Notorious Brothers Rebuild 'Turkish Soldier' Monument in Bulgaria

The picture on the right shows the pile of rocks left behind the monument of the Unknown Turksih Soldier in Slavyanovo, after it was dismantled. Photo by BGNES

Ali and Yuzeir Yuzeirovi, the two brothers from the village of Slavyanovo in Northeast Bulgaria, have started to rebuild a controversial monument of the "unknown Muslim/Turkish warrior."

According to Darik Radio, the two brothers have had two workers start rebuilding the notorious monument in their own backyard without the required legal permits.

The Unknown Turkish Soldier monument which featured a pyramid with a crescent and a cross on top with the inscription “Bulgaria, They Died for You”, which is also on the Unknown Warrior Monument in downtown Sofia, was torn down in October after it was constructed without permission.

Views on the initiative of the Yuzeirovi Brothers have ranged from seeing it as inspired by attempts to radicalize the Muslims in Bulgaria, to undercover attempts by the ethnic Turkish party DPS was testing the government of GERB and Boyko Borisov by creating religious and ethnic tensions.

Ali Yuzeirov is quoted as saying that the rebuilt monument would be opened on November 26, the day of the Eid al-Adha Muslim holiday known in Bulgaria by its Turkish name Kurban Bayrami.

Yuzeirov said his lawyers found at least 50 000 illegal structures in Bulgaria, and asked if they would be torn down as well, or the double standards would continue.

The nationalist party VMRO-BND has issued a declaration warning that the erection of any new “Turkish monument” would be met with “firm resistance”.

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