Nationalist fraction Ataka (Attack) organized a rally Tuesday evening before the central mosque in Sofia, demanding that its loudspeakers are removed.

Ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms should be pushed away of Bulgaria's political life, Ataka's leader Volen Siderov said at the rally. He called for a stop to Bulgaria's "Turkeysation".

Rubbing off the celebrations of the 169th anniversary of the birth of Bulgaria's Apostle of Freedom Vassil Levski, protesters placed a portrait of the revered Bulgarian on the roof of the mosque.

The rally then turned into a torch-lit procession down the capital's posh shopping Vitosha Boulevard, where police had to stop all trams.

Ataka logded a letter signed by thousands, demanding that the mosque be silenced, based on a regulation that states that religious manifestations shouldn't disturb the public peace.

Instead of Mayor Boyko Borisov's suggestion that the loudspeakers of the mosque be tuned down, the nationalists went all out, demanding for their removal.

The party's leader Volen Siderov insisted that in many countries the "ezan" practice, an invitation to prayer through loudspeakers, has been cancelled because of protests.

At a meeting with Borissov on Monday the mufti's office countered the demands by saying that church bells all over the country were just as loud.

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