Category: Bulgaria

Turkey rejected note of protest from Bulgaria over criticism of racism

Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç has said there were racist attacks on Turks in Bulgaria and revealed that a diplomatic note of protest from Bulgaria over Turkish criticism on the treatment of Turks had been rejected by Ankara.

Nationalist party ATAKA leader Volen Siderov argues with a riot policeman as his supporters protest in front of Banya Bashi Mosque in Sofia during the Friday noon prayer on May 20, 2011. Supporters of ATAKA party and Turkish Muslims entered into clashes outside the mosque during a rally of the nationalists against the loudspeakers of the mosque, seriously injuring one Muslim.

Nationalist party ATAKA leader Volen Siderov argues with a riot policeman as his supporters protest in front of Banya Bashi Mosque in Sofia during the Friday noon prayer on May 20, 2011. Supporters of ATAKA party and Turkish Muslims entered into clashes outside the mosque during a rally of the nationalists against the loudspeakers of the mosque, seriously injuring one Muslim.

Arınç said he had condemned what he called racist practices at the hands of the Bulgarian authorities against Turks in Bulgaria in a speech about a month ago. “I repeat the same thing today,” he said during a visit to the Bulgarian Mestanli Culture and Solidarity Association in the northwestern province of Bursa, his election district, on Sunday. “That speech was criticized in Bulgaria, particularly by [far-right ATAKA Party leader] Volen Siderov. They wanted to deliver a note of protest but we rejected their note,” Arınç said.

Bursa is home to Turks who migrated from Balkan countries during the loss of the Ottoman territories in Europe between the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The most recent arrival of Balkan Turks took place in 1989, when the communist regime in Bulgaria expelled approximately 300,000 Bulgarian Turks to Turkey. About one-third of these 300,000 Bulgarian Turkish refugees eventually settled in Bursa.

Arınç complained that racist attacks on Turks continue in Bulgaria. “Unfortunately, there are racist attacks in Bulgaria. ATAKA members are harming our people with their actions and words,” he said.

Arınç’s remarks came after far-right extremists from ATAKA attacked praying Turks in Sofia earlier this month. The Bulgarian group, attending a rally staged by ATAKA near the Banya Bashi mosque, attacked the Turks to protest the use of loudspeakers by the mosque. Reports said several people were injured and several ATAKA supporters were apprehended by the police.

via zaman

May 31, 2011
Bulgaria: Bulgaria to Sign on Nabucco Pipeline in Turkey on June 6

Bulgaria’s Bulgargaz, a subsidiary of the Bulgarian Energy Holding, will participate in the official signing of an agreement on the Nabucco gas transit pipeline in Turkey on June 6, 2011.

Besides the Bulgarian company, the shareholders which will sign the agreement are OMV (Austria), BOTAS (Turkey), Transgaz (Romania), Mol Natural Gas (Hungary) and RWE (Germany)

Each shareholder holds an equal share of 16.67% of Nabucco Gas Pipeline International GmbH. Nabucco is estimated to cost EUR 8 B, and Bulgaria, as a partner with 1/6 of the shares, will be expected to provide 1/6 of the total sum, or about EUR 1.3 B, rather than finance just the section on its territory. Bulgaria plans to finance its share in Nabucco with a EUR 1.2 B loan from the European Investment Bank.

The sides engaged in the project are waiting for a decisive answer from Azerbaijan on its possible participation.

“If Azerbaijan’s response will be negative, we’ll contact with Turkmenistan, Iraq and Iran. This project has a great importance for both of us and Europe. That’s why we can not lose time and we’ll use all of the options,” Taner Yildiz commented on Azerbaijan’s possible participation I the project, as cited by the Azarbaijani APA agency.

Nabucco Gas Pipeline International GmbH, the Vienna-based project company, has been involved in talks with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the European Investment Bank, and the International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank Group, asking for an EUR 4 B loan. These negotiations are expected to be completed in 2011.

The Nabucco gas pipeline is supposed to reduce EU’s energy dependence on Russia by bringing in natural gas from the Caspian region, Central Asia, and the Middle East.

The direct investments in the Bulgarian economy from the construction of Nabucco will be about EUR 400 M and a few hundred jobs. Another about 1000 jobs will be created indirectly by the project.

At the beginning of May, it was announced that the Nabucco project company has pushed back the start of construction of the pipeline to 2013; thus, Nabucco is now expected to start operations in 2017 instead of 2015, as previously expected.

via Bulgaria: Bulgaria to Sign on Nabucco Pipeline in Turkey on June 6 – Novinite.com – Sofia News Agency.

May 24, 2011
Russia Says U.S. May Extend Missile Shield to Bulgaria, Turkey

Russia is concerned the U.S. may expand its planned missile shield in Poland and Romania to other eastern European countries and Turkey, a senior military official said.

“Russia is deeply concerned that after Poland and Romania, elements of U.S. missile defense will emerge in the Czech Republic, Turkey, Bulgaria and some other NATO members,” the deputy chief of Russia’s general staff, Valery Gerasimov, told foreign diplomats today in Moscow. “In the future, it may create risks for Russian strategic nuclear forces.”

A U.S. factsheet on its proposed missile shield, published May 3, mentions only Romania and Poland as sites where hardware would be based. The U.S. embassy in Moscow declined to comment.

Russian leaders complain the shield, which the U.S. says is needed to guard against threats from countries such as Iran, will blunt their nuclear deterrent. They have warned of a new arms race within the next decade unless the U.S. and its allies agree to cooperate with Russia on missile defense.

Russia may quit a nuclear arms treaty with the U.S. if it doesn’t get legally enforceable guarantees it won’t be targeted by the shield, President Dmitry Medvedev said May 18.

To contact the reporters on this story: Ilya Arkhipov in Moscow at iarkhipov@bloomberg.net; Henry Meyer in Moscow at hmeyer4@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Balazs Penz at bpenz@bloomberg.net

via Russia Says U.S. May Extend Missile Shield to Bulgaria, Turkey – Bloomberg.

May 21, 2011
Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk: Bulgaria, Turkey Very Much Alike

Orhan Pamuk (R) and Ivan Ilchev, rector of the Sofia University (L) during Thursday's ceremony. Photo by BGNES

Bulgaria and Turkey have much in common according to Turkish Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk, who is on a visit to Sofia.

“For a long time, Bulgaria and Turkey had a common history, though unhappy and very bloody,” Pamuk stated. “For 400 years, we led similar lives, we had the same feelings. If we leave out the atrocities, Bulgarians and Turks have had the same everyday lives, similar music and architecture,” the writer pointed out.

He spoke upon receiving a doctor honoris causa title by Sofia University, Bulgaria’s oldest and biggest higher education institution.

“As a writer, I do not consider history to be about what the king or the sultan did, it is the people’s everyday lives. Those are the heroes of my books. And I am truly happy that the Bulgarians understand my books,” he said.

Starting 7 PM Thursday, Pamuk will hold a discussion in the Red House in downtown Sofia about his new book “Other Colors”, which hit the Bulgarian market two weeks ago.

In “Other Colors” the Nobel laureate confronts openly the readers by presenting in a series of essays and reflections his views on literature, the world around us, the political realities and the state of mind. In a world of crumbling value systems and the lack of new ones Orhan Pamuk seeks the truth in the works of the biggest names in world literature. Thursday is the second and last day of Pamuk’s Bulgarian visit.

via Bulgaria: Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk: Bulgaria, Turkey Very Much Alike – Novinite.com – Sofia News Agency.

May 20, 2011
Bulgaria to recall its ambassador in Turkey

A Bulgarian government official confirmed on Tuesday that Bulgaria’s Ambassador to Turkey will be recalled soon for having once served as secret service agents for the nation’s former communist governments.

13 of the country’s ambassadors have already returned pending dismissal for the same reason.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Vessela Tcherneva said a further 22 ambassadors and permanent representatives will be recalled on June 1.

Novinite.com news agency reported on Tuesday that ambassadors from Bosnia, Greece, Romania, Georgia, Serbia, China, Sweden, Germany, Lithuania, Belarus and Macedonia, the United Nations and UNESCO have already returned.

The agency said ambassadors to Britain, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Russia, Turkey and Japan will return in June.

In December, a panel investigating Bulgaria’s communist-era police, published the names of 192 diplomats who had worked for the previous secret services, and parliament voted to ask Bulgaria’s president to remove 33 of them now serving as ambassadors.

May 4, 2011
Hoards Celebrate ‘Bulgarian Easter’ in Istanbul: Hoards Celebrate ‘Bulgarian Easter’ in Istanbul

Thousands of Bulgarians celebrated Easter in Istanbul, Turkey, Saturday into Sunday with the mass traditionally held at the St. Stefan church.

The building of the Bulgarian Iron Church in Istanbul was filled with people wishing to attend the Easter Mass Saturday into Sunday. Photo by BGNES

The service at the church near the Golden Horn, known also as the Iron Church, began at 11 pm Saturday and was delivered by Bishop Teodosiy, who arrived, with three other clergy, from Bulgaria.

Many worshipers also traveled from Bulgaria to Istanbul to attend the Easter Mass there. The building and the yard were filled with people. At midnight sharp the church bell announced the resurrection of Christ while Teodosiy blessed the attendees.

People greeted each other with the traditional “Christ Is Risen,” and went around the church three times in observance of the Easter ritual. They also exchanged colored eggs and the Easter bread called kozunak.

A mass was also served at another Istanbul church – St. Ivan Rilski, of the Bulgarian eparchy in Shishli because the Iron Church can no longer accommodate all the worshipers. The mass was served by the priest of Bulgarian churches in Istanbul, Father Angel.

Those who attended the services at St. Stefan were also in for a pleasant surprise – a giant colored egg made from plaster was mounted in the yard. The egg, about 1.5 meter-high, placed in a basket, and lit inside with beams of different colors, is said to have been a splendid site.

The idea for the egg belongs to the Bulgarian community in Istanbul and is made as a special gift and memory for their fellow countrymen and women, who come each year to celebrate Easter together with them near the Golden Horn.

The celebrations in Istanbul also marked the 151st anniversary of “Bulgarian Easter” which led to the restoration of an independent Bulgarian Orthodox Church.

On April 3 1860 Ilarion Makariopolski refused to mention the Greek Patriarch’s name in an Easter service. This led to the struggle between the Bulgarians, led by Neofit Bozveli and Makariopolski, and the Greeks intensifying throughout the 1860s. By the end of the decade, Bulgarian bishoprics had expelled most of the Greek clerics, thus the whole of northern Bulgaria, as well as the northern parts of Thrace and Macedonia had effectively seceded from the Patriarchate.

The Ottoman government restored the Bulgarian Patriarchate under the name of “Bulgarian Exarchate” by a decree (firman) of the Sultan promulgated on February 28, 1870. The original Exarchate extended over present-day northern Bulgaria (Moesia), Thrace without the Vilayet of Adrianople, as well as over north-eastern Macedonia.

After the Christian population of the bishoprics of Skopje and Ohrid voted in 1874 overwhelmingly in favor of joining the Exarchate (Skopje by 91%, Ohrid by 97%), the Bulgarian Exarchate became in control of the whole of Vardar and Pirin Macedonia. The Bulgarian Exarchate was partially represented in southern Macedonia and the Vilayet of Adrianople by vicars. Thus, the borders of the Exarchate included all Bulgarian districts in the Ottoman Empire.

via Hoards Celebrate ‘Bulgarian Easter’ in Istanbul: Hoards Celebrate ‘Bulgarian Easter’ in Istanbul – Novinite.com – Sofia News Agency.Iron

April 25, 2011