Foreign Digest, Eastern Europe: Belarus, Armenia and Azerbaijan, Moldova, Hungary and Bosnia

Belarus: There have been more protests in Belarus against the dictatorship, especially against the August rigged election that kept the longtime “Last Dictator of Europe” in power, which he has been since independence from the Soviet Union, and more arrests of protestors and opposition leaders. The United States added more economic sanctions on Belarus. Armenia and Azerbaijan: Contrary to the professional media’s portrayal of the fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan, it is not over “disputed” territory, but over an administrative district, Nagorno-Karabakh, within the predominately Muslim Azerbaijan that is inhabited by ethnic Armenians who are predominately Christian. Nagorno-Karabakh is mostly controlled by separatist ethnic Armenians who were backed by Armenia, which established a corridor to the territory after the first war between the two ex-Soviet Republics after independence from the Soviet Union. Moldova: A pro-European candidate won the Moldovan presidential election, defeating the incumbent pro-Russian one. There is a breakaway ethnic Russian exclave in the former Soviet Republic, where Russian Federation troops are present. Hungary: The European Court cited the far-right Government of Hungary for violating the rights of refugees seeking asylum. A broad coalition of opposition parties has formed to nominate single candidates in districts for the upcoming parliamentary elections. The leading independent radio station was shut down by the self-described “illiberal” Hungarian Government, which has put independent media under pressure, as it has the judiciary and cultural and educational institutions. The ruling party left the European People’s Party, a European Union parliamentary group of the center-right, after its suspension for violating the group’s principles of liberty. Bosnia and Herzegovina: There were arrests of Bosnian Serbs for war crimes committed during the Bosnian War for independence from Yugoslavia in 1992-1995. Ex-Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic was condemned to life imprisonment by the International Criminal Court for genocide during the civil war in the former Yugoslav Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina after the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1991. The separatist Bosnian Serbs coined the phrase “ethnic cleansing” for their crimes against Muslims and Croats. They were backed by Communist Serb leader Slobodan Milosevic.