(RNS) For many Ukrainian Orthodox Christians, and clergy in particular, the question of religious identity in relationship to the Russian Orthodox Church is both personal and political.
Ukraine’s Religious Community Perseveres Through the Horrors of War. We are just weeks past Easter, the holiest day of the Christian calendar. For the 70 percent of Ukrainians who are orthodox, the day was freighted with extra meaning this year. The Ukrainian Orthodox.
We are just weeks past Easter, the holiest day of the Christian calendar. For the 70 percent of Ukrainians who are orthodox, the day was freighted with extra meaning this year. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church split from its Russian parent when Vladimir Putin first invaded Ukraine eight years ago, and now religion's role in the conflict is front and center. Nick Schifrin reports.
Bulgarian Minister of Defence Krasimir Karakachanov. Photo: Arno Mikkor (cc) wikimedia.org
On November 17th,
the Bulgarian government officially announced that it does not approve of the
EU negotiation framework for North Macedonia’s accession process and thus
practically blocked the country’s membership process. What was the role of
Bulgaria in supporting Skopje’s EU aspirations and what made possible Sofia’s
anti-Macedonian turn in the past year? I will try to address these questions in
the following analysis, with a little help from the psychoanalytic conceptual
apparatus.
Macedonia’s pro-EU turn
In May 2017, the
leader of the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia, Zoran Zaev, became Prime