Ethnic Turkish Leader: Bulgaria's Ethnic Peace Holds Balkans Together

Domestic | May 21, 2011, Saturday // 19:19|  views

Bulgarian ethnic Turkish leader Ahmed Dogan addresses the annual gathering at Demir Baba Teke. Photo by Darik News

Bulgaria needs a special law against actions provoking ethnic hatred, Ahmed Dogan, leader of the ethnic Turkish party DPS demanded over the Friday's incident in which far-right nationalists attacked praying Muslims in Sofia.

Bulgaria was shocked by the outburst which occurred while the nationalists from the Ataka party led by their leader Volen Siderov staged a rally near the Banya Bashi mosque in Sofia protesting against the use of loudspeakers by the mosque but subsequently skirmished with the praying Muslims.

In his initial reaction on Friday, Dogan made ominous predictions about the situation. Speaking in the village of Byal Izvor, Kardzhali District, on Friday, Dogan saw a clear connection between Friday's incident and the so called – Revival Process – or Regeneration Process – the campaign that the Bulgarian Communist party and the regime of Todor Zhivkov launched in the late 1980s to assimilate ethnic Turks and ethnic Bulgarian Muslims by forcing them to adopt Slavic-Christian names.

Dogan sounded more moderate on Saturday, as he spoke in the Demir Baba Teke locality near Isperih in Northeastern Bulgaria at the annual remembrance of the victims of the Revival Process.

"A declaration is not enough," Dogan declared, as cited by the Bulgarian National Radio, stating he expected a serious reaction to the incident by the President, Prime Minister, the EU and NATO.

The ethnic Turkish leader described the incident as a "dangerous provocation harboring a risk for the national security."

"Ethnic peace is Bulgaria's greatest capital in the recent years, and a party or a group of people attacking aggressively and campaigning against the ethnic peace encroach against the security of all Bulgarians. Bulgaria's ethnic model is the only one guaranteeing the stability of the Balkans. Nobody knows what the sabotage of the ethnic peace in Bulgaria could cause here, in the Balkans, and in Europe," Dogan declared.

He did use the occasion to call upon all voters of the ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) to mobilize for the upcoming presidential and local elections in the fall.

He even suggested that the DPS party could come up with its own candidate for President, even though the party, whose electoral base consists primarily of ethnic Turks, ethnic Bulgarian Muslims, and some Roma communities, traditionally supports other candidates. In 2001 and 2006, DPS supported current Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov, former head of the Bulgarian Socialist Party, leading many to believe that he owes his two terms in power to the voters of the DPS tipping the left-right balance in his favor.

The DPS-inspired rally in Demir Baba Teke was marred by a small counter-rally of Dogan's adversaries, former key figures in the DPS that were recently expelled by the party, most notably Kasim Dal, Dogan's former deputy, and Korman Ismailov, former head of the youth DPS, both members of Parliament.

Ismailov headed the counter rally on Saturday, with slogans protesting against Dogan's belonging to the former State Security (DS), the secret police of the Bulgarian communist regime.

The dissenters were removed by the security forces of the police of the Razgrad District. Ismailov subsequently complained he was beaten by local DPS activists.  

The gathering in Demir Baba Teke was guarded with unprecedented security measures to prevent incidents for two major reasons – Friday's outburst by the far-right in Sofia, and the ongoing conflict within the DPS between the mainstream and the supporters of Kasim Dal, who have already clashed on a couple of occasions.

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Tags: Ataka, nationalists, Volen Siderov, mosque, Banya Bashi, Bulgarian Muslims, muslims, DPS, ethnic Turkish, GERB, Boyko Borisov, mufti, Ahmed Dogan, Revival Process, Bulgarian Communist Party, Todor Zhivkov, assimilation, communist regime, Demir Baba Teke, Razgrad, Kasim Dal, Korman Ismailov

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