Maria Wilczek

Maria Wilczek is an MPhil candidate at Oxford University. She grew up in Turkey.

Poland’s All Saints’ Day traditions are at risk

From our UK edition

The grave sweepers came early this year. When I visited one 18th century cemetery in Warsaw, half the tombstones had already been tidied and decked with pots of yellow chrysanthemums, well before All Saints’ Day. The other graves remained obscured by sodden piles of leaves. Many cemeteries may not see guests at all this year. Traditionally, on

With populism on the rise, Erdogan can now blackmail the EU

From our UK edition

President Erdogan is no stranger to blackmailing the EU. He has previously used migrants as a ‘loaded gun’ with which to threaten European leaders. The message is clear: do what I say, or I’ll open the floodgates. This week, he’s been back to his old tricks – bashing the EU and making it clear that if

When the EU is no longer able to bribe Turkey, the blackmail will begin

From our UK edition

As James Forsyth mentioned earlier this week, things could get much worse in Turkey. Indeed, they will. Europe’s hope that Turkey will continue to soak up migrants is at best naive; at worst, irresponsible. Europe desperately needs Turkey to serve as a migrant waiting room on its borders. In exchange, it has offered an acceleration of the EU