The Balkan Chronicle

Syria Conflict, Bosnia War Parallels Grow From Intervention

Cold-blooded sniper killings, indiscriminate shelling, surgery by flashlight, death, fear and hunger in a darkened city under the ruthless hammer of a superior force.

In its random cruelty, the conflict in Syria starts to resemble the war in Bosnia 20 years ago, when Serb, Muslim and Croat forces tore the Balkan country apart and the besieged people of Sarajevo buried thousands of dead in sports fields.

Bosnia's carnage was broadcast globally month after month by 24-hour satellite television news then in its early days. The slaughter in the Syrian city of Homs has been playing out to the world almost hourly on mobile phone and amateur video.

Images of dead babies, severed limbs, blood running in the gutters and people driven mad by grief provoke horror, followed by demands for armed foreign i...

How Goldman Sachs Helped Greece Hide Its Debt & Made 2.8 Billion € Disappear

In 2003, Nick Dunbar exposed how Goldman Sachs was working to conceal the size of Greece's debt in order to help Greece qualify for inclusion in the European Union.

At the time, Greek and financial officials claimed Dunbar was " ."

However, today we have a much clearer picture of how – and why – Goldman Sachs indeed helped Greece deceive the world as to the size of the country's debt. And today, we understand the extent of the damage done as the European Union clamors for austerity, clamors to squeeze Greece's most vulnerable citizens for the mistakes of those with money and political power.

For a visual picture, I highly recommend this week (below) on how Goldman Sachs, with a blind eye from EU officials and at the behest of the ...

China-Turkey trade to expand

Trade relations between China and Turkey will deepen in the coming years despite inevitable frictions, experts said. Interestingly, most of the trade will be done not in U.S. dollars, but in local currency.

"Trade frictions between China and Turkey are inevitable as bilateral trade volume expands and the global economic slowdown intensifies export competition between the two fast-growing economies," Li Guofu, director of the Center of Middle East Studies in China Institute of International Studies, told China Daily.

"But the bilateral trade prospects are broad and will not be affected by trade frictions as China's fast development also benefits Turkey," Li said.

Gong Xiaosheng, Chinese ambassador to Turkey, agreed with the promising future in Sino-Turkish cooperation.