Latest Articles about Europe
NEW COALITION OR EARLY ELECTION FOR UKRAINE
On September 16 Ukrainian parliament speaker Arseny Yatsenyuk pronounced the ruling coalition of President Viktor Yushchenko’s Our Ukraine-People’s Self-Defense (NUNS) and the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc (BYT) officially dead. If no new coalition emerges within 30 days, Yushchenko will be entitled to disband parliament and call... MORE
UKRAINE, VANCO ENERGY, AND THE RUSSIAN MOB
The saga of Houston-based Vanco Energy Company’s conflict with the Ukrainian government over a shady production-sharing agreement (PSA) to explore the Black Sea shelf for oil and gas has taken a new twist. Recently uncovered evidence suggests that one or more of Vanco Energy Company’s... MORE
RUSSIAN PASSPORTS AS MOSCOW’S GEOPOLITICAL TOOL
The official protest by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) on September 11 over the allegedly “unfriendly” attitudes of the Ukrainian authorities to Russia was met by a stern response on the same day by Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry (www.mfa.gov.ua). Russia’s MFA protested about President... MORE
Bosnian Authorities Face Charges Over Transfer of “Algerian Six” to Guantanamo
Former Bosnian officials who handed over six members of the so-called “Algerian Group” to U.S. authorities, who in turn transferred them to the Guantanamo Bay military detention center, are facing an inquiry into their actions, which the Sarajevo Prosecutor's Office describes as illegal. The Prosecutor's... MORE
Is the PKK Seeking New Bases in the Turkish Interior?
As of August 2008, it appears that operations of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan – PKK) have shifted toward a strip of Turkish territory crossing through Tunceli, Bingol, Mus, and Bitlis provinces, a region where the PKK previously conducted limited activities. The following... MORE
SURPRISING AND CONTRADICTORY OPINIONS ON THE UKRAINIAN STREETS
A number of recent public opinion polls in Ukraine reveal that regional differences toward Russia after the war in Georgia remain a factor but are not as extreme as some media reports present them to be. A poll conducted from 19 to 22 August by... MORE
CRISIS IN UKRAINE
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko is ready to call an early parliamentary election as his party, Our Ukraine – People’s Self-Defense (NUNS), withdrew from a coalition with Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s Bloc (BYT). According to Ukrainian laws, NUNS has time until September 13 to change its... MORE
Murky Past of Turkey’s Gendarmerie Intelligence Emerges in Ergenekon Investigation
In late August, the Turkish media reported that retired Colonel Arif Dogan had confessed to being the founder of the intelligence wing of the Turkish Gendarmerie, known in Turkish as the Jandarma Istihbarat ve Terorle Mucadele (JITEM - Gendarmerie Intelligence and Anti-Terror), a controversial security... MORE
THE STATE OF THE UKRAINIAN MILITARY
During the August 2008 commemoration of the 17th anniversary of Ukrainian independence, armored units of Ukraine’s ground forces paraded down Kyiv’s Khreschatyk Boulevard, while air force planes flew overhead in a show of Ukrainian military might and preparedness. The decision to include a full-scale military... MORE
Responsibility for Bombings in Western Turkey Disputed by PKK and the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons
Two terrorist attacks committed in Turkish port cities in only three days, one in Mersin (on the Mediterranean coast of southern Turkey) on August 19 and the second in Izmir (formerly known as Smyrna, on the Aegean Sea) on August 21, have highlighted the difficulty... MORE