Acting Interior Minister Insists Ethnic Clashes in Bulgaria Are Fabricated

Acting Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov has said that politicians tend to cook up ethnic tensions to score profits at elections. Photo by BGNES

Acting Interior Minister and head of the election headquarters of center-right ruling party GERB Tsvetan Tsvetanov has denied the existence of ethnic clashes, saying that people in mixed population areas live wonderfully.

Speaking to journalists in the southernmost Bulgarian town of Zlatograd on Monday, he specified that the debates on the crisis of ethnic model were provoked by political headquarters mostly ahead of elections.

"It was precisely politicians who created this tension and intolerance because they assumed that the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) party could have a monopoly on Bulgarian Muslims", Tsvetanov said, commenting on the impact of the ethnic Turkish party.

Tsvetanov's comments came on the heels of bouts of nationwide protests triggered by the 23 September death of a Bulgarian youth who got run over by a van driven by an alleged associate of Roma clan leader Kiril Rashkov, aka Tsar Kiro.

The incident in Katunitsa, which resulted in hundreds of arrests on charges of hooliganism and incitement to ethnic hatred, exposed the Interior Ministry to harsh criticism over its alleged incompetent handling of the case.

In the course of the October 10 meeting in Zlatograd, Tsvetanov emphasized that GERB's candidates list included Bulgarian Mohammedans, Bulgarian Muslims and Roma, meaning that the party had managed to reach mixed population areas.

Tsvetanov insisted that all political formations of the transition years had committed "national treason" by renouncing these regions.

The head of GERB's election headquarters presented the party's candidate for Mayor of Zlatograd, Miroslav Yanchev, who will be running for a second term in office.

Tsvetanov cited Zlatograd as a success story for attracting young people back to the municipality through the expanded business development opportunities after the opening of the Zlatograd border crossing point with Greece

He concluded by stressing the importance for Bulgaria of enhanced absorption of EU funds for regional development.

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