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Bulgarian City Stirs Tensions by Changing Place Names

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The current occasion is not the only time Bulgarian nationalists said Turkey is interfering in Bulgarian domestic affairs. They blocked the border crossings between the two countries to stop voters from Turkey to pass and cast their vote in the 2017 elections. Picture: Vassil Donev, EPA.

A city council’s decision to scrap names that sound Turkish or Arabic has drawn complaints from ethnic Turkish parties and the country’s Grand Mufti – who called it racist and intolerant.

Martin Dimitrov,

Bulgaria’s nationalist United Patriots coalition, which is part of the government, has caused tension that may also provoke a dispute with Turkey after its city councillors in Stara Zagora, in central Bulgaria, voted to scrap 838 place names that pointed to Turkish or Arabic origins.

The vote passed with 39 “for”, two “against” and four abstentions, the VMRO party announced, and follows a year-long process in which academics helped to translate the Turkish-Arabic names to Bulgarian ones.

The vote was passed on Thursday despite “pressure on the local administration” from the Turkish consulate in Plovdiv, a VMRO Stara Zagora councillor, Anton Andonov, claimed on TV.

According to him, the consulate had “warned the municipality that the change of names will worsen relations with the city and Turkey”.

The consultate declined to comment to BIRN on the issue.

In parliament, a VMRO MP, Alexander Sidi, accused Turkey of interfering – and called on Bulgaria’s Foreign Ministry to “act tough” and take “all available diplomatic measures … to stop Turkey from yet again interfering in Bulgarian domestic politics”.

Sidi added that “the change of names of areas in the Stara Zagora region is a great victory for patriotism and Bulgarianism” and called on other municipalities to follow suit.

Sidi meanwhile added that Bulgaria had never interfered with Turkey when it changed names that were previously Bulgarian in origin, such as Odrin, now Edrine, and Lozengrad, which is now Kirikkale.

The Ottoman Empire ruled Bulgaria for centuries, and ever since independence in the 1870s, Bulgarian nationalists have agitated against signs of the Ottoman Turkish legacy.

In 2014, Ataka party leader Volen Siderov, now head of the parliamentary group of the United Patriots, called on then-President Rosen Plevneliev to change Turkish-Arabic toponyms across the country to Bulgarian ones.

Under the constitution, the President has the power to change the names of towns, villages and places of national importance.

The plea targeted specifically the name of Rila Mountain’s Musala peak, the tallest peak in Bulgaria and the Balkans, which nationalists want changed to St Ivan Rilski.

Similar calls were made in the first months of President Rumen Radev’s mandate. Both presidents rejected the proposal, citing “lack of public consultation and general consensus”.

In 2012, Plovdiv nationalists tried to change the name of a central square in the city, Dzhumaiata. However, centrist GERB party councillors voted against the proposal.

The Stara Zagora decision drew a sharp reaction from the country’s Grand Mufti, and from ethnic Turkish Parties.

The Grand Mufti criticised the decision, calling it “seriously concerning for the Muslim community in Bulgaria”.

His office said it showed that “the level of racism and intolerance towards Muslims and all things connected with them is reaching critical levels.”

A local councillor from the mainly ethnic Turkish Movement of Rights and Freedoms, Tuncay Ozturk, said he was never invited to the committee that decided to change local names.

He compared the move to the so-called “Revival Process” in the last years of the communist regime that targeted Turkish Bulgarians in the 1980s, forcing them to change their names and driving many of them out of the country.

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Bulgarian Parliament ratifies new Armenia-EU deal

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The Bulgarian Parliament has ratified the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA) between the EU and Yerevan, Armenia‘s embassy in Sofia said in a Facebook post.

Bulgaria, which currently chairs the Council of the European Union, has become one of the first EU member-states to approve the agreement.

Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania ratified the CEPA earlier, while the Armenian parliament approved the deal for good on April 11.

The negotiations on the new EU-Armenia partnership agreement were launched in 2015 and concluded in 2017. It was then signed by both sides in November 2017. The final agreement marks a deeper EU-Armenia political dialogue, broadens the scope of economic cooperation and provides new opportunities for closer ties on energy, transport, infrastructure, environment, trade, education and other sectors.

As reported earlier, an urgent draft resolution encouraging the ratification by European Union member states of a new agreement signed between the bloc and Armenia will be introduced at a plenary session of Euronest Parliamentary Assembly on June 26

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Bulgarian president planning state visit to Armenia

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Official press release by the office of President of Armenia

On February 11, President of the Republic of Bulgaria Rumen Radev will arrive in Armenia on a State visit at the invitation of President Serzh Sargsyan.Within the framework of his visit, the President of the Republic of Bulgaria is due to meet with the leadership of the Republic of Armenia – the President, the Speaker of the National Assembly and the Prime Minister. President Rumen Radev will also be hosted by His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, at the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin. After the meeting with His Holiness, the President of Bulgaria will call at the Mother Cathedral and the Treasury.

At the end of the Armenian-Bulgarian top-level talks in the residence of the President of Armenia, Presidents Serzh Sargsyan and Rumen Radev will sum up the results of their meeting before the media.

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Bulgarian chief banker son of Genocide survivors

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Bulgarian Association of Banks has an ethnic Armenian director who turns out to be a descendent of Genocide survivors.

Levon Hambardzumyan was born in 1953 to Armenian parents who had settled Bulgaria after escaping the massacres.

Hambardzumyan saw a peak in his career after the USSR’s collapse, becoming a champion in the counselling and auditing services. In 1997, he was elected as the Canada’s honorary consul in Sofia. In 2000, Hambardzumyan served as a deputy minister of economy; later the same year, he was appointed the executive director of an agency responsible for privatization affairs.

Hambardzumyan has been holding his current post since 2001. Also the same year, he became the chief executive of the UniCredit Bulbank.

In 2005, Finance Central Europe named him the Best Banker of the Year. Two years later, in 2007, he was named the Best Manager by the publication Manager of the Year. In 2008, Hambardzumyan was honored with the title Commendatore by then President of Italy Giorgio Napolitano.

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Bulgarian prosecutor orders probe of politician involved in Azerbaijani Laundromat

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Bulgarian Prosecutor-General Sotir Tsatsarov has ordered an investigation into Kalin Mitrev, a Bulgarian politician who is linked to Azerbaijani Laundromat scheme.

The prosecutor’s office said they had ordered an investigation that would have find out any information regarding tax evasion or money laundering, Sofia Globe reported.

The case of Mitrev – country’s representative on the board of directors of the EBRD, was also discussed during Bulgaria’s cabinet meeting on Thursday. The Cabinet decided to ask EBRD for its position on Kalin Mitrev.

According to Azerbaijani Laundromat investigation, Bulgarian politician, who is also husband of UNESCO director Irina Bokova, received 425 thousand euros from opaque British company that was engaged in Azerbaijani money laundering scheme.

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Bulgarian parliamentary candidates worried about Turkish interference

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The leaders of both Bulgarian political parties on the eve of Sunday’s parliamentary elections warned against any “interference” by Turkey in the election campaign with the country’s large Turkish-speaking minority.

“We are categorically opposed to the interference of a foreign country in our internal affairs,” said Kornelia Ninova, head of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (PSB) in an interview with AFP.

She denounced as “open interference” the voting instructions of senior Turkish officials to the Turkish minority in Bulgaria.

Sofia accuses Ankara of supporting the new Turkish minority party Dost (“friend” in Turkish). This minority has about 700,000 people, out of a total population of 7.4 million in Bulgaria, and some 60,000 Turkish citizens with Bulgarian citizenship vote in Turkey. “This interference is unacceptable,” echoed Boïko Borissov, former prime minister and head of the conservatives (Gerb) questioned by AFP. He nevertheless calls for “diplomacy” with Turkey, which borders on Bulgaria.

A new Turkish-speaking group in Bulgaria, Dost, supported by Ankara, aims to compete with the traditional party of the Bulgarian Turkish minority, the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MDL) with the reserved attitude towards Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan . The MDL is the third formation of the outgoing parliament.

The Socialists and Conservatives are given the elbow-to-elbow before the Sunday elections and may find it difficult to find a majority. The legislative elections follow the resignation of Mr Borissov in mid-term in November after a failure of his presidential candidate against a candidate supported by the Socialists Roumen Radev.

Bulgaria is traditionally one of the most Russian-speaking countries in the European Union and the new head of state is calling for a rebalancing of relations between Sofia and Moscow, without calling into question the alignment of the country with the EU and NATO.

A victory of the Socialists would reinforce this rapprochement. The PSB leader reiterated to AFP his opposition to EU sanctions against Russia “which do not produce the desired political effect.” “Bulgaria and the EU must resume normal dialogue with Russia,” she added. She said she was ready to vote against the renewal of the EU sanctions imposed on Russia because of the Ukrainian conflict if her party came to power.

The European Union links the lifting of sanctions to compliance with the Minsk peace accords on Ukraine. “The sanctions will continue as long as the Minsk peace accords are not respected,” Mr. Borissov told AFP.

“As a member of the European family and loyal member of NATO, we will firmly abide by our commitments” in this regard, he added.

Friday, March 24, 2017,
Stéphane © armenews.co
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Bulgarian politician dumped for backing Turkey over downing of Russian jet

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Lutvi Mestan (Photo: Cihan)

Lutvi Mestan (Photo: Cihan)

The leader of Bulgaria’s ethnic Turkish party has been ousted from his post and expelled from the party, apparently for declaring support for Turkey in its row with Moscow over the downing of a Russian warplane.

Lutvi Mestan, who headed the opposition Movement for Rights and Freedoms party (MRF), which represents ethnic Turks, voiced support for Turkey’s action last month in a declaration to the Bulgarian parliament in which he said Russian military aircraft had repeatedly violated Turkish airspace.

Turkey said it shot down the plane in defense of its airspace. Moscow denied its plane had passed over Turkish territory.

A spokeswoman for the MRF said on Thursday that Mestan had been dismissed from his post and expelled from the party by a unanimous decision by its leadership taken at a meeting in the villa of party founder Ahmed Doğan.

“All the decisions regarding Mestan were unanimous,” the spokeswoman, Velislava Krasteva, told reporters.

Doğan, a respectable elder statesman of Bulgarian politics, said during the meeting that “this would be the fate of everyone who stands up against Bulgaria’s national interests,” the spokeswoman said.

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Bulgaria ambassador to Turkey summoned to MFA due to Armenian Genocide issue

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bulgaria-mfaThe Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) has “strongly” condemned the use of the phrase “large-scale massacre” in the Bulgarian parliament decision with respect to the Armenian Genocide.

As per the MFA statement, this decision regarding the events of 1915 “demonstrates an antagonistic attitude towards Turkey.”

“No doubt, this decision will negatively affect Turkey-Bulgaria relations.

“These views have also been expressed to Bulgaria’s Ambassador to Ankara, who has been invited to our Ministry today,” the statement also reads.

In recent times, the Turkish MFA has manifested similar reactions also to Cyprus, the Vatican, Germany, Austria, France, Russia, and the US.

In the case of the Vatican and Austria, however, Turkey has even recalled its ambassadors to these states.

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Russia: Bulgarian, Serbian South Stream Sections Progress on Schedule

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Photo by BGNES

Chairman of the Russian State Duma Sergey Naryshkin has assured that the construction of the Serbian and Bulgarian sections of the South Stream gas pipeline proceeds as scheduled.

photo_verybig_160525Naryshkin, who was on a two-day visit to Belgrade in early May, said in an interview for Rossiya 24 TV that everything proceeded according to plan and the documents had been coordinated.

He added that the construction of the Serbian section of the gas pipeline would begin in 2014 and it would start carrying gas supplies in 2016, with Belgrade expected to receive the first revenues from it, according to reports of the BGNES news agency.

Naryshkin also informed that all went as planned as regards the implementation of the Bulgarian stretch of the gas pipeline.

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Bulgarian Defense Minister: Border Fence to be Finished in June

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Photo by BGNES

photo_verybig_160538The 30km border fence between Bulgaria and Turkey will be completed by June, assured Bulgaria’s Defense Minister Angel Naydenov.

The fence aimed at redirecting refugees only towards the official border checkpoints has sparked much controversy over the past months. In March, it was revealed that the Ministry of Defense had miscalculated the cost of the fence, writing up the sum by BGN 4 M, raising the overall price to BGN 9 M.

A number of international human rights organizations also criticized Bulgaria for its plans to build the border fence, calling it an anti-humanitarian measure to keep refugees away. The Ministry of Interior argued that it is only designed to make the process of receiving asylum seekers official, and to deter potential terrorists from entering the country unchecked.

Minister Naydenov admitted that the construction work on the fence had been slowed down as a result of the financial miscalculations as well as the poor weather conditions, but promised it will be ready in the time envisioned.

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