Ethnic Turkish Party Vows to Reveal to EU Sofia Mayor's Real Face

Politics | October 31, 2008, Friday // 00:00
Sofia Mayor Statements about Revival Process Stir Strong Reaction: Ethnic Turkish Party Vows to Reveal to EU Sofia Mayor's Real Face The DPS MP Ahmed Yusein said Friday his party was considering notifying the EP and the EPP about Mayor Borisov's statements on the "Revival Process". Photo by Yuliana Nikolova (Sofia Photo Agency)

The Bulgarian ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) is considering notifying the European Parliament and the European People's Party (EPP) about Sofia Mayor Boyko Borisov's statements regarding the 1980s campaign to assimilate Muslims in Bulgaria.

In a televised interview aired on bTV Friday Borisov made comments about the so called "Revival Process". The Process was conducted in the 1980s by the former communist regime to force Muslims in Bulgaria to change their Arab-Muslim names to Slavic ones.

The Mayor stated before the bTV channel that the assimilation campaign had had the right goals but its implementation methods had been wrong.

Ahmed Yusein, Member of the Parliament from DPS, said in an interview for the Darik Radio that the EPP must see the real face of the person considered the most likely candidate to become the next Bulgarian PM. Yusein qualified the Mayor's statements as outrageous.

Yusein further demanded a full account of Borisov's activity in the northeastern town of Dulovo in August of 1989.

Borisov was present in the town of Dulovo in his capacity as Interior Ministry officer at a time when the border between Bulgaria and Turkey was closed, and 60 Muslim families from Dulovo were expelled to different locations all over Bulgaria.

Yusein reminded that several young Muslims were severely beaten and a 20-year old man became handicapped for life during the assimilation campaign in Dulovo.

The Sofia Mayor Borisov is the informal leader of the Bulgarian Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB) party, and has been recently accused of mimicking the extreme nationalist rhetoric of the Ataka party leader Volen Siderov.

Borisov's GERB party was accepted as member of the European People's Party in February, 2008.

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