Keyword: balkans

Modern Turkey and its 'neo-Ottoman' dreams in the Balkans

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Turks from the Balkans gather at Pristina in Kosovo in March 2014. © Mamusa Municipality/Anadolu Agency/AFP Turks from the Balkans gather at Pristina in Kosovo in March 2014. © Mamusa Municipality/Anadolu Agency/AFP

The recent decision by France to bolster its naval presence in the eastern Mediterranean because of controversial Turkish oil and gas exploration in disputed waters is a reminder of how Ankara has been starting to flex its muscles outside its borders. Meanwhile Turkey has been quietly extending its economic influence in the Balkans, an area it once controlled under the Ottoman Empire but where it lost power after wars in 1912 and 1913 and then World War I. Jean-Arnault Dérens looks at Turkey's growing influence in the region a century after the end of its empire.

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Macron pours cold water on Balkan EU membership hopes

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Macron’s comments will be disappointment to Albania and Macedonia, who are hoping for green light next month to begin talks to join the bloc.

How Balkan dervishes have survived centuries of turmoil

By , and Simon Rico
Long history: the dervish Murtazar from Melan in Albania. © Laurent Geslin Long history: the dervish Murtazar from Melan in Albania. © Laurent Geslin

They form a variety of different, disparate groups, some living in the middle of cities, others taking refuge in mountainous retreats scattered around the Balkans. But all practice the mystical Islam of Sufi religious orders, seen as a “heresy” by followers of rigorous Sunni orthodoxy from the Gulf states. Jean-Arnault Dérens, Laurent Geslin and Simon Rico look at how the Balkans' dervishes have managed to survive to this day, faced with the various challenges posed down the centuries by empire, nationalist upheaval, orthodox Islam, communism and atheism.

France arrests dozens in arms trafficking crackdown

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The 45 people arrested in France and in French overseas territories were detained as part of an operation targeting international traffickers.