Expelled DPS Leader 'to Unveil New Political Party'

Lyutvi Mestan, the former head of predominantly ethnic Turk Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) party, is set to announce the formation of a new party in a matter of days, a local Bulgarian website reports.

24rodopi, a news website that has been covering extensively the developments in DPS since Mestan was expelled late in December, cites information from activists of the so-called Federation of Balkan Emigrants, based in Turkey.

Mestan has not immediately commented.

The small news piece says the information comes against the backdrop of the 31st anniversary of the federation, celebrated in Bursa, Turkey.

It is in Bursa where the biggest community of Bulgarian origin lives nowadays, after hundreds of thousands of Bulgarian Turks were forced to leave the country as part of assimilation policies dating back to the late 1980s.

The anniversary was attended by two ex-DPS lawmakers who are part of the MPs who pledged loyalty to Mestan.

The latter was removed amid accusations by the DPS's honorary chair, Ahmed Dogan, who said Mestan had betrayed Bulgaria's national interest by siding with Turkey in the recent dispute between Moscow and Ankara.

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