ELIAMEP

Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Science and Public Administration of Bilkent University, Dr Ioannis N. Grigoriadis, wrote an article on the referendum in Turkey in Kathimerini. The article is available here (in Greek).

Dr. Effie Fokas, Principal Investigator of GRASSROOTSMOBILISE, and Dr. Margarita Markoviti, Postdoctoral Researcher of the same research programme wrote an analysis in the LSE Hellenic Observatory’s blog on ‘Religious Pluralism and Education in Greece’, following their presentation on the same topic at the Hellenic Observatory on February 21, 2017:The analysis is available here.

You can read here the article on Greek-Turkish relations after the referendum which was written by Director General of ELIAMEP Dr Thanos Dokos. This commentary was published in the Greek daily Kathimerini on 19 April  2017 [in Greek].

Τhe development  of Turkey’s nuclear programme generates serious concerns internationally. These concerns are based on certain unusual articles within the nuclear agreements between Turkey and both Russia and Japan, two major nuclear technology suppliers, as well as on the country’s ‘’grey’’ cooperation with Pakistan during the 1980s. The uncertain future of the U.S. tactical nuclear weapons deployed in southeast Turkey further augments international apprehension. Finally, the political and social instability that characterises Turkey and its wider region requires vigilance and sobriety on behalf of all the States which are directly or indirectly affected through the pertinent developments.

Briefing Note 52/2017: The nuclear factor in Turkey’s foreign relations

Author: Pantelis Oikonomou

You can read here here the article written by Dr Dia Anagnostou on the  ‘Manolada case’ This commentary was published in the Sunday edition of To Vima newspaper on 10 April 2017.

You can read here the article on Trump and climate change which was written by Director General of ELIAMEP Dr Thanos Dokos. This commentary was published in the Greek daily Kathimerini on 5 April  2017 [in Greek].

In ELIAMEP Briefing Note 51/2017  Associate Professor at the University of Macedonia Yorgos Christidis offers a brief analysis of the Bulgarian Parliamentary Elections of 26th March 2017 and of the negotiations concerning the formation of the next government.

 

On Tuesday 21 March 2017, the latest research programme hosted by ELIAMEP and titled  ‘Architectural replicas in the scramble for the past: Politics of identity in Istanbul, Athens, Skopje’ (REPLICIAS) was presented for the first time. This project is carried out by Kalliopi Amygdalou, a Marie Skłodowska – Curie Fellow. Dr Amygdalou presented the research objectives and first findings of the project, which explores the politicization of cultural heritage through its reproduction/reconstruction in three cities of South-eastern Europe, and the way this affects the relations between the countries involved. The presentation was followed by a discussion with participants from ELIAMEP, the academic community and the field of heritage management. The research is supervised by Professor Thanos Veremis and Associate Professor Ioannis N. Grigoriadis.

It is noteworthy that ELIAMEP has hosted in the past many fellows who were funded by researcher mobility programmes such as the Marie Skłodowska – Curie Actions, and it is the first research institution in Greece that is hosting a programme in the humanities funded by the European Research Council.

This project has received funding from the Marie Skłodowska Curie Actions [European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme]under grant agreement No [748634]

 

This report written by Dr Dia Anagnostou and Dr Dimitris Skleparis was completed in the frame of the RAD MONITOR project. Its main objective is to provide a background study on radicalisation in Greece and the various forms that it takes: the extreme left radicalization and its transmutation into the anti-authoritarian movement, the far-right radicalization, the Islamist radicalization, and football ‘hooliganism”. It provides an overview of past and current radicalisation trends, the social groups most vulnerable to each form of extremism, their repertoires of action, and the institutional responses of Greek authorities.

 

This policy report written by Dr Dia Anagnostou and Dr Dimitris Skleparis provides a brief overview of the phenomenon of radicalization in its different forms in Greece, which is based on the research conducted in the frame of the RAD MONITOR project. The second part contains a list of policy recommendations that specifically pertain to indicators and tools for the prevention and monitoring of far-right and Islamist radicalization, and their relevance for the Greek context.

You can read here here the article written by Dr Dia Anagnostou on the refugee crisis. This commentary was published in the Sunday edition of Kathimerini newspaper on 2 April 2017.

You can read here the article written by George Tzogopoulos on the visit of US Secretary State Rex Tillerson to Japan, South Korea and China. The article was published on 1 April 2017 in To Vima.

The new book: The Greek civil society and the economic crisis authored by ELIAMEP Senior Research Fellow and Associate Professor at the University of Athens, Dimitri P. Sotiropoulos, has been published. You can find more information about the book here (in Greek).

President of ELIAMEP, Professor Loukas Tsoukalis wrote an article in the Sunday edition of Kathimerini on the future of the EU. This article was published on 25 March 2017 and is available here (in Greek).

The Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP) with the support of Raycap organises a Conference on “Greece and Europe in a changing world: Challenges and prospects”.  The Conference will take place on Saturday 1st April 2017 at the Municipal Conservatory of Drama (218A Verginas str., Drama).

You can click  here to register or contact Ms. Nina Papaioannou (Tel.: 210 7257 111, nina@eliamep.gr)

 

The content is available in Greek.

On Friday 10 March 2017, ELIAMEP’s South-East Europe Programme hosted a roundtable discussion on the relations between Greece and Bulgaria.

Dr. Ioannis Armakolas, Head of the South-East Programme together with Yorgos Christidis, Assistant Professor at the University of Macedonia, presented findings of the Programme’s latest report entitled “Greek-Bulgarian Relations: Present State and Future Challenges”. The report provides an overview of many key aspects of relations between the two countries, including political and diplomatic issues, the economy, energy and infrastructure, public opinion attitudes and media representations, disputes over heritage issues etc.. The presentation of the report was followed by a lively round-table discussion, chaired by the ELIAMEP’s Director General Thanos Dokos, among attendees from the diplomacy, the academia and Greek media. Participants discussed the report’s findings, assessed Greece’s current relations Bulgaria as well as how bilateral relations might be further improved in the future.

 

The report is available εδώ.

The European Research Council (ERC) is celebrating its first 10 years and we would like to share in this by presenting the achievements and milestones of Grassrootsmobilise, the first ERC-funded social science research programme in Greece, hosted by ELIAMEP.

GRASSROOTSMOBILISE MILESTONES

• Public Lecture on ‘Religion, National Identity and Human Rights’ by the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, Heiner Bielefeldt
• Publication of ‘Directions in religious pluralism in Europe: Mobilizations in the Shadow of the European Court of Human Rights Religious Freedom Jurisprudence’ by Effie Fokas
• Presentation at University of Padua ‘Religions and Human Rights’ Conference with a panel on ‘The Legal Status of Religious Minorities: Exploring the Impact of the European Court of Human Rights’
• Preliminary reports on the legal status of religious minorities in the shadow of the ECtHR
• Panel presentation on ‘Mobilizations around Religion and Education in the Shadow of the European Court of Human Rights’ at the EASR (European Association for the Study of Religions) Conference on ‘Relocating Religion’
• Panel presentation on ‘Freedom(s) of Religion and the Jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights’ at the ICLARS (International Consortium for Law and Religion Studies) Annual Conference
• Publication of ‘Comparative Susceptibility and Differential Effects on the Two European Courts: A Study of Grasstops Mobilizations around Religion’ by Effie Fokas

Directions in Religious Pluralism in Europe Examining Grassroots Mobilisations in the Shadow of European Court of Human Rights Religious Freedom Jurisprudence (Grassrootsmobilise) explores the mobilisation of grassroots level actors in the wake of ECtHR religious freedom cases in order to determine the nature and extent of European juridical influence on religious pluralism at the local and national level. In the light of scholarly debates questioning the direct effects of courts, Grassrootsmobilise studies developments that take place ‘in the shadow of the courts’. It examines the extent to and ways in which court decisions define the opportunity structures and discursive frameworks within which citizens act. What is the aftermath of the Court’s religion jurisprudence in terms of its impact on social actors? What rights consciousnesses might be developing, and to what potential effects, concerning religion-related rights at the national and local level?

Grassrootsmobilise necessarily employs a bottom-up, methodologically innovative and multidisciplinary approach to address these questions. Qualitative fieldwork is employed by a team of postdoctoral researchers in 4 country case studies, including in-depth interview research with religious (minority and majority) actors, representatives of secular, religious, and other ideological NGOs, cause lawyers and judges, and state representatives managing religion-related policies.

Following a mapping process to identify particularly salient issue areas, the team has focused its research on a) mobilisations taking place ‘in the shadow’ of the ECtHR around religious education and the legal status of religious minorities and b) one specific ECtHR case against each country studied, in order to understand the mobilisation processes leading to and in the aftermath of the cases. Both tracks represent heretofore unstudied areas.

The above is supplemented by quantitative and qualitative research on references to the ECtHR religion-related case law in national print media and within national courts. The national courts study comprises a 3-stage process, the first two entailing quantitative studies and the 3rd a qualitative study of 5 salient local and national level cases, including interviews with relevant judges and lawyer and an analysis of the plaintiffs’ submissions to the court.

To complete the picture of how mobilisations may impact upon religious pluralism in Europe, the Principal Investigator (PI) studies ‘grasstops’ (transnational and supranational) mobilisations around the ECtHR on matters related to religion: she has conducted in-depth interviews with former and current ECtHR judges; representatives of NGOs which lobby around religion-related issues at the European level; and cause lawyers handling religion-related cases in the ECtHR.

To date, research results have been disseminated through a variety of methods: Grassrootsmobilise has been presented by the PI at international conferences, in summer school courses and at university research seminars; the PI has published a journal article building on the GRM project proposal, and another based on her grasstops mobilisations research; GRM research in the domain of religion and education was presented at the 2016 EASR Conference and has been accepted for publication as a special issue of a journal; our research related to the legal status of religious minorities was presented at an international conference on Religion and Human Rights, the researchers are preparing book chapters on the topic for a volume edited by the PI, and they will contribute related papers to a special issue of a journal emanating from the said conference; our research on ECtHR references in national courts was presented at the ICLARS conference in September 2016; finally further research was presented by individual researchers at the EUREL and ESA Conferences, the International Workshop at the Carlos III University of Madrid, at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and at the LSE Hellenic Observatory. Our website disseminates much of our research data to both an academic and non-academic audience, and our quarterly newsletter reaches a 500-strong list of stakeholders and researchers.

The content is available in Greek.

On 10 March 2017, ELIAMEP’s South-East Europe Programme hosted a roundtable discussion on the relations between Greece and Bulgaria. Dr. Ioannis Armakolas, Head of the South-East Programme together with Yorgos Christidis, Assistant Professor at the University of Macedonia, presented findings of the Programme’s latest report entitled “Greek-Bulgarian Relations: Present State and Future Challenges”. The report provides an overview of many key aspects of relations between the two countries, including political and diplomatic issues, the economy, energy and infrastructure, public opinion attitudes and media representations, disputes over heritage issues etc. The presentation of the report was followed by a lively round-table discussion, chaired by the ELIAMEP’s Director General Thanos Dokos, among attendees from the diplomacy, the academia and Greek media. Participants discussed the report’s findings, assessed Greece’s current relations Bulgaria as well as how bilateral relations might be further improved in the future. The report is available here.