Bulgarian Nationalists Move against Jehovah's Witnesses

About 100 members of Ataka and VMRO gathered around the Dobrich Hall where 600 members of the Jehovah's Witnesses had a congress Sunday. Photo by Darik News

Representatives of two Bulgarian nationalist parties staged a protest Sunday against a congress of the Jehovah’s Witnesses taking place in the northeast city of Dobrich.

About 100 mostly young members of the Ataka and VMRO parties from Dobrich and the nearby city of Varna gathered before the Dobrich Hall where about 600 members of the religious sect from Northeast Bulgaria and from abroad were holding a meeting.

Bulgarian Orthodox Church priests also supported the protest of the two nationalists parties, who rarely act together in unity.

The VMRO party intends to send an open letter to the Prime Minister, Parliament, and the “Religions” Directorate insisting on legislative changes preventing “dangerous cults such as the Jehovah’s Witnesses” from permanently establishing themselves in Bulgaria. The letter will be supported by the signatures of a rapidly growing number of people from Dobrich.

“We want a new procedure for the registration of non-traditional faiths in Bulgaria. If there are doubts – because such faiths do destroy human lives – they should no granted registration,” the VMRO coordinator Kostadin Kostadinov said as quoted by Darik Radio.

In his words, the Municipal Administration in Varna did not allow gatherings of the Jehovah’s Witnesses whereas Dobrich was one of the few cities where the sect had an official building, and enjoyed the active cooperation of the local authorities.

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