It was July 20, 1998, and “Drita” was traveling with her younger sister to visit family in a rural part of Serbia-controlled Kosovo.

“They stopped the bus, made us come out and asked for ID,” Drita, who did not want to be identified by her real name, told VOA’s Albanian Service. “They asked my sister to get out first, and I immediately went after her because I have always been close to her and she is two years younger.”

Like most ethnic Albanian women caught up in Kosovo’s two-year fight for secession, neither Drita nor her sister possessed official documentation, so the soldiers began herding them, along with three other female passengers, toward an abandoned house without doors or windows.

Watching as the frightened women were dragged away, Drita’s husband jumped from the bus, demanding to know where they were being taken. Insistently grabbing a soldier by the arm, he was shoved to the ground and battered with an iron rod.

Once inside, Drita could still hear his screams.

“And right in front of me, I could hear and see my sister,” she said, choking back tears as she struggled to describe the scene. “I was torn whether to run to my husband or my sister, [who] was there in front of me.”

With troops restraining her arms and grabbing at her knees, Drita thrashed about in panic as two others raped and beat her sister unconscious. Drita bit a chunk of flesh from a soldier’s hand, only to be struck by a scrap of discarded lumber, a protruding nail plunging into her arm.

“I still have the mark,” she said. “I tried to stop them, but I was beaten so hard because I tried to fight them like a man, and outside, I was hearing my husband scream.”

​Silent decades

International humanitarian organizations and local NGOs have collected an estimated 20,000 accounts of systematic rape and torture perpetrated by Serbian forces loyal to former President Slobodan Milosevic, whose bid to repress Kosovo’s fight for independence in the late 1990s left at least 11,000 Kosovars dead and 700,000 displaced.

Many survivors kept quiet for decades, fearing the shame that a rape can bring upon an extended family in a historically patriarchal society. Now, they are starting to find their voices, following a decision by the government to provide reparations for victims of sexual war crimes under a law that compensates veterans of the Kosovo War.

They welcome the lifetime monthly compensation of $275 for the physical and psychological trauma — about 90 percent of the average salary for Kosovar women. But many say justice remains elusive.

Two kinds of suppression

As Kosovo struggled to rebuild and secure international recognition in the wake of its 2008 declaration of independence, the issue of sexual violence remained largely on the back burner.

The reason, said Vlora Çitaku, Pristina’s ambassador to the United States, is because in Kosovo, as in many societies, “it is often the victim that gets blamed, not the perpetrator.”

Çitaku, herself a former refugee, said her family has long honored a late uncle lost in the battle for independence.

“Unfortunately for children of the survivors of sexual violence, the experience is completely the opposite,” she told VOA. “They don’t live with pride like I do. They have fear, they feel shame, and they are worried that they will be excluded, that their families will be excluded, that their mother will suffer if her story comes out.”

Drita, for example, said no one in her extended family knows what happened to her.

“These victims,” Çitaku said, “have carried on their shoulders not only the pain but also the shame” of an entire war-racked generation.

The emotional weight was so leaden that many Kosovar rape victims committed suicide or fell prey to family “honor killings,” leading some analysts to suspect that the roughly 20,000 documented accounts of rape by Serb forces in Kosovo are just a small fraction of the actual number.

No role in negotiations

Aside from Kosovo’s regional cultural norms, Shirley DioGuardi, who wrote about Kosovo in Women and Genocide, identifies another reason for the suppression of rape accounts: the international community’s exclusion of female victims from postwar discussions.

“We have so many qualified Kosovar women, and they were not allowed by the international community to be part of the negotiations,” she told VOA, referring to the fact that peace talks were led exclusively by men.

Some experts say this twofold suppression of accounts of conflict-driven sexual atrocities — on both domestic and international fronts — means that stories such as Drita’s are not only under-reported but also underprosecuted.

Despite numerous high-profile war crimes prosecutions by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), a recent report by London-based Amnesty International said only a handful of perpetrators had been convicted of sexually motivated war crimes — and those exclusively by regional Serbian courts.

Because neither ICTY nor the European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo has brought any perpetrator to justice, accounts such as Drita’s may be the only remaining historical evidence.

“Now, 18 years later, very little evidence survives, and the main evidence actually is what the survivors have to say,” said Sian Jones, an Amnesty International Kosovo expert.

That’s why, she added, “we are calling for reforms within the judicial system that will protect witnesses if they will come forward, which will give them support if they decide to go through the process of a court case at this stage.”

Amnesty International lauds the monthly stipend as “a just and dignified amount,” noting that the reparations law recognizes rape survivors as victims of the conflict, providing them benefits similar to those of war veterans. But critics say the law still falls short of international standards by excluding the predominantly Kosovo-Serb, Roma and Albanian women who were raped after hostilities formally concluded.

Rape as genocidal act

It wasn’t until 1994 — 46 years after the United Nations unanimously passed the Genocide Convention — that rape was officially categorized as an act of genocide, a step vital to including Kosovar women in the war victims category.

“I think it has to do with the fact that the act of rape is a mechanism of war against the female population of the world, and we can no longer accept that, just as we wouldn’t accept any other form of murder and torture that men were involved particularly,” said DioGuardi, who has written extensively about rape as a tool of warfare.

No amount of financial compensation or redefinition of war crimes can restore what Drita lost — specifically because the burden of trauma is passed on to future generations.

“I feel bad for my son, because I was never able as a parent to give him that joy, that cheerful smile that a child needs,” Drita said.

Although she survived the assault, she lost an unborn child, and three years later her husband died of complications from the beating.

“I have waited so long to be able to tell someone, to tell that we also fought — maybe not with weapons, but I confronted an over 6-foot-tall man,” Drita said. “I was raped and beaten, and I don’t even know how have I been able to make it to this day, but I am very strong and I don’t know how.”

The compensation means she will no longer need to beg, even if she’ll quietly continue to pray for the kind of emotional and psychological support from the broader community that would enable her to maintain the semblance of a normal life.

“Even if we receive millions, what happened to us will remain with us for the whole life,” she said. “It is etched in our souls because it is something that cannot be erased from our brain.”

As Kosovo advances into the future, having largely secured a stable postwar foundation, there still “cannot be peace,” said Çitaku, “if there is denial.”

This story originated in VOA’s Albanian Service.
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A U.S. congressional report issued Wednesday accused Russia of mounting a protracted assault on democracy at home and abroad, and urged a multi-pronged counter-strategy that begins with U.S. presidential leadership, something the report alleged has been lacking from Donald Trump.

Prepared by Democratic staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and provided in advance to VOA, the report said, “[Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s regime has developed a formidable set of tools to exert influence abroad” and “appears intent on using almost any means possible to undermine democratic institutions and trans-Atlantic alliances.”

Based on months of research and informational exchanges with foreign governments targeted by the Kremlin, the 206-page report exhaustively documented the full array of tools Russia has wielded beyond its borders.

Putin’s “asymmetric arsenal” ranges from “a lethal blend of conventional military assaults, assassinations, disinformation campaigns, [and] cyberattacks” in Ukraine to plotting a coup in Montenegro to disinformation and cyberattacks in Germany, France, the United Kingdom and beyond, according to the report.

The document also details years of alleged oppression and violence within Russia against Putin’s perceived adversaries and critics. The Russian leader, the report said, “gained and solidified power by exploiting blackmail, fears of terrorism, and war” and “combined military adventurism and aggression abroad with propaganda and political repression at home, to persuade a domestic audience that he is restoring Russia to greatness.”

“This is not a report on the hacking of the 2016 [U.S.] election. It’s a report about how Russia operates around the world,” said a committee staff members who helped prepare the document, adding that the report is the first from a U.S. governmental entity that spells out “the scale and scope” of the Russian threat.

Without fully understanding that threat, the staffer said, “you can’t prevent it from happening again.”

The report detailed steps European nations have taken to combat Russian influence, both individually and within organizations such as NATO and the European Union. The United States, it contended, lags far behind.

“President Trump has been negligent in acknowledging and responding to the threat to U.S. national security posed by Putin’s meddling,” the report said. “The president should immediately declare that it is U.S. policy to counter and deter all forms of the Kremlin’s hybrid threats against the United States and around the world. … The president should also present to Congress a comprehensive national strategy to counter these grave national security threats.”

Establishing a fusion cell

The report recommended establishing an inter-agency task force or “fusion cell” for combating Russian influence modeled on the National Counterterrorism Center. It also recommended designating countries that employ malign influence operations as “State Hybrid Threat Actors,” and subjecting them to “a pre-emptive and escalatory sanctions regime.”

Minority reports are common on Capitol Hill. Like all such reports, this one was prepared for the full Foreign Relations Committee, which is Republican-led.

“We think a lot of [the report’s] recommendations and findings would be supported on a bipartisan basis,” a committee staff member said.

Putin has consistently ridiculed any suggestion of foreign meddling, and last year Trump appeared to back him up, at least in regard to the 2016 U.S. election.

“He [Putin] said he didn’t meddle. I asked him again. You can only ask so many times,” Trump told reporters after a November meeting with the Russian leader in Vietnam. “Every time he sees me, he says, ‘I didn’t do that.’ And I believe, I really believe, that when he tells me that, he means it.”

Prominent Republicans have joined Democrats in slamming Trump’s remarks.

“There’s nothing ‘America First’ about taking the word of a KGB colonel over that of the American intelligence community,” Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona said in a statement. “Vladimir Putin does not have America’s interests at heart. To believe otherwise is not only naïve but also places our national security at risk.”

In an interview last year on Australian Broadcasting Corp, McCain said, “I think he [Putin] is the premier and most important threat, more so than ISIS.”

Bipartisan probes

Multiple U.S. congressional committees are conducting bipartisan probes of Russian meddling in the 2016 election, with final reports possible later this year. In the interim, lawmakers of both political parties have spoken out.

“What I will confirm is that the Russian intelligence service is determined, clever,” Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr, a North Carolina Republican, said in October. “And I recommend that every campaign and every election official take this very seriously.”

“The Russian active measures did not end on Election Day 2016,” the committee’s top Democrat, Senator Mark Warner of Virginia said, adding that the United States should take a “more aggressive whole government approach” to combat Russian interference.

In pursuing a comprehensive strategy, Democratic staff members on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee recommended examining Russia’s actions in Europe and elsewhere.

“The Europeans have learned some of these lessons and we can learn from them,” a staff member said. “Russia can be deterred.”

“There is a long bipartisan tradition in Congress in support of firm policies to counter Russian government aggression and abuse against its own citizens, our allies, and universal values,” the Foreign Relation Committee’s top Democrat, Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland, wrote in an introduction to the document. “This report seeks to continue that tradition.”

— This report was embargoed and, as a result, VOA was unable to get White House reaction before its release.
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During his first state visit to China this week, French President Emmanuel Macron brought with him two key messages, analysts said.

One message was about the huge possibilities cooperation between China and Europe could bring and his commitment to that effort. The other, a warning to not underestimate growing concern and frustration in Europe – and elsewhere – with what many regard as China’s unfair trade practices such as investment restrictions in many sectors that are not blocked in countries overseas.

Matheiu Duchatel, deputy director of the Asia and China Program at the European Council of Foreign Relations said President Macron’s visit goes beyond France.

“He wants to present himself as a leader of the EU, but at the same time, I think he wants to send a signal that Europe and the EU are in better shape than many think in China,” Duchatel said.

Despite the Brexit referendum, Catalonia’s push for independence and the broader rise of populist parties, Duchatel said that now – more than before – governments in Europe are voicing concern about China’s trade practices.

And it is not just Europe, but the United States and Australia as well, he adds, noting that China now faces a “united front from developed countries against its unfair trade practices.”

“Many are coming to terms with the reality that China is no longer the factory of the world, but it is clearly a country that has very strong ambitions in terms of economic leadership for the world and it is not a market economy,” Duchatel said.

Building relationships

In China, President Macron went to great lengths to highlight his desire to meld both the interests of Europe and China, presenting China’s leader Xi Jinping with a gift of a horse, an eight-year old gelding named Vesuvius.

Macron pledged to visit China at least once every year while in office and said that he is determined to “get the Europe-China relationship into the 21st Century.” The two signed several major trade deals during the visit, that included fields such as food, nuclear power and aerospace. President Xi said the two countries will deepen their “strategic cooperation.”

During his first stop in Xi’an, Macron talked up China’s massive trillion-dollar trade and commerce project, the “Belt and Road” initiative, offering Paris’s support, albeit with a caveat.

Xi’an was once the starting point of the Silk Road, ancient trade routes for silk, spices and horses that China seeks to build on adding maritime routes as well. In a speech at Daming Palace, the former royal residence during China’s Tang Dynasty, Macron noted that the ancient Silk Roads were never only Chinese.

“By definition these roads can only be shared,” he told an audience of academics, students and business people. “If they are roads, they cannot be one-way.”

In a speech at a start-up incubator Tuesday, with Alibaba Founder Jack Ma at his side, along with other French and Chinese companies, Macron also talked about the possibilities cooperation could bring and warned about the looming threat of protectionism if adjustments were not made.

“France imports 45 billion from China but only exports 15 billion, so we have access to markets which is unbalanced, unsatisfying. If we don’t deal with this responsibly, the first, natural, reaction, the one we’ve had for too long, will be to close up on both sides,” Macron said.

Jean-Pierre Cabestan, a political science professor at Hong Kong Baptist University said that in many ways the trip is an effort to not only correct France’s deficit problems, but put relations between China and Europe on more equal footing.

“I think the message is clear, France and the European Union want more reciprocity a more balanced relationship, and also want to take advantage of the Silk Road initiative, but there are a lot of questions which are not going to be resolved by this trip,” Cabestan said.

Like France, economies across the globe want to do more business in the country’s massive market and have more investment come to their shores, but China’s pace of adopting reforms to further open up its doors is feeding a global backlash.

The United States and European Union are currently looking at ways to tighten scrutiny of foreign investments and Macron is an advocate of a tighter screening mechanism in Europe for some sectors. A position he did not hide during the visit. But for now, it’s unclear if anything will change soon.

Some analysts argue that given Chinese President Xi Jinping’s frequent stated opposition to protectionism and support for globalization, he has no choice but to press ahead with reforms and soon. Others, however, are not as convinced, noting Xi’s strong support for state-owned enterprises over the past two years.

Zhang Lun, a political scientist at the Universite de Cergy-Pointoise said that there is still a big push back against western companies gaining a bigger share of China’s market.

“Overall it will be very tough for France to achieve its objective (balancing the deficit), much like (U.S. President) Donald Trump has struggled to balance trade as well. But at the same time, China needs the international market to cope with the growing pressure (to open up more) and its slowing economy,” Zhang said.

If China continues to ignore such calls, however, the relationship is likely to only continue to deteriorate.
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Poland’s ruling conservatives fired several senior government ministers on Tuesday in an apparent move to patch up relations with the European Union strained over accusations that Warsaw is subverting rule of law standards.

Facing unprecedented EU legal action over the alleged politicization of Poland’s judiciary, the Law and Justice (PiS) party may want to defuse tensions in other areas such as environment policy and defense, analysts say.

The changes also came with the EU about to embark on negotiations on a new seven-year budget that will decide which member states get what out of the bloc’s coffers – with Poland currently the biggest net recipient.

President Andrzej Duda, acting on recommendations of Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, dismissed Environment Minister Jan Szyszko, who has spearheaded far-reaching logging in an ancient forest that prompted action by the European Court of Justice.

Also losing their job were Defense Minister Antoni Macierewicz, a former anti-communist crusader facing criticism over delays in modernizing the army as well as conflicts with top generals, as well as Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski, seen in Brussels as an ineffective diplomat.

The reshuffle removed ministers seen from the EU perspective as combative or ill-informed. It followed the appointment of former bank CEO and finance minister Morawiecki as prime minister, replacing Beata Szydlo, last month at the midpoint of the parliamentary term. PiS faces local elections in late 2018 and legislative and presidential ballots in 2019 and 2020.

“The new (government) should help us build a sovereign Poland within a strong Europe, a Europe of homelands,” Morawiecki said after the new appointments were announced.

The feud between Brussels and Warsaw’s eurosceptic government has emerged as a central element of mounting tensions between wealthier western EU members and the ex-communist east amid a wider debate over the bloc’s future.

Many westerners are keen for EU countries to integrate further in the wake of Britain’s shock decision to leave the bloc, but this is strongly opposed by nationalist-minded politicians dominating eastern EU countries such as Poland and Hungary.

Questions Whether Gesture Will Work

It remains to be seen whether Morawiecki will improve Warsaw’s relations with EU headquarters in Brussels. He travels there later on Tuesday to meet top EU officials.

Poland could face the suspension of its EU voting rights if it fails to strike a compromise on democracy and rule of law issues with Brussels, although Hungary’s like-minded government has threatened to veto such a move.

Judicial reforms at the heart of the dispute with Brussels are seen by PiS as a fundamental element of its efforts to overhaul Poland’s democratic institutions.

“The president has already signed judiciary legislation into law so it seems the conflict is irresolvable here,” said Piotr Buras, head of the Warsaw office of the European Council on Foreign Relations think tank.

In a sign that policy is unlikely to change, Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro kept his job. New rules had given Ziobro powers to appoint the heads of lower-level courts as well as exercise oversight over prosecutors.

The PiS believes reforms are needed because the country has lost sight of its Catholic soul and is steeped in mentality and power structures dating to the post-war communist era. Critics say that the government’s efforts to wield control over courts and public media are tilting Poland towards authoritarian rule.

Szyszko had attracted widespread criticism domestically over moves to lift limits on hunting and felling of trees on private property – which led to massive logging in areas of Poland.

Radziwill has struggled to contain widespread protests by medical residents in recent months over working conditions, which have exacerbated staffing shortages in some notoriously underfunded hospitals.

The outgoing defense minister has been the PiS investigator into the 2010 plane crash over Russia that killed President Lech Kaczynski – the twin brother of current PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski – and dozens of senior officials.

Kaczynski and Macierewicz believe the crash may have been caused by foul play and not pilot error, which was the official cause returned by an investigation by the previous centrist government and is believed by the majority of Poles.
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President Donald Trump is planning to attend the World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort of Davos later this month.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders says in a statement that the president welcomes the opportunity to promote his “America First” agenda with world leaders.

Sanders says Trump wants to promote his policies for strengthening American businesses, industries and workers.

The annual gathering of global political and business elites is scheduled to take place from January 23-26 in Switzerland.

American presidents rarely attend. Then-vice president Joe Biden attended last year.

The New York Times first reported on Trump’s plans to attend the forum.

 
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Tuesday said a sanctions-busting court case in New York involving Turkish nationals is a “political coup attempt” against him and his government. With Erdogan also threatening military action against a key U.S. ally in Syria, relations between the NATO allies could deteriorate further.

Erdogan alleged the conviction of a Turkish state banker in the federal case is the latest attempt by the FBI and CIA to unseat him. He made the comment while addressing members of his AK Party in parliament.

“Those who could not succeed in the military coup attempt in Turkey on July 15 [2016], are now searching for a different attempt in our country, he said. He cited the case in the U.S. as “the address of this political coup attempt.”

Ankara also accuses Washington of collaborating with U.S.-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen in the 2016 failed coup that left an estimated 150 people dead. The U.S. denies the accusation.Turkey has asked the U.S. to extradite Gulen, who lives in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania and has denied all involvement in the coup attempt.

Bilateral relations between the NATO allies, already deeply strained since the coup attempt, have been further exacerbated by the conviction in New York of Mehmet Hakan Atilla, a senior executive of Halkbank, on charges of violating U.S. sanctions against Iran.

The repercussions of that conviction could lead to a further ratcheting up of tensions, warned analyst Atilla Yesilada of Global Source Partners.

“I see an escalation of the crisis,” he said. “The United States could threaten a wide range of sanctions; even the threat would cast a long shadow on the Turkish banking system. There would be immense difficulties for Turkish entities to borrow abroad.”

Turkey needs to borrow around $16 billion a month to cover its financial obligations.

Erdogan also threatened Tuesday to attack the Syrian Kurdish militia, the YPG, a key U.S. ally in the war against Islamic State. Ankara considers the militia a terrorist organization linked to an ongoing insurgency in Turkey.

Diplomatic columnist Semih Idiz of the al-Monitor website said the threat could be an effort to pressure Washington

“There is definite brinkmanship on the part of Turkey,” he said. “There is no doubt about that and there is no guarantee it will get what it wants. But Ankara is banking on the fact that Turkey is vitally strategic for Washington and somewhere it can’t be avoided, not that Turkey is courting Russia and all this. So I think Erdogan is trying to apply pressure to reduce whatever penalty is coming.”

To U.S. unease, Turkey is increasingly deepening relations with Russia. Erdogan is also looking to France after a visit last week to Paris, with pro-government media touting France as a more reliable ally than the United States.

But with both Paris and Moscow also supporting the Syrian Kurdish militia, analysts suggest Ankara is unlikely to carry out its threats against the group. They say if the current deterioration in relations with Washington continues, Ankara’s search for other allies is likely to intensify.
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Swiss authorities near the famed Matterhorn peak have closed ski slopes, hiking trails, cable cars, roads and train service into the nearby town of Zermatt amid a heightened risk of avalanches, stranding some 13,000 tourists in the town.

Janine Imesch of the Zermatt tourism office says power has been restored in the town and no people were at risk because authorities shuttered access to the nearby ski slopes and hiking trails a day earlier. Imesch says Tuesday “there is nothing to panic about, everything is fine.”

The office’s website earlier indicated that arrivals and departures from the town were not possible. It noted a “power breakdown all over Zermatt” and called on people to “stay at home” so as not to disrupt snow clearing crews.
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Poland’s new prime minister is looking to improve strained relations with partners in the European Union when he arrives in Brussels on Tuesday. 

Mateusz Morawiecki, who replaced Beata Szydlo last month, is expected to stand his ground over several thorny issues that have raised concerns across the EU. 

The Polish government’s stance on justice reform and immigration has prompted so much unease within the EU that a procedure to strip the country of voting rights in the 28-nation bloc has been started. 

“We are expecting Brussels to understand our position,” deputy Foreign Minister Konrad Szymanski said ahead of the introductory bilateral dinner between the new prime minister and EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.  

Blurring separation of powers

EU leaders have questioned whether Poland, a member of the bloc since 2004, respects fundamental democratic rules over recent reforms to the judiciary. 

Juncker’s office sees the reform as blurring the separation of powers and gives the governing Law and Justice too much control over the judges.

Defending the changes, Morawiecki said in a New Year’s address that “as a sovereign state we have the right to mend our justice system.”

Poland’s refusal to take in its share of an EU quota of refugees is another source of tension.

Ahead of the meeting, Morawiecki is set to shuffle his government. The changes will be carefully monitored by top EU officials to see if they signal a more emollient approach to EU standards. 

EU seeks a show of unity

Already resigned to the departure of Britain next year, the EU wants to maintain unity as much as possible this year. 

“There is a kind of accumulated tension that is not convenient to either side and none of the sides wants to further escalate this tension,” said Malgorzata Bonikowska, head of the Center for International Relations think tank. 

Both sides are in a bind. 

The EU already faces a serious rebel in Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, with his staunch opposition to the EU’s migration policies. Orban could veto any attempt to strip Poland of its voting rights. 

However, Poland has no interest in escalating the crisis either as any road to EU departure could threaten the billions the country receives from EU coffers. In the 2014-2020 budget, Poland has been allocated 86 billion euros ($103 billion) in EU structural and investment funds. A vast majority of Poles support EU membership. 
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Turkey’s nationalist opposition said on Monday it would back President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the 2019 election, signaling continued right-wing support crucial to his narrow victory in a constitutional referendum last year.

The Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), the smallest of parliament’s four factions, backed the vote to grant Erdogan sweeping executive powers, helping it squeak by with a margin of 51.4 percent.

“The MHP will not submit a presidential candidate,” MHP leader Devlet Bahceli told a news conference. “The MHP will take a decision to support Erdogan in the presidential elections.” Turks will vote for both president and parliament next year.

Bahceli has said he wants a reduction in the minimum 10 percent vote required for a party to enter parliament.

Over the past two decades he has brought the MHP more toward the mainstream and away from its early reputation for ties to rightist street gangs.

The party is now looking to fend off a challenge from Meral Aksener, an ex-interior minister and prominent nationalist who last year founded her own party after breaking with the MHP.

One recent poll suggested that Aksener’s party could eclipse the MHP and deprive it of the 10 percent threshold.

Bahceli said the MHP would consider an alliance with Erdogan’s AK Party if such a request came from the AKP.

The MHP won as much as 18 percent in the 1999 parliamentary election, but slipped below the threshold with 9.5 percent in 2002. It has exceeded 10 percent in elections since and took 11.9 percent in the November 2015 vote.

Founded by an ex-colonel involved in a 1960 military coup, the MHP espouses a mix of Turkish nationalism and skepticism toward the West. It is virulently opposed to autonomy for Turkey’s Kurdish minority.

The MHP support base once included sympathizers of the “Grey Wolves,” a nationalist youth group that fought street battles with leftists in the 1970s. Mehmet Ali Agca, who tried to assassinate Pope John Paul II in 1981, was a group member.
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Romania’s prime minister failed Monday to deliver the government reshuffle he planned as the powerful leader of his party ruled that any changes would have to wait until the end of the month.

There has been mounting speculation in Bucharest that Premier Mihai Tudose wants to replace Liviu Dragnea, the current chairman of the Social Democratic Party who is facing corruption charges, with a committee of regional leaders.

In an open letter published in Romanian media, senior party member Nicolae Badalau urged colleagues to back efforts to make the party more democratic, to be run by “a collective party leadership.”

Dragnea, who can’t serve as prime minister due to a 2016 conviction for vote-rigging, still enjoys the support of most regional party bosses.

While playing down talk of rifts in the party and denying he personally had a tense relationship with the prime minister, Dragnea said any reshuffle had to be conducted through normal party channels.

Dragnea said the Social Democrats would hold another party meeting at the end of the month. Tudose said he would present his plans to reshuffle the government then.

Separately, prosecutors froze Dragnea’s assets in November amid a probe into the misuse of European Union funds. He denies wrongdoing.

Last year, huge anti-government protests erupted over moves to restructure Romania’s justice system, which critics say would make it harder to crack down on high-level corruption.

Dragnea and his allies back the proposals.

 
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January 27 is the day the international community observes Holocaust Remembrance Day by recalling the horrors committed during World War II by Nazi Germany and the bravery of those who risked their lives to save persecuted Jews and others from Nazi death camps. Tatiana Vorozhko and Kostiantyn Golubchyk of VOA’s Ukrainian Service tell the amazing story of a Jewish boy who was saved by a Ukrainian family and later grew up to be a Nobel Laureate in Chemistry.
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