Bulgaria Mayor Bans Construction of Turkish Warrior Monument

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

The Mayor of Popovo in North East Bulgaria, Lyudmil Veselinov, has ordered the re-building of the controversial monument of the "unknown Muslim/Turkish warrior" to be stopped.

Regional Prosecutor, Stefan Hristov, confirmed that Veselinov had issued a ban on the illegal building of the monument and had also stopped workers from entering the sight. According to Hristov the monument needs permission from the local government as it is legally a ‘war memorial.’

Darik Radio reported Tuesday that Ali and Yuzeir Yuzeirovi, the two brothers from the village of Slavyanovo in Northeast Bulgaria, had started to rebuild the monument in their own backyard without 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 that 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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