At this point this is probably on page 21 of HN, making my comment somewhat pointless, but I have an itch to scratch. As someone with ties to the region, I am

At this point this is probably on page 21 of HN, making my comment somewhat pointless, but I have an itch to scratch. As someone with ties to the region, I am always slightly confused by these articles because they are mostly an echo of the past. There is not much new here. You can place it at any point in the last 20 years and it would for the most part be valid. There's a lot going on in the world and I understand people don't have the attention span for all the details of the globe, but they don't even need to have. As a German newspaper, Spiegel could take a look at Germany's role, or even the EU's in what happened there. There are interesting topics even today, e.g. what is Gerhard Schröder doing there now and what was his role 20 years ago? As it is now, it's mostly just a stereotypical report that riles people up and kind of ends up amplifying those stereotypes. The article could be about some islands in the Pacific, but that's not true if you are a German newspaper! The article touches upon some interesting developments related to the EU, e.g. that it's unfortunately not really a solution as it's mostly resulted in people leaving, but it lacks focus in general, and it holds no critical views. Another interesting angle could've been the conflicts that have been brewing internally for decades now that there are clearly separated nation states, and the enemies are for the most part behind clearly defined borders. And lastly it could take an optimistic view that surely exists if for no other reason than that I'm an optimist, and I'm not alone. Not all people had severed ties completely even during the darkest times, and it's been a long time since. It's time for new perspectives.