Bulgaria Muslim Mayor to Alarm Europe about Ethnic Terror

The Mayor of the village of Garmen, Ahmed Bashev, insists recent fights in villages populated by Bulgarian Muslim minorities were domestic violence not religious hate. Photo by DarikNews

The Mayor of the village of Garmen, Ahmed Bashev, announced Tuesday he was going to alarm the Council of Europe about consistent terror over the Muslim population.

Bashev said he will meet with Council of Europe representatives and teacher of religion, Murad Boshnak and the local school principal, Feim Issa, will also attend the talks about human rights violations in the in the Western Rhodopi, an area heavily populated by Bulgarian ethnic Muslim minorities.

The move comes on the heels of increased police presence in Bulgaria's southern village of Ribnovo, in the Garmen municipality, over alleged religious and ethnic violence.

The police moved into the village upon request from the Member of Parliament (MP) and leader of the “Order, Law and Justice” (RZS) party, Yane Yanev, who has been heavily involved with the ethnic and religious issues in the area.

The increased police presence has been triggered by attacks on the local teacher Nedim Talamanov, who is the RZS leader in Ribnovo and his brother Feim. According to Yanev, the attacks have been provoked by people close to Bashev, and Boshnak.

Relatives of Boshnak were arrested Monday evening after an alleged murder attempt on Feim Talamanov.

Nedim Talamanov, himself, was arrested several days ago, and is still behind bars, after an altercation with people from Boshnak's circle. A barn, near Talamanov's house, was set on fire and locals say it is arson and vendetta against Talamanov.

Bashev insists the fights are just domestic violence and people trying to take the law in their own hands.

In March, Boshnak, who has been accused of preaching radical Islam, and Bashev were summoned to Sofia by the State Agency for National Security (DANS), over signals coming from MP Yanev, who alarmed they were exerting religious pressure on local people and were inciting ethnic and religious hate. They were interrogated and released without charges.

Bashev says it has been all slander and it was already proven by the local Prosecutor's Office that he has not been involved in spreading radical Islam and ethnic hate.

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