Notorious Wannabe Politicians to Set up 'OTOMAN' Party in Bulgaria

The Yuzeirov Brothers have tried to set up a Muslim Democrtaic Union. Photo by BGNES

A couple of infamous men are coming together to create an “OTOMAN” party in Bulgaria.

The founding congress of the new political party is supposed to take place in the northeastern city of Targovishte at the end of March, and membership materials are already distributed around the country and online.

The key figures in the movement for creating the OTOMAN party – an abbreviation bearing uncanny connotation to the Ottoman Empire – include Yuzeir Yuzeirov and Menderes Kungyun.

Yuzeirov has been charged over his attempt in 2009 to create a “Muslim Democratic Union” - a party which was refused registration because it was declared unconstitutional as it was based on religious and ethnic principles. Yuzeirov and his brother became notorious in the fall of 2009 as they erected a monument of the Unknown Turkish/Muslim Soldiers near Targovishte, which was torn down by the authorities after court action.

Kungyun is the leader of another political formation that has likewise been refused registration – a Turkish National Movement.

OTOMAN as an abbreviation in Bulgarian which is supposed to stand for “Union for tolerance, responsibility, moral, and alternative progress.”

Kungyun has told the Bulgarian National Radio that the aim of the new party would be to establish tolerance as a way of securing economic prosperity of the various ethnic communities in Bulgaria.

Meanwhile, a monument put hastily together overnight in the village of Lyublen near Targovishte in a private yard, featuring a Turkish crescent on a pile of stones, has been torn down at the order of the village mayor, who is representative of Bulgaria’s ethnic Turkish party Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS).

Reporters of the Bulgarian National Radio have commented on a photo of Yuzeir Yuzeirov wearing a fez from the Ottoman Turkish Empire before a police department in Targovishte saying that such a provocation against the state would bring a three-year sentence in Turkey.

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