Director, Dahrendorf Programme @stantscollege Senior Fellow @Carnegie_Europe New: "The Scramble for Europe" out from Oxford UP. tinyurl.com/33n7y5ux
Oxford, England
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Turkey won't be selling goods to Israel anymore. It will be selling to Azerbaijan which will be exporting to Israel.
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Seagull stealing a meatball. Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast. Photo: Alexander Ivanov Masteral
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Danube's delta right now. Ships loading grain at Izmail, Ukraine's port on the Danube. Taking Snake Island has made a difference. H/t Danail Glishev
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In Bulgarian we don't say "you can't compare apples and oranges" but rather "nerede Yambol, nerede Stambul" and I think it's beautiful.
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When you are sad they say in Bulgarian "you look as if your ships have sunk." I think it's beautiful.
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It is amazing how much self-flagellation is part of intellectual culture of Western Europe. EU has to atone for its colonial past etc. But Eastern Europeans, who have memories of being subjugated by empires, cannot relate to such narratives. For them, EU is anti-colonial
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Turks "take Vienna" because of a game invented in England and brought to Istanbul by the French. Then announce it on a California-based social network platform.
Viyana 341 yıl sonra düştü. Montella başta olmak üzere bütün futbolcularımızı tebrik ediyorum. Viyana önünde Kızılelma için can veren Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Paşa ve bütün şehidlerimizin ruhu şad olsun.
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France sees Turkey as a strategic competitor and Russia as a potential partner.
UK sees Russia as a competitor and Turkey as a potential partner.
Germany sees both Russia and Turkey as big markets and potential partners rather than competitors.
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Actually, Turkey has always backed Ukraine and Georgia joining NATO. Supported Montenegro and N. Macedonia's accession too in 2017-2020. Has troops in KFOR in Kosovo & EU's EUFOR in Bosnia. Turkish policy isn't 100% out of sync with the West, as some folks believe.
Erdogan publicly supports Ukraine’s Nato membership after a meeting with Zelensky in Istanbul
“Undoubtedly, Ukraine deserves NATO membership, a point that I have always defended insistently.”
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The war highlights the power disparity between Russia and the West. Moscow is a peer only at the level of strategic nuclear arms. Its other capabilities: conventional force, economic, information/narrative, not to mention "soft power", cannot match what the collective West has.
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Filip Kirkorov as a CNN Türk penguin
#Belarus state TV vs. the reality of what is happening on the streets #BelarusProtest #BelarusFreedom
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The problem with the Balkans: 90% of local males have Djoković's attitude -- without having his talent and skills.
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Sitting at a cafe in Sofia, listening to people speaking Greek. It is good that the Greek is widely spoken in Bulgaria again. It is also good that Bulgarian is heard in many places in Greece. This is probably the least known story of conflict transformation in the Balkans.
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The Soviet Union was a brutal regime but offered a vision for the future of humanity. What Russia has is fossil fuels and revamped 19th century imperialism.
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Bulgaria and Greece were bitter antagonists from the 1870s till the 1960s. From that point onwards, relations have improved dramatically - diplomacy, trade, FDI, people-to-people, tourism. It's a Balkan success story remaining off the radar.
The main border crossing between Bulgaria-Greece at Promahonas/Kulata after Bulgaria joined fully Schengen after midnight. A Balkan boundary set in 1913 is no more.
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The main border crossing between Bulgaria-Greece at Promahonas/Kulata after Bulgaria joined fully Schengen after midnight. A Balkan boundary set in 1913 is no more.
Bulgaristan-Yunanistan arasındaki Kulata-Promachonas sınır kapısı... 1 Ocak 2025, saat 00:01. Bariyerlerin ve gümrük kontrollerinin kaldırıldığı an.
Hoş Geldin Schengen!
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Bulgarian PM Petkov fires Defence Minister Yanev. Yanev, an appointee of President Radev and former caretaker PM, argued fighting in Ukraine wasn't a war. Had previously opposed beefing up NATO presence in the country too.
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Excited to be joining @Carnegie_Europe as a Senior Fellow. I will be overseeing a new programme on EU enlargement covering the Western Balkans, Ukraine and Moldova.
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Time for the Romanian and Bulgarian PMs to go to Odessa. @KirilPetkov
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The inshallah/mashallah belt. (Though in the Balkans outside Turkey, it's mostly mashallah) . Source: teddit.net/r/MapPorn/comment…
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In 2014-2015, Russia encircled Turkey on three sides: Crimea, Syria and beefing up presence in Armenia. Now this is changing: (1) Armenia is distancing itself from Russia/CSTO and negotiating w/ AZ and TR. (2) Russian navy out of Crimea, and (3) Assad is on the backfoot.
BREAKING- Erdogan says he hopes Syrian rebels’ march to Homs and Damascus will continue without any accidents and troubles.
“We had called Assad. We said, let's determine the future of Syria together. We did not receive a positive response.”
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That's what many observers in the Global South don't get about Ukraine either. Russia is the empire. The EU is an ally of anti-colonial forces.
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If Putin had his way, he'd have puppet regimes in Sofia, Bratislava or Warsaw throwing opposition figures in jail and murdering them in cold blood. That was his vision for Ukraine at the outset of the "Special Military Operation", for sure.
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NATO and the EU should deploy extra troops in Kosovo and Bosnia. Make a point in the Western Balkans, just like in the Baltics, Poland and Romania.
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My 5 kopecks to the NATO Enlargement debate IR folks are indulging in. If it wasn't for NATO I would probably be watching Russian naval ships in Varna these days, with a bunch of Bulgarian "patriots" welcoming the country's liberation from "Gayropa's" hateful yoke.
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There is one country in the world which can defeat Russia: Germany. And it is not the Bundeswehr but rather German energy firms and consumers.
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Russia has lost Moldova, not just Ukraine. Next two: Georgia (where its influence has clear limits) and possibly Armenia. Putin has accelerated imperial disntegration -- instead of restoring empire
President @sandumaiamd told @FT’s @HenryJFoy: “For the first time we make it very clear and open that Russia is the biggest threat to our national security.” on.ft.com/48R38pu
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Bulgarian parents stuck at home find a way to entertain their kids. Photos and recipe: Itso Hristov.
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Three of the regional powers in Europe - UK, France and Germany- are balancing against/containing Russia. The fourth, Turkey, is soft-balancing/playing double game. Russia hasn't faced such a predicament - no major regional allies - since the Crimean War (1853-56).
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I hope there will be more women on the photo when the Republic of Turkey celebrates its 200th anniversary.
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Pazarkule, at Turkey's border with Greece. Photo by Georgi Kozhuharov. dnevnik.bg/sviat/2020/03/01/…
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A joke from the 1980s assimilation process against Bulgarian Turks. They call Hasan in the municipal building. "It is time you change your name to a Bulgarian one." H: "I'll go for Oleg." Authorities: "Oleg? That's a Russian name, not Bulgarian!" 1/2
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Russia has made sure that Ukraine, a country with which it shares a common history, is a sworn enemy for generations to come. A putative pro-Kremlin shift in Kyiv won't change that fact. Nor will a democratic turn in Moscow, for that matter.
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The conspiracy against Turkey is in full swing.
Best cuisines in the world:
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This boy was just 19. Picked from a village in Tatarstan and sent to his death by a deranged dictator. The photo is from the time he was age 16. This war is both evil and absurd. h/t Elena Minina
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Man goes to a kiosk in Moscow every day. Stares at the front pages but buys no paper.
- What are you staring at?
- The obituaries.
- But the obituaries' section is in the backpages!?!
- The one I am waiting for will be on the front page.
(Joke on Bulgarian social media)
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