Bulgaria Urges Turkish Ambassador to Abide by Vienna Convention - FM

Bulgaria's Foreign Minister has urged Turkey's Ambassador Suleyman Gokce to abide by the Vienna Convention and to "do his best" to dispel the impression that he is trying to interfere in domestic policy.

"Turkey's Ambassador perhaps goes beyond the prescriptions of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations," Daniel Mitov told private NOVA TV on Saturday, referring to a 1961 treaty creating a set of rules about relations between independent countries.

Bulgaria earlier sent out a diplomatic note to the Turkish Embassy, days after a scandal in predominantly ethnic Turk DPS party which shook the Bulgarian society.

The DPS ex-leader Lyutvi Mestan was removed from office and ousted from the party amid accusations of "betraying national interest" in favor of Turkey, hurled by the party's honorary chair Ahmed Dogan. Attending commemorative events days later, separately from the DPS's new leadership, Mestan was accompanied by Mr Gokce, after reports had emerged he had allegedly "hidden" in the Turkish Embassy in the days prior to his expulsion.

Mestan maintains he only had a brief stint at the embassy due to "security concerns".

"We have invited [Mr Gokce] in accordance with the procedures, not only through a note," Mitov told NOVA.

However, Bulgaria's top diplomat also stressed Sofia-Ankara bilateral relations were "too important" and should not be tied "to certain minor events."

He pointed to joint tasks such as providing border security and the building of transport and energy infrastructure as matters of common interest to cite a reason why the two countries "should not allow the developmens in one or another party to affect bilateral relations".

Mitov hailed his dialogue with Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu: "We talk straight, very often, so that we can overcome such misunderstandings... In this extremely complicated, dynamic and tense geopolical situation the last thing we need are problems with our strategic neighbors".

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