Bulgaria's President -Defense Minister War Flares up

Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov (L) and Minister of Defense Anyu Angelov (R). Photos by BGNES.

The conflict between Bulgaria's President, Georgi Parvanov, and Defense Minister, Anyu Angelov, fanned once again Thursday with the exchange of a new round of mutual accusations.

Angelov denied sending Parvanov any paperwork related to changes in the "Military Information" services, reacted with anger to the President's critics about the work of the Defense Ministry, told the latter he should seek the dishonest individuals inside his own administration and accused him of being behind the scandal with the appointment of the military intelligence head.

Angelov took part Thursday in an international security forum.

When asked to explain the situation with the appointment of a military intelligence head, the Defense Minister replied he had no new information and could not offer any insight.

Plamen Studenkov was officially released from the above said post on September 1, and it remains vacant because Parvanov, also the country's Commander in Chief, blocked twice Angelov's candidates – first Dincho Karamunchev and then Valentin Gagashev. The second nomination was approved by the cabinet.

The Defense Minister pointed out employees with the "Military Information" service are still doing a good job because they are supervised by a deputy, but the delay interferes with his intentions to carry out a check of the services' state.

In an interview for the Bulgarian daily "Trud" (Labor), Parvanov said earlier he had requested information of possible violations at the services, and received a letter from the Defense Ministry stating there was no evidence of any such violations. Angelov countered it was impossible for him to offer the requested information because the office in question had not been audited since 2002.

In the interview, the President further declares the Minister is simply being stubborn and warns of a trend of exerting political control on the military.

"I firmly reject any insinuations about me acting in a dishonest way," Angelov said.The Minister refused to comment on Parvanov's proposal to restrict layoffs in the army and declared the latter's claims the Defense Ministry does not care enough about the social adaption of former officers wrong and offensive.

At the beginning of August, Bulgaria's President and Minister of Defense entered in an institutional row after the President refused to appoint Commodore Valentin Gagashev for head of Bulgaria's military intelligence.

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