southeastern europe

PETROS MARKARIS IN CONVERSATION with Umut Özkırımlı and Spyros A. Sofos The everyday reality in the political landscape of the Balkan Peninsula is that of endless controversies between the Balkan countries. These controversies have, however, some common characteristics: a) the government of each country is deeply convinced that he is fighting a just cause, and insists that the other party should move back and make concessions. b) Both parties consider any compromise or attempt to make concessions as a national betrayal. Do you think that this attitude is a result of ethnic or religious differences? Or is it because the Balkan countries and their governments believe, beyond any reasonable doubt, that they are always “victims” of other countries and that there are in an endless struggle to correct something “wrong” that others did to them. Umut Özkırımlı-Spyros A. Sofos: The characteristics you refer to in your question are not peculiar to the conflicts among the Balkan countries. An...

Following a lawsuit filed by Chief Public Prosecutor Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya on November 16, 2007, the Turkish Constitutional Court has decided yesterday to shut down the Demokratik Toplum Partisi (Democratic Society Party) due to the party’s alleged links with the  PKK. Following 9-hour deliberations on the fourth day of the case, Constitutional Court President Haşim Kılıç said that its members voted unanimously to close down the DTP as it became a focal point of acts against the indivisible integrity of the state . The result of this controversial decision is that, yet again, voices advocating human rights protection for Turkish Kurds are stifled, and the largest pro-Kurdish political force that had made considerable inroads in the Turkish political system by wining in nine provinces in the 2009 local elections is now seriously impaired. Thirty seven DTP members, including DTP Chairman Ahmet Türk and MP Aysel Tuğluk were banned from politics for five years. The rump pa...

«Η εθνική ταυτότητα δεν καθορίζεται άπαξ και διά παντός» ΑΠΟ ΤΗΝ ΚΑΤΕΡΙΝΑ ΟΙΚΟΝΟΜΑΚΟΥ katoiko@enet.gr   Πώς γεννήθηκαν και πώς διαμορφώθηκαν στην πορεία των δύο τελευταίων αιώνων το ελληνικό και το τουρκικό εθνικιστικό όραμα; Ο Σπύρος Σοφός, ο οποίος συνυπογράφει «Το βάσανο της Ιστορίας», μιλάει για τη σχέση ανάμεσα στους δύο αντίπαλους εθνικισμούς. Σε ποιο βαθμό επηρεάζεται η άσκηση της εξωτερικής πολιτικής της χώρας και -πολύ περισσότερο- η συζήτηση περί της εξωτερικής πολιτικής και ειδικά της σχέσης με τα γειτονικά μας κράτη από τους εθνικούς μύθους και τα ιδεολογήματα που μεταδίδονται από γενιά σε γενιά; Και πού συναντιούνται οι εθνικές μας αφηγήσεις μ' εκείνες γύρω από την οικοδόμηση της τουρκικής εθνικής ταυτότητας; Πώς εξελίχθηκε στον χρόνο η πολύπλοκη σχέση ανάμεσα στα εθνικιστικά σχέδια Ελλάδας και Τουρκίας; Σε αυτά τα ερωτήματα επιχειρεί να απαντήσει η μελέτη που συνέγραψαν ο Σπύρος Σοφός, επιστημονικός ερευνητής στο Κέντρο Ευρωπαϊκών Μελετών του Πανε...

My interview was mentioned in the Facebook fan group of Antonis Samaras – the architect of Greece ’s Macedonian quagmire and aspiring leader of Nea Dimokratia. The author of the comment, Mr Evangelos Papathanassiou has not bothered to check which book has excited Macedonian opinion and therefore provides a surreal narrative about the "Greek" academic at King's College (sic) who wrote a book about the persecution of the Macedonians by Greece that culminates in accusing my opinions as left-nihilist and moves on to associate them with the views of the Greek prime minister George Papandreou just because our book was featured in the book pages of his website. Mr Papathanassiou seems to be of the impression that whenever a book is presented in a website, it is endorsed. The idea of a book being a starting point of an intellectual search and adventure seems to be alien to him. I found his use of adjective s personally offensive and his logic simplistic and dangerously populi...