Risk of disintegration of Bosnia-Herzegovina, environmental rebellion in Serbia, diplomatic war between Skopje and Sofia… In this year rich in international news, the Balkans, however in the grip of major crises, were somewhat forgotten. Bulgarian media Diary retraces their last twelve months.
The year 2021 has been a year full of events in the world, notes the online daily Diary from Sofia. A year during which we have seen the return of the Taliban to Afghanistan and an unprecedented escalation of tensions between the West and Moscow, and have seen our hopes of quickly defeating the Covid-19 pandemic.
A year in which the Balkans were forgotten, relegated to the periphery of the European Union (EU), but during which a series of major events occurred while “The world, and in particular the Bulgarians, was looking in another direction”, regrets the newspaper, before returning to three salient facts.
Bosnia threatened with disintegration
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, notes Diary, “The spirit of nationalism and separatism is out of the bottle”. In mid-December Milorad Dodik, the leader of the Serbian federation entity, followed through on his threats by passing a series of laws in parliament that effectively pave the way for secession for the Serbian Republic. The Serbian representatives would thus withdraw from most federal institutions, including the army, the courts and the tax authorities, which endangers the very existence of the Bosnian state.
The announcement of the creation of an army specific to the Serbian entity “Awakened in all observers the painful memory of the Yugoslav break-up and the ensuing conflict and left some 140,000 dead”. Milorad Dodik’s separatist tendencies were secretly encouraged by Moscow, the newspaper continues, and the latter has found a weighty ally in the EU in the person of Viktor Orban, in Hungary. And even if the most pessimistic scenario of a new war is dismissed, the damage is done, believes Diary :
By waving the real threat of secession, Dodik will hold all Bosnian politics hostage and jeopardize the country’s hopes for EU integration. ”
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After the success of the weekly Capital, A benchmark for economic and political analysis, in 1999 its publishers created this daily newspaper quickly recognized for its independence and seriousness. Intended for the business community,
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