International community expresses concern with state of emergency in Turkey

Turkey will follow France's example and will suspend temporarily the European Convention on Human Rights following its declaration on the state of emergency. The International Community expressed concerns with the introduction of the state of emergency in Turkey and called on the Turkish authorities to cancel it as soon as possible. The Turkish Lira reached record low levels on the international financial markets. Standard & Poors credit rating agency lowered that country's sovereign debt rating with one level from BB+ to BB.

The mayor of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Kadir Topbis announced plans for a separate cemetery for soldiers who took part at the coup attempt. Mayor Topbis announced this news during the protests on Taksim Square. Topbis called that new cemetery “a cemetery for national traitors”. Prior to the plans of Mayor Topbis, the Religious Affairs Directorate (Diyanet) announced that it would not conduct religious funerals for those who took part at the coup attempt, except for those who were forcibly made to participate in those events.

Main political parties in Macedonia negotiate way of our crisis

The main political parties in Macedonia announced that they managed to negotiate a way of the current crisis, following another round of negotiations. By the end of August the leaders of VMRO-DPMNE, the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia, the Democratic Union for Integration and the Democratic Party of Albanians must set a date for early Parliamentary elections. A caretaker cabinet will be formed 100 days ahead of the early regular elections. The EU Commissioner for European Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn said that the recent agreement in Macedonia was an important step towards the solution of the political crisis in Macedonia.

If Serbia arrests Croatian citizens, Zagreb to take counter measures

Croatia's government insisted that Serbia should withdraw its law on universal jurisdiction over war crimes conducted on the territory of former Yugoslavia. Croatia's Minister of Foreign Affairs Miro Kovac announced that if Serbia arrested any Croatian citizens on indictment of war crimes, Croatia would take stringent counter measures.One of the counter measures regards complete suspension of all talks about Serbia's accession to the EU. Croatia will also follow carefully whether Serbia respects the rights of the war victims and whether it cooperates in the process of identification of missing persons.

Balkan Migrant Route still open

Ruling parties and opposition in Albania reach agreement

The ruling parties and the opposition in Albania reached an agreement about that country's judicial reform, demanded by the EU. Thus, Albania is out of the standstill which threatened to block its EU accession bid. The judicial reform envisages that judges and prosecutors should be appointed under professional criteria without any political interference and without the influence of interested groups, including those linked with organized crime. The revenues and the possessions of the Albanian magistrates must be also subject to control. The agreement was reached after many rounds of negotiations with official representatives from the EU and the USAthat lasted for 18 whole months.

Compiled by: Stoimen Pavlov

English version: Kostadin Atanasov