Bulgaria's Ethnic Turkish Leader Might Abdicate – Ex Deputy

Ahmed Dogan, the controversial Bulgarian ethnic Turkish DPS party leader, may soon resign, according to Osman Oktay, his former Deputy.

Oktay stated that on Thursday on the Bulgarian private channel Nova TV, where he commented Wednesday's resignation of a one of the key figures in the party.

On Wednesday, Kasim Dal, one of the major figures in DPS (Movement for Rights and Freedoms), resigned as a member of the Central Operational Bureau, slamming the party founder and leader Ahmed Dogan.

In a statement to the structures of the party on Wednesday, Dal wrote that Dogan "uses power and people like napkins" and referred to the leader's past as an agent of the State Security (DS), the security apparatus of the Bulgarian communist regime.

"Kasim Dal has done a brave move and deserves to be congratulated, " Osman Oktay stated on Friday.

According to Oktay, Dogan isolated himself from Bulgaria's political life when he claimed that he was the one who "divided the portions in the state", thus forcing all other political parties to distance themselves from DPS.

"The next step is Dogan's resignation," Oktay stated.

DPS has been vastly dominated by its Ahmed Dogan ever since its foundation in 1990. The party was in power as part of the ruling coalitions in Bulgaria in 2001-2005 and 2005-2009, and once before – in 1992-1994.

In October 2010, the Supreme Administrative Court in Sofia acquitted Dogan of corruption in a case brought by the Parliamentary Commission regarding consulting fees paid in 2008 and 2009 in respect of hydro-power projects

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