Bulgaria's Ethnic Turkish Party DPS Expels 6 New Dissenters

DPS deputy chairs (L-R) Rushen Riza, Hristo Biserov, and Lyutvi Mestan speaking at a news conference Friday. Photo by BGNES

MP Korman Ismailov and five other dissenters have been expelled from the Bulgarian ethnic Turkish party DPS ("Movement for Rights and Freedoms").

The underlying reason for the new expulsions is the support that the dissenters lent to Kasim Dal, former Deputy Chair of DPS, who in the recent months launched a campaign against the iconic party leader Ahmed Dogan and was the first one to be expelled from the party a couple of months ago.

In addition to Ismailov, the other members of DPS who were expelled on Friday are Veselin Penev and four representatives of the ethnic Turkish Bulgarian expats living in Turkey (a community which fled there from the repressions of the communist regime in the late 1980s known as the Revival Process or Regeneration Process) – Gursel Sadik, Sazi Ali, Ibrahim Hamdi, and Kemal Efraim, announced DPS Deputy Chair Rushen Riza.

They were expelled for "creating negative attitudes among the expats in Turkey." The Bulgarian ethnic Turkish expats in Turkey have been known in the recent months for voicing criticism of DPS leader Ahmed Dogan.

Since the start of 2011, the Movement for Rights and Freedoms has been shaken by its former Deputy Chair Kasim Dal's resignation and sharp criticism of the party leadership, including long-term chair and founder Ahmed Dogan. Dal himself was expelled from all DPS positions, including its parliamentary group in February. Korman Ismailov, a former president of the youth section of the Movement, has been supportive of Dal's criticisms for Dogan.

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