| Topic: |
Science > Prophecies-Of-Nostradamus |
| User: |
"Definitely a sick minority..." |
| Date: |
14 Mar 2006 07:58:54 AM |
| Object: |
Nationalistic demonstrations threaten Bulgaria's stability |
Nationalistic demonstrations threaten Bulgaria's stability
10:00 Mon 27 Feb 2006 - Polina Slavcheva
EVENTS held by ultra-nationalist party Ataka throughout Bulgaria on
February 19 - the 133-year anniversary of the hanging of Vassil Levski
- grew into anti-Turk demonstrations.
On February 20, news that 6500 people in the central Bulgarian town of
Kazanluk had signed a petition asking for the official recognition of
the Turkish minority in Bulgaria, made headlines. The initiator of the
petition, Menderes Kungyun, told Bulgarian news agency BTA on February
20 that the petition was not organised through official channels and
that the principal demand was to stop ethnic inequality in this
country, which was caused by imperfect national legislation.
"Ataka is saying the truth now (about the lack of fair legislation in
Bulgaria)," Kungyun said.
He said that all Muslims'rights were impaired and cited the lack of a
Muslim cemetery in the Kazanluk Municipality, which has a population of
15 000 Muslims.
The petition demanded that Turkish be adopted as a second official
language in Bulgaria, that the ban on forming ethnic parties be
cancelled and that the Turkish minority be officially recognised.
Petitioners further insisted on the opening of a Turkish state
university, a Turkish-language broadcasts directorate at Bulgarian
National Radio and Bulgarian National Television, and on a rejection of
the Bulgarian ethnic model, "which is an extension of the
assimilation and genocide of the Turkish-Muslim minority".
The signatories included members of the Movement for Rights and
Freedoms (MRF) and their entire families.
On February 21, Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev, who is also leader of
the ruling Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), called the demands
"illegal and provocative" and warned Bulgarians to be wary of
another Ataka attempt of "cheap populism" on March 3, the Bulgarian
national holiday.
Whoever tried to play with the patriotic feelings of Bulgarians was
playing with fire, Stanishev said. Every action in the direction of
ethnic intolerance would encounter the categorical resistance of the
state, he said.
The BSP would also insist that relevant government institutions clarify
who would gain from stirring ethnic tensions in Bulgaria and was behind
such efforts, BSP deputy chairman Ivelin Nikolov told a news conference
on February 21.
Speaking in Parliament on February 22, Ataka leader Volen Siderov said
that it was absurd to link Ataka to the petition of a group of citizens
asking for more autonomy of the Turkish national minority in Bulgaria.
He said that it was Stanishev, particularly, who had looked for a link
to Ataka.
What led to separatism was the politics of the MRF - part of the
current ruling coalition - and other parties that acted as their
accomplice and signed the framework convention on ethnic minorities
when Ivan Kostov was prime minister. The constitution gave more than
enough rights to all citizens regardless of their background, Siderov
said. There was no need to sign a special convention to give privileges
to separate groups.
On February 20, Kemal Eyup, chairman of the National Assembly's
Commission for Protection against Discrimination, called the petition a
political act probably aimed at pushing the MRF out of power.
The same day, speaking on behalf of the MRF parliamentary group, MRF
deputy chairman Lyutvi Mestan described the petition as "yet another
carefully planned and brazen provocation against the integration model
established in this country".
Siderov said that the MRF's disassociation from the petition was
hypocritical because many MRF MPs, including Mestan, had repeatedly
demanded that Bulgaria become a multinational, multiethnic country.
A spokesperson for the chief mufti's office, Hussein Hafazov, refused
to comment on the declaration, saying that the demands did not concern
Muslim religious or spiritual activity.
Hafazov said that there was no threat to ethnic peace in Bulgaria.
On February 20, the National Committee for the Defence of National
Interests described the petition as a criminal act aimed against the
unity of the state.
The committee demanded that the initiators be arrested and put on
trial.
Committee head Mincho Minchev accused the Interior Ministry and the
Prosecution Office of passivity.
The committee also apologised for supporting President Georgi
Purvanov's candidature for president, since he had abandoned the
national interests, the local Christo Botev Radio reported
.
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