Despite loss Croatia celebrates like world champ

Croatia lost 2:4 to France at the final of the 2018 World Cup in Moscow, but the team turned into the heroes of their motherland. Zagreb kicked off the celebration after the final signal and the fans began preparing to meet the footballers as if those were the world champs. Their feat is phenomenal, according to the Croatians, despite the silver won. The parliament has decided to allocate some EUR 10,000 to every one of the players.

Slovenia suing Croatia over marine border in Gulf of Piran

While the Croats were celebrating their 2018 World Cup silver medal, the Slovenian government stated the submitting of a complaint to the General Court of the EU in Luxemburg against Croatia for having failed to execute an arbitrary rule on their common marine border in the Gulf of Piran. Ljubljana states that Croatia has violated superiority of the law with its refusal to implement the arbitrary decision for the border from 29 June 2017. It also undermines Slovenia’s efforts to implement the EU legislation and violates the Schengen rules, the statement further reads. Croatia didn’t recognize the arbitrary decision and questioned the objectivity of the arbitration. According to Zagreb, the matter should be solved via a bilateral agreement. Slovenia insists on compliance with the arbitrary decision and the EU upholds that stance as well.

Macedonia celebrates NATO membership invitation with concerts

Thousands gathered in a series of Macedonian cities and towns, in order to celebrate the invitation received for the country’s joining to NATO. At the same time VMRO-DPMNE condemned the fests, stating that Macedonia didn’t need those, but a governmental excuse on the matter with the country’s name. On Wednesday NATO leaders sent an official invitation to Macedonia for the start of accession negotiations under the condition that all agreements with Greece on the name dispute’s solving would be fully implemented.

Second anniversary of failed coup in Turkey

Over 30 mln. Türk Telekom users across Turkey used free Internet for a day as a bonus due to the second anniversary of the failed coup attempt against President Erdogan. The entire country marked the date under the slogan: "July 15 – Day of Democracy and National Unification". The peak of the fest was on the first bridge over the Bosphorus, named after the coup Bridge of the July 15 Martyrs, in memory of the 250 victims of the events that took place 2 years ago. On the eve of the anniversary a prayer service was organized with a dinner for 1,300 people on the Asian shore of Istanbul – those were the relatives of people died during the coup in support of the regime.

Romanian movie with award at Karlovy Vary

Romanian director Radu Jude got the top prize of the Karlovy Vary Film Festival for his I Do Not Care If We Go Down In History As Barbarians movie. It tells the story of the ethnic cleansing executed by the Romanian army in 1941. The ideologist and main executor of the Nazi doctrine in Romania is the notorious Conducător Ion Antonescu who was responsible for genocide over both Jews and local Roma people. "I am happy to hand over the Crystal Globus to director Radu Jude, whose movie has touched our hearts," President of the Festival Jiri Bartoska stated.

Compiled by: Miglena Ivanova

English version: Zhivko Stanchev