Ethnic Turkish Leader Dogan: DPS Wants 40 MPs in New Parliament

Ahmed Dogan, leader of ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS), said his party must demonstrate growth in the coming elections. Photo by BGNES

The leader of Bulgaria's ethnic Turkish party, DPS, Ahmed Dogan has stated he wanted to have 40 deputies in the new Bulgarian Parliament.

"We need to demonstrate growth. DPS ("Movement for Rights and Freedoms") will be a respected force in the next Parliament if we have 40 MPs", Dogan stated Saturday.

His party DPS is part of Bulgaria's governing three-way coalition with 34 MPs and 3 Minister seats.

Together with the other DPS leaders, Dogan attended the remembrance rally at the Demik Baba Teke region in Northeast Bulgaria dedicated to the memory of the victims of the so called Revival Process, the campaign of the Bulgarian Communist Party in the late 1980s, and especially in 1989, to force Bulgarian Muslims and Turks to adopt Slavic names.

"Thanks to your courage twenty years ago when the people of the Deliorman region faced the armored vehicles and machine guns without fear, today we have this freedom and the opportunity to enjoy the results of our work", Dogan declared.

The DPS leader told his supporters he demanded of them full mobilization for the coming 2009 European Elections on June 7, and the Bulgarian Parliamentary Elections a month later.

During the Demir Baba Teke rally, Dogan formally opened his party's elections campaign with the slogan, "Vote with Trust, Find Support and Security".

Ahmed Dogan himself will be running for a MP in Bulgaria's Parliamentary Elections on July 5 as a majority representation candidate in the southern District of Kurdzhali, and the top candidate on the DPS proportional representation ticket in the southwest District of Blagoevgrad.

 

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