After Political Appointment in Bulgaria, Rage Boils Over

By MATTHEW BRUNWASSER

SOFIA, Bulgaria — Delyan Peevski’s mother used to head the national lottery and leads a growing media empire with strong political and economic connections in this small, impoverished and notoriously corrupt Balkan nation. So perhaps it was not surprising that the appointment of Mr. Peevski, 32, to head the powerful State Agency for National Security sparked protests that have been attended by thousands every day over the past two weeks and show no sign of losing steam. Continue reading “After Political Appointment in Bulgaria, Rage Boils Over” →

New Bridge Over Danube Helps Dissolve Old Enmities

By MATTHEW BRUNWASSER

VIDIN, Bulgaria — The European Union hardly basks in popular favor these days. But in this isolated corner of the bloc’s poorest periphery, leaders and locals on Friday celebrated a tangible benefit of membership — a $340 million bridge spanning the Danube that should help strengthen trade and ties between two impoverished members, Romania and Bulgaria. Continue reading “New Bridge Over Danube Helps Dissolve Old Enmities” →

With Many Despairing, Bulgaria Heads to Polls

By MATTHEW BRUNWASSER

VARNA, Bulgaria — Early one morning this past winter, Plamen Goranov, a 36-year-old photographer, stood on the steps of City Hall in this once grand and now crumbling port city on the Black Sea and held up a sign demanding that the mayor and City Council resign. He then took a bottle of gasoline from his backpack, poured it over himself and set himself on fire. He died 11 days later in a hospital. Continue reading “With Many Despairing, Bulgaria Heads to Polls” →

Bulgaria’s Unholy Alliances

By MATTHEW BRUNWASSER

SOFIA — His enthronement as patriarch of Bulgaria, spiritual leader of millions of Orthodox believers here, was supposed to stir pride and moral togetherness in an impoverished country confronting a vacuum in political leadership and widespread economic pain.

Instead, the installation of His Holiness Neofit last month, in a ceremony replete with byzantine splendor, served as one more reminder that Bulgaria had never really thrown off the inheritance of 40 years of rigid Communist rule and all the duplicitous dealings that went with it. Continue reading “Bulgaria’s Unholy Alliances” →

That Crush at Kosovo’s Business Door? The Return of U.S. Heroes

By MATTHEW BRUNWASSER

PRISTINA, Kosovo — Prime Minister Hashim Thaci is in a bind. His country’s largest and most lucrative enterprise, the state telecommunications company, is up for sale. The jostling among buyers is intense. Narrowing the bidders has hardly helped.

One bid is from a fund founded by former Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright. Lobbying for another was James W. Pardew, the Clinton-era special envoy to the Balkans. Both former diplomats are among the Americans who hold the status of heroes here for their roles in the 1999 intervention that separated Kosovo from Serbia and created one of the world’s newest states. Continue reading “That Crush at Kosovo’s Business Door? The Return of U.S. Heroes” →

I am Woman, Hear Me Pray

ISTANBUL — There’s not a lot of female energy in the Directorate of the Istanbul Mufti. This large, blocky Ottoman-era building houses the state bureaucratic entity in charge of every aspect of Islam here, from hiring imams and writing their weekly sermons to paying their salaries and approving designs for new mosques.Much of what female energy there is comes from the small, tidy office of Kadriye Avci Erdemli, who three years ago became the first female deputy mufti of Istanbul and one of Turkey’s highest-ranking female religious officials.

Continue reading “I am Woman, Hear Me Pray” →

Determined to Bring Out the Truth in Kosovo

By MATTHEW BRUNWASSER

PRISTINA, KOSOVO — She cut her journalistic teeth with the BBC as a 22-year-old fixer, helping television crews film in and around Kosovo during the 1999 NATO bombing war against Serbia.

Now 33, Jeta Xharra has continued the punchy public interest journalism she says she learned from the likes of Jeremy Paxman, the British broadcaster known as host of the television news program “Newsnight.”

In 1999, exposing wrongdoing seemed like an ideal common to most if not all Kosovo Albanians, united as they were by their fight against the authoritarian rule of Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia. Continue reading “Determined to Bring Out the Truth in Kosovo” →

Concerns Grow About Authoritarianism in Macedonia

By MATTHEW BRUNWASSER

SKOPJE, MACEDONIA — The ambitious retooling of this small nation’s identity — a Balkan brand of hyper-patriotism accompanied by the trumpeting of Macedonia’s ancient roots — is raising concerns internationally about growing authoritarianism, the silencing of dissent and accusations of abuse of power by the governing party here.

The European Commission released its annual report this week on the country’s progress toward E.U. membership, and found that the country was backtracking on protecting media freedoms and that it was making insufficient progress on protecting the rule of law. Continue reading “Concerns Grow About Authoritarianism in Macedonia” →

Kosovo’s Serbs Pressed to End Autonomy Push

By MATTHEW BRUNWASSER

MITROVICA, Kosovo — After years of impasse between the national government of Kosovo and ethnic Serbs demanding autonomy within their northern enclave in the new country, international pressure has intensified on the Serbs. And while the immediate result has been minor clashes, there is new hope for some movement toward a resolution for the last geopolitically unsettled chunk of the former Yugoslavia.

Continue reading “Kosovo’s Serbs Pressed to End Autonomy Push” →

Bosniaks and Croats, Divided in Class and at Play

By MATTHEW BRUNWASSER

VITEZ, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA — Every morning at the local grade school formerly known as Brotherhood and Unity, the Catholic Croat children head to the right, and the Bosnian Muslims head to the left.

The Croats study in the school’s cheerful looking main building, which was recently renovated. The Muslims attend class in the crumbling, dingy annex next door.

The school ended up behind the Croat line during the 1992-95 war that killed some 100,000 people. It has remained there ever since. Continue reading “Bosniaks and Croats, Divided in Class and at Play” →