VASSILIS KOSTOULAS

Decoding Erdogan: What to expect from a fresh term?

As Turkish voters head back to the polls on Sunday for a crucial presidential runoff election, where they will choose between an incumbent leader with increasingly authoritarian tendencies and an opposition that promises to restore democracy, three analysts delve into the factors contributing to Erdogan’s enduring political career.

The worst is yet to come for Turkey

The weakness exhibited by the opposition in Turkey’s elections on Sunday highlights the firm grip of the Erdogan regime in a country that is progressively distancing itself from its European aspirations.

08.05.2023 / 21:39

What kind of Turkey will emerge from the ballot box?

Will Kemal Kilicdaroglu become the first leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) to lead a government in Turkey after Bulent Ecevit? And, if that happens, how will Recep Tayyip Erdogan react? How will he manage an election loss, especially if it’s marginal?

06.05.2023 / 14:42

OECD: Greeks are using their bank savings

The fact that consumption in Greece is robust, despite stable salaries and high prices, means that Greeks are using their savings, notes Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Senior Economist Tim Bulman.

04.05.2023 / 16:38

The algorithm of the ballot

Whoever can identify the criterion by which the critical mass of the Greek electorate will vote on May 21 will have solved the equation of the ballot, as they will have read the intentions of the pool of undecided voters.

02.05.2023 / 21:11

Berlin ‘ready to contribute’ to Athens-Ankara thaw

There are encouraging signs of progress in Greek-Turkish relations, according to the German Chancellery’s Foreign and Security Policy Adviser Jens Ploetner.

26.03.2023 / 18:04

Yale strengthens ties with University of Athens

Pericles Lewis, Douglas Tracy Smith Professor of Comparative Literature and Professor of English at Yale University, serves as dean of Yale College.

15.03.2023 / 20:05

EU funds and the OSE barrel

The European Union has its own issues. It is still however a popular resort for those seeking some form of respite in the wake of the deadly train collision at Tempe. After all, who else would have spent 800 million euros on the Greek railways? We can safely assume no one.

07.03.2023 / 14:46

European rail agency head says warnings had been issued since 2014

The European Railway Agency (ERA) has been warning successive governments in Greece, as well as the European Commission, since at least 2014 about safety gaps in the Greek railway system.

18.01.2023 / 15:25

Economic resilience and risks for Greece

The establishment by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) of a research center on Crete monopolized Secretary-General Mathias Cormann’s visit to Athens last week.

04.01.2023 / 15:00

Will the war come to an end?

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has hit the 10-month mark. With western backing, Ukraine has staunchly resisted the incursion of Russia, which is caught up in a costly conflict with no clear exit strategy.

29.12.2022 / 18:47

The peoples of Europe and the war

The Kremlin has put Greece, along with other countries, on its long list of unfriendly countries due to its unwavering support for Ukraine’s existential effort to defend its national sovereignty. However, one more survey – the latest Eurobarometer – confirmed the deep roots of Russian influence in Greece. Deviating significantly from what prevails in the […]

09.12.2022 / 14:33

Greece missed chance to turn to green power

Greece missed an opportunity to decouple its electricity generation from lignite mining using German investments in photovoltaics due to domestic resistance, Germany’s former energy minister and chief of staff in Angela Merkel’s Chancellery, Peter Altmaier, has told Kathimerini, referring to a mammoth photovoltaics project named Helios promoted in 2012 that was […]

17.11.2022 / 16:05

Erdogan keeping the army close with Aegean tension

Brinkmanship over the Aegean is something the Turkish military particularly likes and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan desperately needs the army, says Sinan Ciddi, a Turkish-born, British-educated associate professor of national security studies at the Marine Corps University.

03.11.2022 / 20:10

West should not be seeking Russia’s ‘demise’

The Russian-born historian and Wilson E. Schmidt Distinguished Professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies Sergey Radchenko calls on the West to set limits on the escalation of the war in Ukraine. Speaking to Kathimerini, he describes the danger of a direct confrontation between NATO and Russia as […]