Pljevlja reached its peak,” Sabanovic said.

“Some are avoiding going out on the streets, which is understandable because there were a few instances where security for Bosniaks or their properties were threatened. It’s purely an expression of power.”

Policy analyst Ljubomir Filipovic from Budva told Al Jazeera the violence makes not only Bosniaks, but all progressive people worried about the future of Montenegro.

“The biggest group in the opposition is a xenophobic and Islamophobic community, which was supported by a 10-months long campaign that was portraying ethnic and religious minorities as the ‘regime collaborators’, thus creating a prelude to the violence that is taking place in the Montenegrin streets these days,” Filipovic said.

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Defending mosques?

On Wednesday, leader of ZBCG Zdravko Krivokapic stood with priests of the SPC in front of Pljevlja’s main mosque and site of attacks, holding a banner reading: “We don’t give up holy sites!” in support of the mosque, regional media reported.

Regarding the attack on Pljevlja’s mosque, Krivokapic said at a news conference the same day, “We will defend mosques just as we defended monasteries.”

He added the opposition was not behind the Islamophobic attacks, rather it was “the result of the work of the regime system”, referring to Djukanovic’s DPS, Serbian media reported.

But Sabanovic said as long as pro-Serb leaders do not distance themselves from Chetniks and their ideology – which aims for a homogenous Serbia without minorities – their “defence” of Islamic holy sites cannot be taken seriously.

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“An MP of the Democratic Front [part of the ZBCG bloc] has the title of a Chetnik ruler … We know [the SPC’s most senior bishop in Montenegro] Amfilohije spoke publicly about friendship with [Bosnian Serb convicted war criminal] Radovan Karadzic, the executioner of Bosniaks in Bosnia and Herzegovina,” Sabanovic said.

“In 2014, [Amfilohije] spoke about how Islam is a false religion and Muslims are false people [and] that Montenegrins are a creation of communism.

“For the SPC, their banner in front of the mosque has no significance if the genocidal ideology which nearly exterminated the Bosniaks of Pljevlja villages and other parts of Sandzak and eastern Bosnia … is not condemned,” Sabanovic said.

“They only turn out to be hypocrites who obviously only care about scoring cheap political points.”

#Newsworthy…