Bulgaria Security Council to Discuss Opposition Leader Assassination Attempt

Bulgaria's Consultative Council on National Security will disuss at its next sitting Saturday's failed assassination attempt against opposition Movement for Rights and Freedoms leader Ahmed Dogan.

The Council, convened and presided by Bulgaria's President Rosen Plevneliev, is to hold its next sitting on February 5.

The initial agenda for the sitting included matters relating to the situation in the Middle East, including the July 18, 2012 terror strike against Israeli tourists in the Bulgarian resort city of Burgas.

President Plevneliev has already denounced the incident, in which Dogan was attacked with a hand gun while speaking at his party's congress Saturday.

The assaulter however misfired his gun and was brought to the ground by delegates at the conference, with Dogan escaping unharmed.

As it transpired as the congress resumed later, the leader, who had chaired the Movement ever since its inception in 1990, announced that he is asking to resign from the position.

He recommended current vice-chair Lyutvi Mestan as an heir.

The Movement for Rights and Freedoms, styled as a liberal party, and member of ALDE, is known to be largely supported by Bulgaria's sizeable ethnic Turkish minority.

In his first reaction to the grave incident, Mestan interpreted the assault as directed not only against Dogan, but also against all supporters of the Movement.