Europe Archive

In a major diplomatic breakthrough, Turkey and Armenia declared their intent to restore relations and open their sealed border in a joint statement issued last week. Under Swiss auspices, the two countries outlined their collective plan to sign into action two protocols, one restoring diplomatic relations and the other to establish bilateral ties within six weeks. According to the joint statement, the protocols will enter into force only after they have been ratified by both countries’ parliaments. The joint declaration marks the culmination of rapprochement efforts that began with Turkish President Abdullah Gül’s “football diplomacy” visit to Yerevan in September […]

Roma rights defenders in Europe have long struggled to gain traction against institutionalized discrimination targeting the ethnic group across Europe. Last week during a concert stop in Bucharest, Romania, international pop icon Madonna got a brief taste of what Roma advocates are up against. The “Material Girl,” who is employing Roma musicians and a dancer on her “Sticky and Sweet” tour, punctuated her recent performance in front of 60,000 Romanians with a call to end discrimination against Roma. The Bucharest crowd booed her in response. “It has been brought to my attention . . . that there is a lot […]

Less than a month after making progress on the Nabucco pipeline deal, which has now secured half of the gas needed to fill it, Turkey signed another natural gas agreement in early August that will allow access into Turkish territorial waters to the South Stream pipeline. South Stream, a Russian-Italian venture, is designed to bring Russian gas to Bulgaria while bypassing troublesome transit countries on the route between the Russian Federation and the European Union. A few days later, Turkey also held discussions with the emir of Qatar, Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, on pipeline and liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects, […]

BERLIN — German Chancellor Angela Merkel is in Poland today, joining other world leaders to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the start of World War II. But her thoughts are likely back here in Germany, where two days ago her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) suffered major setbacks in state elections, possibly undermining Merkel’s hopes for a conservative Grand Coalition. In state elections held Sunday, four weeks before German federal elections, support for the conservative CDU dropped by more than 10 points in Saarland , a state along the French border, and Thuringia, in the former communist east. While the CDU […]