Bulgaria's Foreign Ministry Extends Travel Warnings for Tunisia

Tunisia's Speaker of Parliament Foued Mbazaa takes the oath as the country's interim President in Tunis, Tunisia, 15 January 2011. EPA/BGNES

Bulgaria's Foreign Ministry has extended its warning for Bulgarian citizens against traveling to Tunisia while pointing out that the unrest in the North African country resulting from political tensions has started to subside.

After issuing an initial warning to Bulgarian citizens against traveling to Tunisia on Thursday, on Saturday, the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry said it had no information about any incidents and the situation in Tunisia is improving

Its statement said that at present there are no Bulgarian tourist groups in Tunisia, and that the Bulgarian diplomatic mission keeps in close touch with the some 200 Bulgarians living in the North African country.

The Foreign Ministry also advises all Bulgarian travelers to check with their airlines the status of their current flights since, even though Tunisia's air space has not been closed, many European airlines have terminated temporarily their flights to the country.

Interestingly, Tunisia is one of the seven countries where the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry plans to shut down its embassy, most likely by the end of 2011, as part of a plan for restructuring and austerity measures.

In the past four weeks, protests have swept the country over unemployment, food price rises and corruption. Security forces used live ammunition against protesters and dozens of people died.

The wave of rallies was sparked by the suicide of an unemployed college graduate, who torched himself last month after police confiscated his fruit cart, cutting off his source of income.

On Friday thousands of angry demonstrators marched through Tunisia's capital to demand the resignation of authoritarian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who came to power in a bloodless coup in 1987.

The President of Tunisia, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who had been in power for 23 years, dissolved the government, declared state of emergency and left the country. He conceded power after unrest in the country culminated in a giant rally against him. Tunisia's parliamentary speaker Fouad Mebazaa has announced on state TV that he is now the country's acting president

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