Serbia Recalls All Diplomats from Macedonia, Accuses Macedonia of Illegal Surveillance
The latest diplomatic gossip from the Balkans, where Serbia has abruptly withdrawn its entire embassy staff from Macedonia and then accused the country’s prime minister of “betraying Serbia” and illegally bugging the Serbian president. On Sunday night, Serbia pulled its entire embassy staff out of Macedonia. President Aleksandar Vucic claimed authorities had discovered that Skopje was…
Placing All Bets on Memorials: Memory Mania Goes Balkans
As Confederate war memorials are being removed or relocated across the United States, Ana Milosevic looks at “memory mania” in the Balkans — and the various meanings and purposes of monuments. At a recent symposium on European remembrance, I asked three experts in dealing with the past about the road…
In Sarajevo, the Ruling Party’s “Victory Over Anti-Fascism”
A young city official has proposed renaming Tito Street in Sarajevo. Harm Rudolf Kern on the party politics and ideology behind the controversial idea. In the name of Allah and a new generation of Bosniaks, Sarajevo Old Town councilor Tarik Dautović, announced last week that he would make every effort to…
A Visit to Zagreb’s Antifascist Dotršćina Memorial Park
Zagreb’s biggest park does not appear to be much visited by the public despite its many striking sculptures, monuments and stray lines of poetry scratched into stone. The forested area contains the Dotršćina Memorial Park, the site where the worst mass war crimes in the modern history of the city…
Bulgaria’s Far-Right is in Government, But Still Flying Under the Radar
As the far-right asserts itself with increasing aggressiveness around the world, Michael Colborne sheds light on Bulgaria, where the far-right has managed to infiltrate all corners of the political mainstream. It’s been more than a hundred days since a gaggle of far-right firebrands became part of Bulgaria’s new government – and it’s passed…
Southern Europe’s Summer Inferno: Silence of the Nationalists
Record-breaking temperatures have become something of a cliché. 2017, we are told, is set to round off a hat-trick of hottest years as global warming rates rise to their highest level since the interglacial Eemian period. But while Brits and Germans celebrated the June heatwave with BBQs – before the…
“Not FETÖ, But NATO”
Turkey’s failed July 15, 2016 coup attempt has torn apart the country’s military and shifted power towards those more skeptical of the intergovernmental alliance. Not long after 9 pm on the evening of July 15, 2016, Turkey’s Chief of Staff, 2nd Chief of Staff, Land Forces Chief and eight…
How One Photographer is Analyzing the Intersection of Class and Pseudo-Luxury in Post-Communist Albania
In a new book of photographs by artist Anna Ehrenstein, Tales of Lipstick and Virtue, intersections of class and pseudo-luxury are conspicuously unpacked in striking works that reconcile changing notions of female identity emerging in contemporary Albanian life. The photographs—mostly fake-stills Ehrenstein composed on the streets of Tirana—depict women confronting…
An Interview with Buta, the King of Albanian Trap
Buta is the freshest new face in Albanian rap. He’s the reigning revolutionary of trap music, currently the most fashionable subgenre of rap in the Albanosphere, both in flow and content. People who like rap but don’t understand Albanian can easily appreciate his smooth flow. And those who understand the…
Memory Overproduction: Turbo Sculpture and the Bizarre Statues of Belgrade
A curious array of monuments have been cropping up all over Belgrade recently, with statues of Andy Warhol, a Stalinist poet from Kazakhstan, and a late dictator from Azerbaijan all already raised or planned. What do such seemingly incoherent monuments say about politics and memory in the city and region? It is…
nefarious conspiracies is happening this week https://t.co/5ZRZw4gIY9
Tomorrow's Serbian tabloids all running the same story about Macedonia. This doesn't looks good.
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As if he made a bet with Dodik on who dares to be more extreme in nationalist statements. https://t.co/Aioj8r3L1g