CEERES News Roundup

Apologies for the sporadic posting of news roundups.

Turkmenistan recently rewrote sections of its national anthem to remove the multiple references to the former president who died in 2006. "An official said the changes were necessary to bring the anthem into line with international standards."

Speaking of reforms, Kazakhstan is working on reforming its parliament system, in order to avoid having a one-party parliament. The reforms are in advance of Kazakhstan's 2010 chairmanship of OSCE. However, parties in the country say the reforms are not going to actually help.

Due to a border dispute between Croatia and Slovenia, Slovenia is saying it will block Croatia's EU bid. Slovenian Prime Minister Pahor complained that the documents submitted by Croatia "could prejudge the common border" and Croatia worries that Slovenia will not allow the accesion talks to cont

Seems Russia is having just as many economic problems as the rest of the world, as they've devalued the ruble twice in a week. Economists blame the recent falls on the dropping oil prices.

And in the Caucasus: Russia is blocking the return of OSCE monitors to South Ossetia, Armenia is having issues with mandatory military service and the Council of Europe, and the conflict between Russia and Georgia is causing NATO to push back Georgia's entry.

Weekly CEERES news roundup

The European Union just released it's annual report on applicant countries, in which Croatia was given a timeline to put them on track to become a member state in 2011. The report also discussed Turkey and Macedonia, encouraging them to boost reform efforts. You can read the actual reports on the European Commission website.

And, it's been all over the news, so you've probably heard, but could it be possible that Putin will soon be president again? After current President's Medvedev's state of the union speech, in which he introduced reforms to change the presidential term from 4 to 6 years, rumors have run rampant.

Following up from last week, here's an article on the reaction of Armenian and Azerbaijanis on the recently signed agreement on Nagorno-Karabagh. Armenia is also in the news, due to the recent concession of President Sarkisyan to form a committee to conduct an impartial investigation on the events which took place during the Feburary election.

Cinema Croatia

Another treat for Chicagoans in winter is the upcoming Croatian cinema series at the Gene Siskel Film Center. 6 Croatian features from 1970 to 2007 will be playing from February 3 to March 6. There aren't many places in this country with the means and will to put on these series, so let's hear it for the Siskel. You can find a full run-down of the month of Croatian films at the Siskel website - http://www.siskelfilmcenter.org/ - you'll have to navigate to upcoming February shows.

Here's a list of the titles and directors"
ALL FOR FREE
(SVE DZABA)
2006, Antonio Nuic

ARMIN
2007, Ognjen Svilicic

HERE
(TU)
2003, Zrinko Ogresta

HOW THE WAR STARTED ON MY ISLAND
(KAKO JE PACEO RAT NA MOM OTOKU)
1996, Vinko Bresan

Light Drawings: The Zagreb School of Animation
1958-78, Various directors

ONE SONG A DAY TAKES MISCHIEF AWAY
(TKO PJEVA ZLO NE MISLI)
1970, Kresimir Golik

A VILLAGE PERFORMANCE OF HAMLET
(PREDSTAVA HAMLETA U MRDUSI DONJOJ)
1973, Krsto Papic