Greece to implement additional austerity measures

After last week Greece and its creditors reached a breakthrough in talks on releasing the next transfer of the country’s bailout, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said that Athens would implement additional austerity measures agreed with international lenders. This will allow the country to be included in the bond buying system of the European Central Bank (ECB), Tsipras said. On Friday in Malta Greece reached an agreement with creditors on key elements of the reform package that would keep the bailout program going and would protect the country from bankruptcy.

OSCE: Turkish state disrupts campaign against referendum

OSCE report for the period March 17 – April 7 concludes that the state in Turkey disrupting the campaign of opponents of the referendum, while new strong restrictions on rights and freedoms in the country were also observed. Supporters of the “No” vote are subject to police brutality and some of them are behind bars on charges of defamation of the president. The very freedom of expression and equal access to media in Turkey are under pressure. Some Politicians from the Peoples' Democratic Party have been put in prison, the report also reads.

Museum of recent failed coup attempt to be erected in Ankara

The Turkish Ministry of Culture has prepared a design for a large new museum dedicated to the attempted coup of July 15, 2016 to overthrow President Erdogan. The building will be called the "Museum of the Martyrs of July 15" and will be located in the district of Kahramankazan in Ankara. It is expected that work on it the museum would start in June and the opening will be at the end of 2018.

Protests against newly elected Serbian president continue

Thousands of Serbians have been protesting in Belgrade against the election of Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic for president of Serbia. Protesters were showing mocking collages comparing Vucic to "Sun King" Louis XIV. Part of the opposition and civic groups accused Vucic of rigging the vote. After two consecutive nights of protests without a clear leader and requests students in Novi Sad and Belgrade prepared a list of demands to Vucic and vowed to protest every day until he fulfilled them. Students insist on dismissing the chairman of the electoral commission, the head of the national council for media and the director of the state television.

Thaci wants Kosovo army draft not to enter parliament yet

Kosovo President Hashim Thaci asked the President not to put on the parliament’s agenda the bill on establishment of an army in Kosovo. The head of state explained that the bill should not be discussed by parliament until institutions and strategic partners of Kosovo express their full support for the idea of ​​the process of transformation of the Kosovo security forces into an army to be done through amendments to the constitution.

VMRO to support Social Democrats if they reject the "Albanian platform"

President of VMRO-DPMNE Nikola Gruevski reiterated that his party will support the leader of the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia Zoran Zaev only if he condemned the "Albanian Platform" and did not implement a single point of it. According to Gruevski, if a government was formed by Zaev and the Albanian coalition, Macedonia would become a binational state with two official languages, where other ethnic communities are left in the background and then processes of cantonization and federalism would break the integrity of the country.

Compiled by: Stoimen Pavlov

English: Alexander Markov