Bulgarian police have smashed an international human trafficking ring which brought immigrants from Iraq and Iran via Turkey, into Bulgaria, the private Bulgarian television channel bTV reported on December 1 2010.
Border police units from Elhovo and Rousse have arrested one Turkish national and three Bulgarians who are believed to be ringleaders.
Reportedly, the Turkish national (49) would gather potential immigrants in Turkey and would smuggle them illegally to Bulgaria, where they would be collected by the Bulgarians who would hide them in safe-houses. Once equipped with fake Bulgarian papers, they would then proceed towards other countries in the European Union.
On November 28, a police patrol from General Toshevo pulled over a minivan, driven by a Bulgarian with four people inside who were visibly foreigners, but provided Bulgarian ID cards. When questioned by the police, it was revealed that they were from Iraq and Iran.
The four immigrants and the driver have been arrested. Additionally, the police detained another 55-year-old Bulgarian, a native of Dobrich.
In a parallel police raid, officers arrested four other immigrants in a flat in Dimitrovgrad, aged 16-35. Finally a Turkish national and a Bulgarian aged 52, from Shoumen were also apprehended.
The immigrants from Iraq and Iran would pay up to 3000 euro to be smuggled through Turkey and Bulgaria onwards to other EU countries, the report said.
The investigation continues.
via Bulgarian police smash human trafficking ring – Bulgaria – The Sofia Echo.
The domes of the Bulgarian St. Stephan church in Istanbul, commonly known as the Iron Church, will shine as new. Thirteen Bulgarian patriots from Plovdiv collected a generous donation of 40,000 euro to make a miracle come true. The biggest dome is covered with titanium alloy used in spaceships building. It is more durable than even gold. The initiators of the project alighted on the idea ten years ago as the unique cast-iron church facing the Golden Horn was in a deplorable condition. It has not been renovated or reinforced for decades.
The consecration service was performed by His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.
Eli Kumanova
via Arts&Culture – Patriotically-minded Bulgarians Renovate Iron Church in Istanbul – Standart.
Bulgaria is expanding its military and economic ties with Israel in the light of a good relationship between the countries’ respective prime ministers and shifting geo-stategic alliances, according to an article in Israeli newspaper Haaretz by Barak Ravid.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu Photo: Wikipedia
“Since its relations with Turkey crumbled over the past year, Israel has begun looking to the Balkan states for new friends and allies. The new initiatives extend to shared intelligence, joint military exercises and boosting tourism,” writes Ravid.
Haaretz says that several countries – the article cites Cyprus, Romania. Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia and Macedonia – are increasingly concerned about Turkey’s new radicalism.
Warmer relations between Sofia and Jerusalem first became apparent after talks between Netanyahu and Borissov in January, according to Haaretz.
The Israeli newspaper quotes Israel’s ambassador to Bulgaria, Noah Gal-Gendler, as saying that Borissov has concluded that it’s in Bulgaria’s interests to seek better relations with Israel. The ambassador apparently cites Borissov’s decision to visit Jerusalem, the first by a Bulgarian prime minister for 18 years, as proof of Sofia’s change in priorities.
Gal-Gendler is also quoted as saying that Bulgaria is interested in “looking for a new economic engine like Israeli high-tech and want to learn how we did it”.
A pivotal moment in Turkey’s re-alignment – away from its traditionally friendly ties with Israel in favour of solidarity with the Arab world – was the Israeli raid on the flotilla ship bound for Gaza. According to Haaretz, Borissov and Netanyahu had three conversations with each other over two weeks following the incident, concentrating on facilitating the release of two Bulgarian journalists who were aboard one of the ships.
“The Bulgarians are hoping that Israeli tourists who stopped visiting Turkey will come en masse to Bourgas and Varna on the Black Sea coast. Some 150,000 Israelis are expected to visit Bulgaria by the end of the year and Bulgaria wants to increase the number to 250 000 in 2011,” says Haaretz.
Bulgaria has also been mooted as a possible venue for peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, although that, of course, would depend on both sides having faith in the impartiality of Sofia to broker negotiations.
The article goes on to say that Greece is also seeking closer ties with Israel. According to Ravid, Athens was “disappointed” not to receive any offers of assistance from Arab nations in the wake of the financial crisis earlier this year.
via Israel and Bulgaria woo each other in wake of Turkey’s re-alignment – Bulgaria – The Sofia Echo.
Bulgaria's Supreme Administrative Court ruled that there is no evidence the leader of the ethnic Turkish party, Ahmed Dogan, committed conflict of interests when taking huge fees as an expert while his party was in power. Photo by BGNES
Bulgaria’s Supreme Administrative Court exonerated Monday Ahmed Dogan, leader of the opposition ethnic Turkish party, from conflict of interests.
Two of the three magistrates trying the case, ruled Dogan, who received huge consulting fees on hydro energy projects while his party was in power, was not in conflict of interests because his consulting contracts were signed before the passing of the law that provides for sanctions for such activities.
The ruling of the Supreme Administrative Court (VAS) says that there is no evidence the leader of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) as a Member of the Parliament took part in a vote benefiting the company which paid the fee.
Magistrates Violeta Glavinova and Iliyana Slavovska also believe that in order to find the defendant guilty, the Court must establish private interest accompanied by aimed profit and that the said interest influenced the MP’s objective and impartial fulfillment of parliamentary duties.
Magistrate Marina Mihaylova, however, has signed the ruling with “particular judgment.” She writes that Dogan has committed conflict of interests because he received the major part of the fee after the passing of the bill that mandates him to declare such conflict.
Mihaylova further cites the DPS leader’s scandalous pre-election statement in the village of Kochan on June 18, 2009 where he declared to supporters: “I am the instrument in power that allocates the portions to the firms in the country. I want you to be very aware of this fact.”
The Court ordered the Parliament to refund legal expenses to Dogan. His defense attorney asked for BGN 48 000, but the magistrates fixed the amount at the symbolic BGN 150.
The ruling can be appealed before a five-judge panel of VAS.
The leader of the ethnic Turkish party, which was a member of the former Three-Way Coalition cabinet, allegedly pocketed BGN 1.5 M as a consultant of four large-scale hydroelectricity projects, funded by the state – “Tsankov Kamak,” “Dospat,” “Gorna Arda” and “Tundzha” Dam.
The scandal erupted in May after a visit of Prime Minister Boyko Borisov to the site of the hydroelectric power plant “Tsankov Kamak,” where he revealed that a huge hike in the initial price has been discovered.
The money for the hydro power plant “Tsankov Kamak,” from where Dogan took the sky-high payment as an “expert,” was paid by the state-owned National Electricity Distribution Company (NEK), left in tatters after the ruling of the previous cabinet.
The new center-right Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB) party government of Bulgaria was elected on an anti-corruption platform in July, 2009, and on the promise to bring to justice those involved in huge-scale corruption schemes.
The latest embezzlement allegations against Ahmed Dogan have been widely considered to be a litmus test for the government’s willingness to do so in practice.
The trial was launched on a claim filed by the Parliamentary Anti-corruption Committee.
At the start of proceedings at the Supreme Administrative Court on September 2 officials had to try Dogan in absentia.
He had envoyed his lawyer Ivan Elenski, who stated that his client has not entered into a conflict of interests and that the contents of the committee report are “figments of the imagination.”
The Supreme Administrative Court on its part decreed that Dogan show evidence of professional qualification or competence in the areas of construction, mining and hydrology, for which he received consultant fees, as well as to produce a report on the consultancy work he actually did for the projects.
The Administrative Court also ordered the Council of Ministers to provide documents with which it had appointed contractors for Tsankov Kamak and the other projects and the Ministry of Economy and Energy and the National Electric Company – to provide evidence on the financing of the projects.
The court then mandated a deadline of seven days for documents to be provided by the above bodies and individuals.
If found guilty, Dogan would have faced a fine from BGN 1 000 to BGN 3 000 and confiscation of the payment he received as an expert.
The Chair of the Parliamentary Anti-corruption Committee, Valentin Nikolov, already vowed to file an appeal.
The leader of Bulgarian nationalist party Ataka yesterday (6 October) surprised his big political ally, the ruling GERB party of Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, by staging an anti-Turkish show and slamming the government’s relations with Ankara in parliament. Dnevnik, EurActiv’s partner in Bulgaria, reports.
Wearing a black T-shirt saying ”No’ to Turkey in the EU’, Ataka leader Volen Siderov took the floor and blasted the government’s handling of a recent visit of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to Bulgaria.
Without naming Borissov, Siderov said that by receiving Erdoğan with “hugs and kisses,” those in power had being playing an “anti-Bulgarian game” and declared that more such mistakes would “not be tolerated”.
“I would like to tell [the government] that you are wrong when you assume that Turkey comes here with friendly intentions. It is a mistake to make compromises with Ankara,” Siderov said.
The incident blew up as parliament was debating an unrelated vote of ‘no confidence’ initiated by the opposition Socialists over the country’s collapsing healthcare system (see ‘Background’).
The vote was seen as a way for the socialists to flex their muscles, as the divided opposition was not expected to bring down the government.
Ataka, seen by many as the ruling centre-right GERB party’s most faithful partner, signalled for the first time that their support should not be taken for granted.
10 billion euro claim
Siderov claimed that Erdoğan’s visit on 3 October had been prepared “in secret” in order to prevent Ataka from handing the Turkish prime minister a document asking Turkey to pay Bulgaria 10 billion euros in compensation for property lost during World War I.
Bulgarian nationals were forced to leave Turkey between 1912 and 1925, leading Bulgaria to claim ten billion euros in compensation for lost land and real estate. The Angora Protocol of 1925 recognises Bulgarians’ right to be compensated for their lost property.
When the Bulgarian government was set up, Bozhidar Dimitrov, the minister representing Bulgarians abroad, said that Sofia would link the compensation issue to Turkey’s EU talks. Borissov later rapped Dimitrov for the misplaced comment and said his country would pursue its interests outside the EU framework.
“Where are you, my friend Bozhidar,” Siderov said in parliament, dramatically appealing to Dimitrov, who was not present in the room.
The leader of Ataka also blasted what he called declarations of support by the Bulgarian government for Turkey’s EU accession bid.
During his visit to Sofia, Borissov said that “Bulgaria, as a good neighbour, supports Turkey’s prospects for joining the EU”.
For his part, Erdoğan complained that the EU was putting up new hurdles on the way to Turkey’s EU accession bid, claiming these represented a “double standard” compared to other EU hopefuls such as Croatia.
Referendum test
Ataka has stepped up its anti-Turkey campaign in recent months, calling ever more aggressively for a referendum on Turkey’s EU accession to be held.During Erdoğan’s visit, Borissov said it was too early to decide. “The issue about the referendum on Turkey’s EU accession will be on the agenda when Turkey completes its EU accession negotiations,” Borrisov said.
Over a recent visit to Brussels, Turkey’s chief EU negotiator Egemen Bağış said his country was not afraid of referenda being held in EU countries over Turkey’s EU accession.
Positions
“We have been the witnesses of an outright political delirium,” said Lyutvi Mestan, leader of the liberal MRF party, following Siderov’s statements in parliament.
Mestan added that the democratic Bulgarian parliament had never heard such “outright insults” in its 20-year history with respect to the prime minister of another country.
Socialist leader Sergei Stanishev blasted National Assembly President Tsetska Tsacheva for having allowed the leader of Ataka to disturb the work of the parliament in the midst of a no-confidence vote.
Background
Ataka (National Union Attack), a nationalist, xenophobic and homophobic party, is represented in the Bulgarian parliament with 21 MPs out of 240. In the European parliament, Ataka has two MEPs.
Following the July 2009 national elections, the centre-right GERB party of Boyko Borissov obtained 117 seats in Parliament, falling short of an absolute majority.
GERB (the acronym stands for ‘Citizens for the European Development of Bulgaria’) is affiliated to the European People’s Party (EPP), the largest political group in the European Parliament.
GERB leader Boyko Borissov, who became prime minister after the 2009 election, leads a minority government tacitly supported by Ataka and by a smaller group, called the ‘Blue Coalition’. The latter brings together leaders from the former anti-Communist Union of Democratic Forces (SDS) and its rival party, the Democrats for a Strong Bulgaria (DSB).
The main opposition in Bulgaria consists of the Socialist Party (40 MPs and six MEPs) and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF), a party harbouring the country’s Turkish minority, with 37 MPs and three MEPs. In the European Parliament, MRF is affiliated to the liberal ALDE group (click here for more).
Bulgarian Diaspora Minister Dimitrov has boasted a doubling of the number of the Bulgarian schools abroad. Photo by BGNES
Bulgaria’s government is currently perplexed as to how to go about the opening of a Bulgarian school in the unrecognized Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
This has been announced by Diaspora MinisterBozhidar Dimitrov, who spoke at a public discussion in Sofia organized by the “PR Thursday” club of M3 College where he was the special guest.
“We have been really surprised to find out that there are about 9 000-10 000 Bulgarian expats of ethnic Turkish origin residing in Northern Cyprus, who have asked for the opening of a Bulgarian school so that their kids can attend it,” Dimitrov said.
He explained that the expats in question are from those Bulgarian Turks who left Bulgaria in the late 1980s fleeing from the so called “Revival” or “Regeneration Process”, an assimilation campaign of the Bulgarian communist regime forcing Muslims, Bulgarians and Turks alike, to adopt Slavic-Christian names. Estimates say some 200 000-300 000 Bulgarian Turks and Muslims left the country then even though about half are believed to have come back after the regime collapsed in 1989.
“What is particularly bewildering for us in this case is the fact that Bulgaria has not recognized the independence of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, and therefore the Bulgarian government has no way of sponsoring a Bulgarian school there. If we open a Bulgarian school there, this will mean the recognition of this quasi-state. So we are stuck at the moment. But we will definitely find some form under which we can do it, in one way or another,” Dimitrov said.
He pointed out that a similar community of expat Bulgarian Turks living in Turkey’s Edirne, right to the southeast of the Bulgarian border had asked the Bulgarian government for a Bulgarian school, which is currently attended by 53 children.
The Diaspora Minister boasted an increase of the Bulgarian schools abroad to 136 since he took office a year ago, up from about 50.
The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus was proclaimed in 1983 and has been recognized only by Turkey.
