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Week in Review: Opportunities and Setbacks thumbnail

Week in Review: Opportunities and Setbacks

General

General Loss for Balkan Media

Exterior view on the building of AlJazeera Network Support Services in Doha, Qatar, 24 June 2017. Photo: EPA/NOUSHAD THEKKAYIL

Al Jazeera Balkans announced that it will stop broadcasting after 14 years of high-quality coverage of the region in local languages, with a global touch. Anida Sokol, from Mediacentar Sarajevo, writes that the decision will have far-reaching consequences for the region’s media sector.

Her op-ed argues that the highly professional outlet’s disappearance will lower the quality and standards of media reporting throughout the region – but could also stimulate a push for reform and change.

Read more: Al Jazeera Balkans’ Closure Adds to Regional Media’s Woes (July 18, 2025)

General New Beginning?

Newroz (Kurdish new year) celebrations in Diyarbakir in 2025. Photo: BIRN/Rabia Cetin.

The Kurdistan Workers’ Party, PKK, has been fighting the Turkish state for more than four decades, seeking greater Kurdish autonomy, costing tens of thousands lives of militants, security forces and civilians. As a result of a new peace process, the PKK has begun to disarm, resulting in new hopes of peace and cautious optimism.

In this feature, BIRN tells the stories of people who were affectd by the conflict, including the children of killed militants and fallen soldiers. Those most affected by the fighting are yet to be convinced, amid a host of unanswered questions about what comes next.

Read more: As Kurdish Militants Disarm, Turkey Looks to ‘Turn a New Page’ (July 16, 2025)

General Tourism Struggle

Tourists wait in line to exit the Acropolis archaeological site after visiting the temple of Parthenon in Athens, June 2023. Photo: EPA/GEORGE VITSARAS.

As the summer season nears its middle, BIRN looks at several Balkan countries that heavily depend on tourism. In Greece, businesses face problems hiring locals due to the long working hours and low wages. The government is trying to fill the gaps with non-EU workers – but this strategy creates its own problems.

In Albania, locals have erupted following a conflict with authorities. They claim they were encouraged to build cabins to promote tourism, so when the authorities sent in bulldozers to demolish what they called illegal constructions, anger boiled over. Kosovo, on the other hand, is failing to exploit its tourism potential, as the country remains a day-trip-only destination.

Read more: Greece Looks Beyond EU for Workers as Locals Shun Tourism Sector (July 15, 2025)

Albanian Village Erupts in Protest over Crackdown on ‘Illegal’ Tourist Cabins (July 14, 2025)

Kosovo Languishes as a Day-Trip Destination (July 17, 2025)

General Srebrenica Remembers

Azam Avdic. Photo: BIRN.

Thirty years have passed since the Srebrenica genocide, the worst atrocity in Europe since World War II, in which 8,000 Bosniak men and boys were killed by Bosnian Serb forces in the former United Nations “safe haven” of Srebrenica in July 1995.

Survivors have found an unusual way to remember the victims: naming their children after loved ones they lost in the genocide. This is the story of a new generation who carry the names of their elders and so keep the memories of lost loved ones alive for their families.

Read more: In Srebrenica, Genocide Victims Live on in Names of Newborns (July 11, 2025)

General Glorifying War Criminals

Serbian Orthodox Metropolitan Joanikije II (centre) leads a liturgy at the ‘Battle of Kosovo’ monument at Gazimestan, Kosovo, June 2025. Photo: EPA/GEORGI LICOVSKI.

Montenegro continues its path toward European Union membership but recent statements by senior Serbian Orthodox Church clerics, praising World War II war criminals, are causing concern and drawing criticism from local and international institutions.

Among others, Metropolitan Joanikije, the Church’s top cleric in Montenegro, caused uproar last month by praising Pavle Djurisic, a wartime Chetnik commander responsible for atrocities in Montenegro, Bosnia and Serbia, including massacres of Muslims and anti-fascist Partisans. The remarks, deemed by many as historical revisionism and hate speech, risk deepening ethnic and political divisions – and may even complicate the country’s European ambitions.

Read more: Serbian Church Clerics in Montenegro Inflame Passions by Glorifying War Criminals (July 15, 2025)

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