About: ethnic tensions Archives

Bulgaria called the claim by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that Bulgaria and Albania were trying to split Macedonia “highly irresponsible”, as part of a scenario that would prevent the small landlocked country from taking part in the Gazprom-favoured Turkish Stream project.

Macedonia's prime minister, under international pressure to resolve a political crisis in the troubled Balkan country, held talks yesterday (14 May) with opposition and ethnic Albanian party leaders.

Authorities in Burundi arrested a leading dissident and shut down the main independent radio station Monday (27 April) as they battled a second day of demonstrations against a bid by the president to cling to power for a third term.

Fourteen years since NATO pulled Macedonia from the brink of civil war, the ex-Yugoslav republic once hailed as a success-story of Western intervention is embroiled in a scandal that critics say has exposed its democracy as hollow, and could potentially reopen a dangerous ethnic divide.

EU envoys to Macedonia blamed the Gruevski government for leading the country towards catastrophe, urging those in power, and the opposition, to agree on a roadmap that would prevent the Balkan state from exploding. However, they recognise that such a dialogue is hardly possible.

Macedonia's chief opposition leader was charged by police on Saturday (31 January) with conspiring with a foreign intelligence service to topple the government.

The European Union agreed yesterday (15 December) to implement a German-British plan to revive Bosnia and Herzegovina's bid to join the bloc, which rests on a new government's commitment to reform.

The first visit by an Albanian prime minister to Belgrade in 68 years was designed to mark a new phase in Serbian-Albanian relations, and send an important signal to the European Union on the readiness of the two countries to cooperate. But, in fact, it opened old wounds. EURACTIV Serbia reports.

Nationalists with little shared vision of Bosnia and Herzegovina's future were in the lead in an election for the three-person presidency yesterday (12 October), likely portending more dysfunction in a country still haunted by the divisions of a 1992-95 war.

The recent agreement between Kosovo and Serbia requires that all parallel structures such as police or courts in the Serbia-populated Northern Kosovo should be dismantled, Kosovo Foreign Minister Enver Hoxhaj told  EurActic Slovakia in an exclusive interview.

For Bucharest, exchanging accusations with Hungary offers an opportunity to temporarily distract attention from its domestic situation. The country is emerging from the political crisis that engulfed it in 2012 caused by a dispute between Ponta and President Traian Basescu, writes Stratfor.

At least five Kosovo Serbs and a NATO soldier were wounded in a gunfight today (1 June), as peacekeepers tried to dismantle Serb roadblocks blocking traffic, a Reuters witness said.

Hundreds of young Macedonia Slavs marched in Skopje yesterday (17 April) to protest against the killings of five fishermen north of the capital. Speculation about Albanian-led gang-style executions were reinforced by threats from a so-called "Army for the liberation of Albanian lands" to launch new attacks. 

The visit of Bulgaria's ruling party presidential candidate to Brussels yesterday (26 September), seeking support from his European political family the EPP, was overshadowed by ethnic violence in his home country. Dnevnik, the EURACTIV partner in Bulgaria, contributed to this article.

The Serb entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina has abandoned its idea of holding a referendum on the legality of the country's national court, the European Commission announced today (13 May), as the EU's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton was on a visit to the country.

Receiving Kyrgyz President Roza Otunbaeva in Brussels yesterday (1 March), European Commission President José Manuel Barroso encouraged the former Soviet republic, which is trying to build the first parliamentary democracy in Central Asia, to stand firm on economic and political reforms.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned Bosnia yesterday (12 October) that it must catch up with its neighbours and integrate into Europe, saying it was time for the country to unite to deliver the promise of 1995 peace accords.