Old enemies, new horrors
Terrorist attacks and diplomatic trips. But also AI dystopian lawsuits and criminal messaging apps.
Good morning and welcome back!
This is Balkan Brew, the newsletter for all your Balkan-related needs. It’s been quite a challenging week for us; we hope you’re doing well!
Today, we’ll kick things off with Turkey before diving into some diplomatic trips. After that, we'll serve up a crime story, and we’ll wrap things up with a look at a glorified MMA fighter.
A few announcements before we begin.
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JUST IN. Just as we’re wrapping up, news arrived that in Bosnia and Herzegovina, one police officer was killed and another wounded in a knife attack on a police station in Bosanska Krupa last night. The 15-year-old attacker was arrested. The local government marked it as a terrorist attack.
Old enemies, new horrors
It was a bloody week in Turkey. 5 people died, and 22 were injured on Wednesday during an attack - which the Turkish authorities qualified as a terrorist attack - at the headquarters of the national aerospace and defense company Tusaş, just outside Ankara.
RETALIATION. The two attackers were “neutralized”, and no one has claimed responsibility for the attack yet. Still, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya blamed the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a political group that seeks further autonomy for Kurds in Turkey and has been at war against Turkish authorities since 1984. Turkey retaliated on Wednesday by destroying 32 targets allegedly linked with the PKK in Syria and Iraq.
ARCH ENEMY #1. The attack came one day after Devlet Bahçeli — a close ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and sworn enemy of the PKK — unexpectedly invited Abdullah Öcalan, the jailed leader of PKK, to address the Turkish parliament and publicly announce the group’s dissolution and to lay down arms.
ARCH ENEMY #2. The week started with the news that Fethullah Gülen, the arch enemy of Erdoğan, died in the USA, where he had been living in self-imposed exile since 1999. Until the 2010s, the two were allies. Then, the relationship strained, and in 2016, Gülen was accused of being the architect of an attempted coup against Erdoğan.
NEW HORRORS. As if that wasn’t enough, accounts of a “newborn gang” responsible for the death of at least 10 infants left Turkish citizens in shock. 47 caregivers are accused of organizing infant trafficking to extort money from their families and the Turkish social security system. According to Turkish journalist Murat Yetkin, the crimes have been known to authorities since 2023, but the story was kept secret until now.
On the road again
VDL’S TOUR DE FORCE. 4 days, 6 countries. Starting on Wednesday, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen is set to visit all the countries in the Western Balkans by tomorrow. On the agenda, talks about the progress towards EU accession and the EU’s 6 billion growth plan.
MOLDOVA ON HER MIND. VDL’s diplomatic effort comes the week after a pro-EU referendum in Moldova passed by the tiniest of margins. In a country where the path towards the EU was a given just a few years back, the results are too close for comfort, writes Moldovan journalist Paula Erizanu.
SHOULD I STAY OR SHOULD I GO. Serbian president Aleksandar Vučić declined the invitation by Russian president Vladimir Putin to attend the BRICS summit in Russia and opted to meet von der Leyen and other European leaders.
WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE... Vučić might seem to go towards Brussels, but he’s picking his friends carefully inside the Union. On Tuesday, he traveled to Slovakia to meet with Viktor Orban and Robert Fico, the Hungarian and Slovak conservative PM. We expected to hear the usual unhinged speeches about migration and war in Ukraine: we were not disappointed.
WhatsApp, but for criminals
Sky ECC, a Canadian company offering an encrypted messaging service, was so sure about its security that it promised 5 million euros to anyone who could breach its encryption. “They were wrong - big time”, as the New Yorker nicely put it.
OUCH. They weren’t expecting the Belgian police to succeed. The investigators suddenly had unprecedented and unfiltered access to 3 million messages per day sent by criminals to brag about, organize and coordinate their activities.
WHAT ABOUT THE BALKANS? Some of the biggest arrests thanks to Sky ECC evidence took place in the Balkans. Serbian gangs seemed particularly keen on this means of communication.
IT’S STILL NOT OVER. Prosecutions all over Europe are still working on the evidence gathered. To follow the developments, take a look at the Crime Messenger project by OCCRP.
IN OTHER NEWS
Albania’s former President Ilir Meta was arrested on Monday over corruption, money-laundering and failure to declare assets charges. Among the gifts he allegedly illegally received: Beyoncé tickets.
Croat Tonino Picula has been appointed EU Parliament rapporteur for Serbia. Serbian politicians are not exactly thrilled.
Nobody trusts elections less than Bulgarians - the country votes on Sunday to elect the parliament. It’s the 7th election in 3 years. Unsurprisingly, turnout is expected to hit a new low record.
AND FINALLY. AI dystopian lawsuits are here! Serbian PINK TV created a fake AI video of director Emir Kusturica and broadcasted it without any kind of disclaimer and without asking Kusturica. Kusturica now has sued the TV.
YOUR BODY IS A WONDERLAND. Croatian UFC fighter Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic signed a volunteer contract to train members of the special intervention forces at the Croatian Police Academy. He’ll teach them “how to train their body and make a weapon out of it.” Sounds reassuring.
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You take care out there, until next week
BB