Dimitar Bechev

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.

Last week European leaders focused on EU enlargement, from the Western Balkans to Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia. While the EU wants closer ties with these countries, it has also made it clear that it expects reforms, particularly when it comes to issues related to the rule of law and justice.

"A sweeping attempt to capture the last 20 years of Turkey, Bechev skilfully traces the radical transformation of Turkey's domestic and foreign policies under Erdogan. An outstanding book from one of the best," wrote Gonul Tol, Director of Turkey Programme at the Middle East Institute in Washington.

Bulgarians are losing count of the scandals. There's a Watergate-style wiretapping scandal. There's an agricultural tycoon accusing the government of former Prime Minister Boyko Borissov of extortion. And there's a state-owned bank providing hundreds of millions of euros to a small batch of favored companies.

Interview with Dimitar Bechev originally seen on European Western Balkans.

, research fellow at the Center for Slavic, Eurasian, and East European Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council. Bechev is also a member of the Balkans in Europe Policy Advisory Group (BiEPAG).

The fate of Macedonia's historic agreement with Greece does not depend on the UN Security Council - where Russia has power of veto - the Macedonian government said on Wednesday, responding to fears that the Kremlin might try to block the deal.

The report, whose excerpts are published by Blic in an article by Natasa Latkovic, was presented ahead of the recent Western Balkans summit in London, and the daily said its essence was that "the prospects of the the six countries of the Western Balkans, when it comes to EU membership, are pretty glum."

After President Rumen Radev paved the way towards improved Bulgarian-Russian relations last week, Prime Minister Boyko Borissov will follow up by visiting Russian President Vladimir Putin on May 30.

Russia is making a concerted "push" against the West in Balkans, but is not nearly as influential as many people think, Bulgarian expert Dimitar Bechev said on Thursday at a packed talk on his book Rival Power: Russia in Southeast Europe at the London School of Economics.

The truth about Bulgaria and Moldova's presidential elections is "more complicated" and should not be reduced to pro-Russian candidates winning, the Economist says.