Confessions of an Islamic State fighter (The Economist)
Fitim Lladrovci travelled to Syria to fight a holy war. Now back in Kosovo, he continues to call for jihad. Alexander Clapp is granted a rare interview
See at: https://bit.ly/2KHtIso
Plans for land swaps in Kosovo and Serbia run into the ground (The Economist)
“EVERY idiot with a map and rifle is getting excited,” says an international official in Pristina, the capital of Kosovo, still barred from membership of the United Nations ten years after it unilaterally declared independence from Serbia. Serbs and Albanians have been transfixed as their leaders have recently discussed swapping pieces of territory populated by tens of thousands of people. It is an idea that is raising hopes and fears across the Balkans and provoking political turmoil in Kosovo itself.
Kosovo’s long, slow recovery (The Economist)
IN 1991 Armend Malazogu leapt off the back of an army lorry. Then aged 18, the Kosovo Albanian was escaping being drafted into Serbia’s fight with Croatia. The Yugoslav civil wars were just beginning and would eventually spread to Kosovo. Now, 18 years after the end of the Kosovo war and almost ten after the statelet declared independence, most indicators paint a bleak picture. Unemployment is around 33% and GDP per person, at $3,660, is the lowest in the region.
The EU must show the Balkans they still have a chance of joining (The Economist)
Europe’s inner courtyard is drifting towards crime and authoritarianism
http://econ.st/2sWwAWU
Moscow is regaining sway in the Balkans (The Economist)
Aid, warplanes and propaganda convince Serbs that Russia is their friend
http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21717390-aid-warplanes-and-propaganda-convince-serbs-russia-their-friend-moscow-regaining-sway
The Yugoslav tribunal shuts down, a Kosovo tribunal starts up (The Economist)
Today’s war-crimes tribunals have more modest aims than in the past
http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21714385-todays-war-crimes-tribunals-have-more-modest-aims-past-yugoslav-tribunal-shuts
Clinton-lands (The Economist)
The end of an era in Kosovo, Bosnia, Serbia and beyond
Applications deferred (The Economist)
A region still enthusiastic about the European Union is being rebuffed
http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21700685-region-still-enthusiastic-about-european-union-being-rebuffed-applications-deferredA setback for Kosovo amid bitter rows over its ancient churches (The Economist)
THERE is something supremely changeless about the daily rites of an Orthodox Christian monastery, such as the 700-year-old community of Visoki Decani on the western fringe of Kosovo, which occupies one of the most aesthetically graceful, and gloriously decorated, religious monuments in Europe. But in recent days the abbot, Sava Janjic, has been combining his liturgical duties as a Serbian Orthodox priest with another activity: using social media to explain why his community has opposed Kosovo's admission to UNESCO, the UN's cultural arm.
Knocking on heaven’s door (The Economist)
EVER since the end of the Balkan wars in 1999, the most important question in the region has been when and how to join the European Union. Slovenia made it in 2004 and Croatia followed in 2013. For the rest, however, the goal is still far off. The prospects of Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia—all at different stages of EU integration—have appeared stuck for some time.
http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21662601-balkan-laggards-harbour-new-hopes-entering-eu-knocking-heavens-door