DOST, NPSD to Run Together in Bulgaria's Early Election

Two ethnic Turk-dominated parties will run together in the Bulgarian early election on March 26.

Their coalition will be named Union DOST, after one of the parties, according to the Bulgarian National Radio.

A "genuine European democracy" will be the two parties' goal in the election, alongside breaking the monopoly of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) party, DOST leader Lyutvi Mestan has noted.

Mestan's party agreed to work with the National Freedom and Dignity Party (NPSD), which broke away from the Reformist Bloc earlier this week.

DOST's leader added the alliance would work toward "the normalization of the political process in the country" and safeguarding its "Euro-Atlantic orientation".

Both DOST and the NPSD splintered off the DPS over the past years. Mestan in particular founded a new party after being dismissed as head of the DPS and expelled from the party in December 2015.

DOST has met with Justice and Development Party (AKP) officials or with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey several times in the last two-and-a-half years.

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