Bulgaria's Defence Minister Stefan Yanev: Bulgaria is Ready to Protect Border with Turkey

Bulgaria's Defence Minister Stefan Yanev said on Saturday that he is ready to boost patrols and finish a fence along its southeastern frontier with Turkey in an effort to hold off any new influx of migrants.

"We are ready to protect the country's border in the way provided for in our legislation," Bulgaria's Defence Minister Stefan Yanev said on a visit to the border town of Malko Tarnovo.

Bulgaria is angry at Turkey's open support for DOST, a party for the ethnic Turkish minority, which is running in the Bulgarian general elections for the first time.

The government in Sofia summoned Turkey's ambassador and recalled its own envoy from Turkey for consultations on Thursday.

Sofia slammed Ankara for encouraging Bulgarian citizens living in Turkey - who number some 200,000 - to vote for DOST. It called the move "direct interference in Bulgarian domestic affairs".

Ankara has also been locked in a wider row with the European Union after several bloc members.

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