The Greek Current

This week Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulidis will head to Washington, DC for an official meeting with President Joe Biden at the Oval Office. The invitation - which was reported on this weekend - comes as US-Cyprus relations continue to reach new heights. These past few months alone have put this positive trajectory in the spotlight, with Cyprus and the US signing a defense cooperation agreem...

Just days after we saw moves that hinted a resumption of negotiations between Ankara and the PKK could be on the table, a deadly attack took place in Ankara that killed 5 people and left more than 20 wounded. Turkish authorities said the PKK stood behind the attack, and Turkey’s air force bombed Kurdish militant targets in neighboring Iraq and Syria. Ayla Jean Yackley, an Istanbul-based journalist...

The Financial Times recently put the spotlight on a phenomenon that has been dubbed the “north Cyprus trap” that has seen tens of thousands of migrant students get lured with false promises to so-called universities in the Turkish-occupied north of Cyprus. This practice is not only mired in fraud and human rights abuses, but also enables migrant smugglers who are moving many of these students thro...

With Israel appearing to expand its war against Hezbollah in Lebanon, targeting the group's financial networks, the US is increasingly concerned that the conflict has “escalated out of control”, with top officials calling for the enforcement of a UN resolution that ended the previous major war between them in 2006. At the same time, there is renewed concern that the war is fueling Lebanon’s sectar...

After a one-year manhunt, Israeli forces were able to kill Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar last week. Could this pave the way for a reset in a region grappling with the aftermath of the deadly October 7th, 2023, attack Sinwar stood behind? Endy Zemenides, the Executive Director of the Hellenic American Leadership Council, joins Thanos Davelis to look at why the death of Sinwar is a chance to reopen the...

Migration was - once again - at the heart of discussions at the latest EU leaders summit, as the issue has been taking on new dimensions across the continent. This renewed focus on migration comes after the far-right made gains in the European Parliament, in various elections in Germany and Austria, and follows the opening of Italy’s controversial offshore detention centers in Albania. Angeliki Di...

Earlier this month Erdogan made a wild accusation that Israel was planning to wage war on, or target, Turkey. While these absurd claims are mainly seen as an effort by the Turkish President to appease his Islamist base and distract from the country’s economic troubles, there is concern that to ignore such statements encourages further incitement. Alan Makovsky, a senior fellow for the Center for A...

With the exclusion of former party head Stefanos Kasselakis from its leadership election, it looks like SYRIZA is plunging into fresh turmoil. With the party effectively leaderless and consumed by internal struggles for the coming weeks, many see this as an opportunity for PASOK - which just wrapped up its own leadership elections - to state its case to be considered the main opposition party. Nic...

Next month COP 29, the UN’s flagship climate conference, is once again going to be hosted by an authoritarian petrostate - Azerbaijan. In the build up to COP29, human rights organizations, civil society groups, and major news outlets have all shared their concerns about Azerbaijan’s human rights record - from its aggression in the Caucasus against Armenians to its crackdown on dissidents at home....

A few days ago, on October 12th, Athens celebrated 80 years since the liberation of the city from a brutal Nazi German occupation that left its mark not just on Athens, but on all of Greece. Today, we take a look back at this historic moment, but also at a question that has lingered ever since, impacting Greece’s relations with Germany: the issue of reparations and a forced loan taken from Greece....

Last week Turkish President Erdogan set out on a tour of the Balkans, visiting Albania and Serbia. The tour kicked off in Albania, with Erdogan gifting a number of drones and inaugurating the largest mosque in the Balkans - which was funded by Turkey. The second leg took him to Serbia, where Turkey made a diplomatic comeback in 2017. Thanos Davelis caught up with expert Dimitar Bechev last week wh...

This week Greece - together with the European Commission - hosted the REPowerEU workshop on energy in Athens. This was a chance to put the spotlight on how Greece is at the heart of energy developments like the “Vertical Corridor”, renewables, and electricity interconnectors that are transforming the region and breaking its dependence on Russian energy. Theodoros Tsakiris, a Professor of Geopoliti...

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is set to hold talks with Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar in New York next week, the latest push to kickstart stalled talks for a solution to the Cyprus problem. The talks come as Tatar and Turkish President Erdogan have been doubling down on their calls for a two-state solution, with Erdogan even calling for reco...

After a meeting at the UN between the leaders of Greece and Turkey, it appears talks to delimit the continental shelf and EEZ - the main issue on the table - could materialize. This was confirmed in a recent interview that Greece’s Foreign Minister Georgios Gerapetritis, who will meet with his Turkish counterpart next month in Athens, gave to Kathimerini. Expert Constantinos Filis, the director of...

Sunday’s election for PASOK’s leadership was a nail-biter up until the early hours of Monday, keeping analysts up well into the night. The race for second place, which saw Athens mayor Haris Doukas narrowly defeat former minister Pavlos Yeroulanos, has set the stage for a runoff against incumbent Nikos Androulakis. Lamprini Rori, an Assistant Professor in Political Analysis at the National and Kap...

We’ve seen recent reports - most notably in Kathimerini - hinting that Turkey could be prepared to take steps to reopen the historic Halki Seminary, something Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew has also voiced optimism about. Elizabeth Prodromou, a visiting Professor in the International Studies Program at Boston College, a non-resident senior fellow in the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center, and an...

On the campaign trail, former President Trump constantly warns of a World War III.  In Greece and Cyprus, it already feels like such a war is playing out as Athens and Nicosia have to navigate flashpoints to the north in Ukraine and to the south in the Middle East. Endy Zemenides, HALC’s Executive Director, joins Thanos Davelis to discuss how these wide-ranging conflicts are affecting Greece and C...

This Sunday is decision day for the leadership race in PASOK, a race that could determine not only the future of PASOK but the way forward for the broader center left. With six candidates vying to take over the party, the drama in PASOK is likely to continue beyond Sunday’s election as a runoff is expected between the two leading candidates. Nikos Efstathiou, an Athens based journalist and author,...

Once on the verge of extinction, the Caretta caretta sea turtle is recording an amazing bounce-back as its nests are reaching record numbers. At the heart of this comeback is the Greek island of Zakynthos and the shore of Sekania, long described as the Mediterranean’s greatest “maternity ward” for this sea turtle, home to a state-funded marine park. Charikleia Minotou, who coordinates the WWF prog...

Austria's far-right Freedom Party, a party rooted in Nazi ideology, just celebrated an unprecedented election victory on Sunday night, with its leader talking about a new era for the far right. This is seen as another worrying sign for Europe, as a surge by populist far-right forces shows no sign of slowing down. Georgios Samaras, an Assistant Professor of Public Policy at King’s College London wh...

With world leaders gathering in New York last week for the UN General Assembly, the focus was undoubtedly on diplomacy as Prime Minister Mitsotakis’ met with Turkish President Erdogan and world leaders sounded the alarm about the risks engulfing the world. As Tom Ellis, the editor in chief of Kathimerini’s English Edition - who joins Thanos Davelis on our show today - writes in The Greek Letter, t...

A proposal is reportedly on the table that could potentially see the US gain control of Turkey’s S-400s in return for Ankara re-joining the F-35 program. This has many asking why the Biden administration is in a rush to find a way to bring Turkey back into a program that it was ejected from as a result of Ankara’s embrace of Russia and behavior that is antithetical to NATO. Sinan Ciddi joins Thano...

The issue of migration is back on the agenda in Greece, putting the spotlight on a phenomenon that has been ongoing in the country for at least 3 decades. This was the focus of recent studies by DiaNEOsis in Greece which looked at Greek perspectives on migration and dug into the policies designed to address this issue which has an impact across society - from the labor market to demographics. Agge...

On Tuesday Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Turkish President Recep Tayipp Erdogan met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, making it the sixth time the two leaders have met since the NATO summit in Vilnius fourteen months ago. Reports indicate that beyond a commitment to maintain calm and a positive agenda, issues like migration and Cyprus also came up. Vassilis Nedos, Kathimerini’s...

While world leaders gather in New York, we’re going to turn our attention to Athens and the historic Panathenaic Stadium, where over 40,000 fans gathered for a basketball tournament this weekend. Kathimerini described this as a night that raised the bar for Greek basketball around the world. Alexander Kitroeff, a professor of history, a frequent commentator on Greek sport, and a lifelong Panathina...