Author: Dionissis Andras

ISTANBUL — A Greek Coast Guard boat chased an inflatable dinghy to within a few dozen meters of the Turkish coast Friday, local media reported, threatening a diplomatic incident between the neighbors. Turkish news website Bodrum Kent TV published a video it said showed the Greek vessel chasing the Zodiac-style dinghy — thought to be linked to people trafficking — in Turkish territorial waters at Akcabuk Bay, near Bodrum, southwest Turkey. The inflatable boat, reportedly carrying one person, landed in front of a holiday complex as the Greek boat abruptly gave up its pursuit and sped away from the Turkish shore.…

“Apart from its contribution to the GDP of the Greek economy, we want tourism to have a qualitative impact on the country, the environment, the people, the local communities”, Tourism Minister Olga Kefalogianni stated in an interview with Athens-Macedonian News Agency on Sunday, ANA reports. The temporal and spatial expansion of tourist activity throughout the territory, and the enrichment and diversification of the tourist product, are central objectives of the strategy of the Ministry of Tourism, with Tourism Minister Olga Kefalogianni making special reference to the recent bill. The new bill explained Kefalogianni, contributes to a turn toward the sustainable…

With its thousands of islands and islets grouped into archipelagos, Greece is home to some uniquely beautiful destinations. For a week’s getaway or longer, here is our list of the most beautiful Greek islands by archipelago, from the classics of Santorini and Mykonos in the Cyclades to Rhodes and Patmos in the Dodecanese. The Saronic Islands, the archipelago at the doors of Athens Located in the Aegean Sea, between Attica and the Peloponnese, the Saronic Islands are closest to Athens: the nearest is less than 40 minutes from Piraeus by hydrofoil, the furthest 2h30 at most. Hydra, the elegant, arty…

Tajikistan officially banned the hijab, imposing hefty fines in its latest move to curb Islamic influence. The Central Asian nation of Tajikistan officially prohibited the wearing of hijabs and other “alien garments” this week, as the country’s parliament passed a new bill regulating Islamic clothing and Eid celebrations. The bill, approved by the upper house of parliament, Majlisi Milli, on June 19, comes after years of an unofficial clampdown on the hijab in the Muslim-majority country. Under the new law, individuals wearing hijabs or other banned religious clothing could face hefty fines of up to 7,920 somonis (approximately $700). Companies…

As Congress continues to delay aid and Volodymyr Zelensky replaces his top commander, military experts debate the possible outcomes. Long before it was reported, at the end of January, that Volodymyr Zelensky had decided to replace his popular Army chief, Valery Zaluzhny, the Ukrainian counter-offensive of 2023 had devolved from attempted maneuvers to mutual recriminations. The arrows pointed in multiple directions: Zelensky seemed to think that his commander-in-chief was being defeatist; Zaluzhny, that his President was refusing to face facts. And there were arguments, too, between Ukraine and its allies. In a two-part investigation in the Washington Post, in early December, U.S. officials…

Quantum computing’s physics-oriented behaviour allows it to be infinitely scalable, which is why Europe has to master this mysterious tech if it wants to avoid a brewing dystopia, Koen Bertels writes. Europe has become known as a second-place destination for business, and more recently, innovation. Disruptive technologies like AI have hailed from the United States for decades with no European challenger in sight. However, when a four-week-old French AI startup secured €105 million for its seed round, it demonstrated that Europe isn’t as disadvantaged as people think. While AI is a saturated market, quantum computing can allow Europe to survive…

Today, the Commission positively assessed Greece’s modified recovery and resilience plan, which includes a REPowerEU chapter. The plan is now worth €35.95 billion, with €18.22 billion in Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) grants and €17.73 billion in RRF loans. It covers 76 reforms and 103 investments. The REPowerEU chapter consists of seven new reforms and four investments, including a scaled up existing investment. These will enable Greece to deliver on the REPowerEU Plan’s objective of making Europe independent from Russian fossil fuels well before 2030. REPowerEU measures focus on facilitating the deployment of more renewable energy, including hydrogen and offshore wind power, and enabling the swift integration…

Frankfurt (18/12 – 14) That there are remarkable advantages in being ignored is not generally recognized. Central Asian countries, historically under the thumb of Moscow, all through the 70+ years of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, were more or less cut off from the outside world. There was little trade or other exchange. The USSR was in fact a grab-bag of ethnicities, religions and languages, controlled with an iron fist by Stalin and afterwards with unbroken dominance through subsequent regimes. Under Soviet management, Central Asia had stayed poor and ignored; it had not developed any hydrocarbon resources to lure…

Turkish president hopes the NATO allies and neighbours will mend relations despite deep-rooted differences. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is in Greece in an effort to mend strained relations between the neighbouring NATO allies and open what he called a “new era” in relations after years of hostility. Greece and Turkey have been at odds for decades over issues including where their continental shelves start and end, energy resources, overflights of the Aegean Sea, and ethnically split Cyprus. On Thursday, the two countries signed a joint declaration to pursue good neighbourly relations. “Geography and history have dictated that we live…

Greece has achieved ninth spot on the top-ten rankings list for the world’s most visited international destinations in 2022. According to the recent report from the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), Greece saw 28 million international tourists in 2022, a figure which had never been achieved before the COVID pandemic. During 2022, the UNWTO found that the Southern Aegean regions including islands such as Rhodes and Mykonos stood out for being Greece’s most popular destinations for international tourists to visit. Further to this, the results also considered that most international travellers to Greece originated from other European countries such as the…