Public sphere

According to reports on Monday, the shopping mall blaze killed at least 53 people.

Greece concluded the sale of 67 percent stake in Thessaloniki port, the country's second-largest, to a German-led consortium, its privatizations agency said on Friday.

Preparations for the privatization of Hellenic Petroleum (ELPE) are at an advanced stage, with the two main stakeholders - the Greek state and Paneuropean - having agreed on the stakes they will concede to the strategic investor and exchanged proposals for the shareholder agreement.

The U.N. Security Council resolution calling for a 30-day humanitarian cease-fire in Syria will not affect Turkey’s “Operation Olive Branch” as the cease-fire “doesn’t apply to it,” Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdağ said on March 1.

Greece won't backtrack on its privatization plan after its bailout ends and expects state companies to submit plans by April to make themselves more competitive, the head of its state assets fund said.

Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minister on Feb. 12 criticized plans by the United States military, saying they “will bring relations between the two countries to a near breaking level.”

An EU-Turkey Summit will be held on March 26 in Bulgaria with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expected to be attendance, an EU spokesman said Tuesday, New Europe writes. 

The City of Athens appears to be making an attempt to impose some degree of order on the cluttered sidewalks and pedestrian streets of the Greek capital, albeit with its usual delay.

Prime Minister Boyko Borisov and Russian Ambassador Anatoly Makarov held a work meeting to discuss the development of bilateral relations. Energy and tourism have been identified as areas of mutual interest, the government's press center reported.

The U.N. Security Council discussed the worsening humanitarian crisis in Syria late on Jan. 22.