Balkaninsight.com

An expert on EU-Turkey relations says Ankara faces a stark choice on whether to engage again with Brussels, or openly turn its back on EU and European values.

The Croatian government's announcement that it is replacing senior executives in state companies without use of public tenders has triggered accusations of a 'political purge'.

From a decisive Macedonian Parliamentary election less than a month away, via Albania’s highly distorting ‘cannabis economy’ to stories of how the region is trying to tackle problems of ‘homeland’ and ‘human’ security, we offer our selection of some of the articles that marked this week on Balkan Insight.  

After European Parliamentarians called for freeze to EU membership talks with Turkey, a Turkish minister called the decision ‘not serious’.

Defence witnesses at the trial of former Serbian paramilitary commander Dragan Vasiljkovic, alias ‘Captain Dragan’, admitted that Croatian soldiers used Catholic church premises as a command post.

Following the US State Department's alert to travellers to Europe over the holiday season, a Kosovo expert says the Balkans faces little risk of terror attacks of the kind seen in France.

A Tirana court has ordered the declassification of documents belonging to the Communist-era secret police following a long legal battle between BIRN Albania and the secret service. 

A Belgian court has given life sentences to a former Yugoslav secret police official and two Serbian hitmen for the assassination of Kosovo Albanian dissident Enver Hadri in Brussels in 1990.

Environmentalist protesters rallied in front of Albania's parliament on Thursday to remind MPs from the ruling parties that they will face fierce opposition if they try to push a controversial law on waste imports. 

The trial of Bosnian Serb general Novak Djukic - already convicted in Sarajevo of ordering a deadly artillery strike on Tuzla in Bosnia - was postponed again because of the defendant’s poor health.

He has probably never heard of the town of Kamza in Albania - but that has not stopped the publicity-hungry mayor from declaring the next US President, Donald Trump, an honorary citizen.

The court in December will assess a move by MPs to scrap license fees for public broadcasters - which critics call a populist pre-election stunt.

The sudden cancellation of the competition for a new public TV chief has fuelled claims that the ruling party wants to regain its old influence over the public TV after six months when it was run by the interim administration approved by the opposition.

Despite funding setbacks and broken promises of support, the War Childhood Museum will open in Sarajevo in December to exhibit people’s personal mementoes of growing up during the conflict, its director says.

Kosovo activists, journalist, artists and NGOs called another rally on Thursday, demanding an international investigation into the death of jailed Vetevendosje activist Astrit Dehari.

Macedonia's main opposition party is still mulling whether to use its published wiretaps of official conversations in the election campaign, or concentrate on offering the country 'a way out' of its current impasse.

Macedonian authorities say they will investigate claims by a US film director, Rick Ray, that corrupt customs officials stole his equipment and sent him to court on a false pretext.

Media reports claim two former Turkish military attaches applied for a political asylum in Croatia following the failed coup there in July - amid continuing speculation about why the former ambassador was withdrawn.

Neglect, ignorance and industry influence raise doubts about a Romanian pledge to fight the hidden scourge of gambling addiction.

A report from Kosovo's Forensic Department says the opposition activist Astrit Dehari, who died in prison, killed himself.