Latest Articles about Europe
Back with a Vengeance: Turkish Hezbollah
In a recent report submitted to the country’s National Security Council (NSC), Turkish police warned that the most powerful militant Islamist group in recent Turkish history has now recovered from the killing of its founder and the arrest of a substantial proportion of its armed... MORE
PUTIN-VORONIN FAREWELL: AN ANTI-CLIMACTIC CODA
Presidents Vladimir Putin of Russia and Vladimir Voronin of Moldova met on January 22 in Moscow for the last time in their presidencies. Voronin was still hoping against hope that Putin might finally deliver a settlement of the Transnistria conflict on terms compatible with Moldovan... MORE
AGREEMENT TO INTEGRATE BULGARIA INTO RUSSIA’S GAS NETWORK
The agreements signed on January 18 in Sofia in President Vladimir Putin’s presence pave the way for Bulgaria’s inclusion in Russia’s expanding energy networks. From President Giorgi Parvanov and Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev on down, Bulgarian officials are hailing this set of agreements as the... MORE
U.S. Applies Terrorist Designation to Kurdistan Freedom Falcons
Following a full month of Turkish military strikes on bases of the rebel Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in northern Iraq, the movement appears to have signaled a switch to urban warfare with the January 3 Diyarbakır bombing in southeastern Turkey that killed seven (Anatolia, January... MORE
YUSHCHENKO STRIVES TO DOMINATE TYMOSHENKO GOVERNMENT
The political honeymoon between Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko appears to be over. Yushchenko has thwarted Tymoshenko’s planned visit to Moscow, torpedoed planned appointments to her government, disagreed with her privatization plan, and come up with a package of bills aimed... MORE
TYMOSHENKO AND YUSHCHENKO CLASH OVER BATTLING CORRUPTION
Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has made combating corruption and strengthening the rule of law central elements in her government’s policy. She is apparently starting at the highest levels of the government. The issue of the lack of action against corruption led to a physical... MORE
UKRAINE’S TOP THREE LEADERS REQUEST NATO MEMBERSHIP ACTION PLAN
On January 16 Ukraine's President Viktor Yushchenko, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, and Parliament Chairman Arseny Yatsenyuk made public a joint letter to NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, declaring Ukraine's readiness to advance to a Membership Action Plan (MAP) with NATO and requesting a... MORE
Turkey in Denial of al-Qaeda Threat
While the Turkish government would describe itself as a full participant in the “War on Terrorism,” there is a tendency by the public to view this conflict primarily as a struggle against Kurdish militants, and only to a lesser extent against al-Qaeda. Nonetheless, two recent... MORE
Belgium and the Netherlands Ring in the New Year under the Shadow of Terrorism
For the first time in decades, there were no fireworks illuminating the sky of Belgium’s capital during the New Year celebrations. A few days earlier, the Belgian government had decided that—due to the increased risk of a terrorist attack—the annual event where thousands gather in... MORE
NEW UKRAINIAN PRIME MINISTER LAUNCHES STATE AUDITS, SAVINGS PAYOUTS
Having barely formed her Cabinet of Ministers, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko got down to business. She resumed several campaigns that she had launched when she was prime minister in 2005 but were dismissed by her successors as too “populist.” In addition to starting to reshape... MORE