Category: Macedonia

Many Turkish companies have decided to invest in FYR Macedonia

Many Turkish companies have decided to invest in FYR Macedonia

Many Turkish companies have decided to invest in FYR Macedonia, Minister for Foreign Investment in FYR Macedonia Bill Pavleski said during the Economy Forum within the scope of the 16th Eurasia Economy Summit in Istanbul on April 10.
The foreign investments in the country have increased significantly, said the minister, adding that his country overcame the global economic crisis thanks to its sound banking system.
“Our financial indicators managed to remain balanced during the global economic crisis,” he said. “Our inflation rate has been under 3 percent for the past seven years.”
Speaking at the same event, Montenegro’s Deputy Prime Minister Vujica Lazovic said that his country was an EU candidate, and prioritized the integration process.
“There are important opportunities for investors in Montenegro, said Lazovic, adding that although his country was a young one, it had gained a significant economic experience in recent years. “We grew 2.5 percent during the 2009 economic crisis, and 3.2 percent in 2011,” he said.
Jordan’s Senate President Taher Masri, for his part, said that the country was watching the Turkish economy with pride. “There are winners and losers in economic aspects, and Turkey is among the winners,” said Masri. Source; Hurriyet

April 14, 2013
Bulgaria, Greece Must Unite against Macedonia, Turkey in Agriculture

Bulgarian Minister of Agriculture and Foods Miroslav Naydenov. Photo by BGNES

Bulgaria and Greece should team up to offer strong competition in the area of agriculture against non-EU neighbors Macedonia and Turkey, argued Bulgarian Agriculture Minister Miroslav Naydenov.

Saturday Naydenov visited Greek livestock breeding exhibition Zootechnia in Thessaloniki.

“There is a competition pressure in agriculture on the part of Turkey and Macedonia, who are not part of the EU and their agriculture sectors can enjoy privileges not available to agriculture producers in the EU,” said the Bulgarian minister in an interview for ANA-MPA.

“We are neighbors with Greece and our ambition is to be able to increase mutual exchange,” stressed Naydenov.

The Bulgarian Agriculture Minister noted that Greek agriculture companies already have the established practice of using Bulgarian raw products, and suggested that this can be boosted.

He also called for an increased trade exchange of produce, with more Bulgarian grain products to be imported in Greece, and more Greek fruit and vegetables to be imported in Bulgaria.

In particular, Naydenov stressed that Bulgaria has still work to do in the absorption of EU subsidies in agriculture to achieve the full potential of the sector.

Tags: greece, Greek, Thessaloniki, Miroslav Naydenov, agriculture, greece, turkey, EU, subsidies

via Bulgaria: Bulgaria, Greece Must Unite against Macedonia, Turkey in Agriculture – Bulgarian Min – Novinite.com – Sofia News Agency.

February 15, 2013
Turkey advocates for Macedonia to join NATO

Expanding membership is not on the agenda of next week’s NATO summit in Chicago, but Turkey is attempting to raise the issue through an indirect meeting at the summit for Macedonia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and Georgia, with a special focus on Macedonia.

”]“Macedonia’s request for membership is very just and is a contribution to the peace and stability in the Balkans,” Cemil Cicek, president of Turkey’s parliament, said during his visit in Skopje on Thursday (May 17th).

Cicek said Turkey will do everything it can to put the question of Macedonia’s entry in NATO on the table.

“The newly-created situation after the ICJ’s verdict imposes the need at the forthcoming Chicago summit to redefine the conclusion from [the summit in] Bucharest which was a result of the illegal behaviour by Greece,” Macedonia President Georgi Ivanov said.

Greek diplomacy was jolted into action again, given the support Macedonia — and Turkey’s initiative — is receiving from Great Britain, Norway, Croatia and Slovenia.

“We do not have only a problem with Greece. Some leading countries in NATO solidarised with Greece’s unjust politics, and in calling on Macedonia to change its name, they are forcing Macedonia to capitulate. They are asking the impossible of a country dedicated to NATO and its missions,” Biljana Vankovska, professor at the Institute for Security, Defence and Peace Studies, told SETimes.

Given that Greece has no government and is facing a severe political-economic crisis, the country’s political parties met to formulate a common position for the summit.

According to the transcripts provided by Greek President Karolos Papoulias, the parties agreed not to change Greece’s position in the dispute it imposed on Macedonia.

“Our arguments should be smarter than those offered in 2008. We have to strengthen them more skillfully and more intelligently,” Evangelos Venizelos, leader of PASOK, said.

They announced if there is an attempt to pose the question of Macedonia’s membership, Greece will issue a new veto, regardless of the verdict of the UN’s International Court of Justice which classified the first 2008 veto illegal.

“We must not back down from the agreement in Bucharest. In case of a surprise, certainly there should be a veto that moment,” Andonis Samaras, leader of New Democracy, said.

Dimitar Mirchev, a former ambassador and senior adviser to Macedonia’s president, said he is surprised by Athens’ open announcements to use a veto in spite of international law and Greece’s obligations under international and bilateral agreements.

“If Greece uses a veto in Chicago, conditions will be created for a new lawsuit in The Hague. Greek politicians should be aware such a development will weaken Athens’ position in the international community and will contribute to the worsening of the security of the entire region,” Mirchev told SETimes.

This content was commissioned for SETimes.com.

via Turkey advocates for Macedonia to join NATO (SETimes.com).

May 19, 2012
Turkish Soaps Drive Macedonians To Istanbul

Written by: Balkan Insight

December 27, 2011

By Sinisa Jakov Marusic

Turkish soap operas lure increasing numbers of Macedonian tourists to Istanbul, where they hope to catch a glimpse of their favorite stars.

In 2011 Istanbul remained one of the top holiday destinations for Macedonians, many of whom are eager to see the city where their favourite Turkish soap operas come to life.

Tourist agencies that offer tours to the sets of these heart-rending TV novellas that have taken Balkan audiences by storm say business is booming.

“People are simply curious and they want to see,” says Sonja Samardziska from the Skopje-based Skaut tourist agency, adding: “We already have two full buses booked and we are expecting more”.

The agency offers a tour of the live sets from the soap opera ‘Yaprak Dokumu,’ or Falling Leaves, a love and crime melodrama centered on the life of one Istanbul family.

Like elsewhere in the Balkans, this show, currently airing in Macedonia, has broken viewing records.

The Balkan craze for Turkish soap operas arguably started last year when the Turkish television series called ‘Binbir Gece,’ or A Thousand and One Nights, became a prime time hit overnight in all of the former Yugoslav republics plus Albania, Romania and even Greece.

In Macedonia the show, which was broadcast on the now-defunct A1 TV, was a huge success.

“But this year it’s all about Yaprak Dokumu,” says one employee of the Skopje-based Nehar Tourism agency. “Most of the people want to see the family house where this TV novella is being filmed.”

Prices for Macedonians who wish to spend New Year’s Eve closer to their favourite TV characters vary from 100 to 160 euros, depending on the accommodation.

In a recent article, Turkish news portal Hurriyet Daily News said that Turkish soap operas have raised the country’s influence abroad, especially in the Balkans and the Middle East, supporting the so-called “soft power” of Turkish diplomacy.

According to Hurriyet, more than 100 Turkish TV series have been watched in over twenty countries this year, earning more than $60 million.

Skopje based Sociology professor Ilija Aceski says that the key to the success of these series in the Balkans lies in their familiarity.

“The societies here have many similarities with Turkish society. The clash between traditional family values and the more liberal understandings of sexuality and marriage, the crime stories, they are all issues that people can relate to,” he says.

Time magazine recently described the export of Turkish soap operas as the “secret of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan”.

About the author:

Balkan Insight

The Balkan Insight (fornerkt the Balkin Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN) is a close group of editors and trainers that enables journalists in the region to produce in-depth analytical and investigative journalism on complex political, economic and social themes. BIRN emerged from the Balkan programme of the Institute for War & Peace Reporting, IWPR, in 2005. The original IWPR Balkans team was mandated to localise that programme and make it sustainable, in light of changing realities in the region and the maturity of the IWPR intervention. Since then, its work in publishing, media training and public debate activities has become synonymous with quality, reliability and impartiality. A fully-independent and local network, it is now developing as an efficient and self-sustainable regional institution to enhance the capacity for journalism that pushes for public debate on European-oriented political and economic reform.

via Turkish Soaps Drive Macedonians To Istanbul.

December 28, 2011
Turkey welcomes UN court ruling on Macedonia-Greece row

Turkey welcomes UN court ruling on Macedonia-Greece row

06 December 2011 | 16:06 | FOCUS News Agency

Home / Southeast Europe and Balkans

Ankara. Turkey welcomed on Tuesday a ruling by the UN’s top court that Greece was wrong to block Macedonia’s entry to NATO because of name dispute, AFP reported.

The International Court of Justice ruled Monday that NATO member Greece had breached a 1995 interim accord by blocking Macedonia’s entry into the alliance in 2008 over a dispute over the former Yugoslav republic’s name.

“We welcome the decision and hope it will accelerate Macedonia’s integration with Europe and Euro-Atlantic organisations and provide it with support on the legal ground,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.

The ministry said Turkey, also a NATO member, would continue to support Macedonia for the process of its integration with Europe and transatlantic organisations to be concluded “without delay”.

Greece alleges that use of the name Macedonia suggests a territorial claim to the northern Greek province of the same name while Skopje maintains that changing the name would be a denial of its own national identity and language.

via Turkey welcomes UN court ruling on Macedonia-Greece row – FOCUS Information Agency.

December 7, 2011
Turkish diplomats hospitalized in Macedonia

Associated Press
2010-04-13 02:16 AM

Government and medical authorities in Macedonia say eight visiting Turkish diplomats have been treated in the hospital treatment for food poisoning.Four of the diplomats remained in the hospital Monday. The others were released.

Private A1 television says the diplomats visited several restaurants, including a kebab place, in the Old Turkish bazaar in the capital, Skopje.

The diplomats arrived are in Macedonia at the invitation of the Foreign Ministry to speak at seminars at the country’s Diplomatic Academy.

, 13 04 2010

April 13, 2010