Bulgaria's Culture Minister, Vezhdi Rashidov, said Friday that the ethnic Turkish minority regions had started to shake off their fear of the monopoly of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) party.

Rashidov, who is a renown sculptor and of ethnic Turkish origin himself, made this statement in the town of Dzhebel in the southern District of Kardzhali, from where he was elected a MP in the July 5 Elections, BGNES reported.

"I have been touring the villages in the region for two days, and I already see a change. People stop me in the street and want to chat with me; they are starting to shake off their fear. This was impossible before the July elections," said Rashidov, who was the No. 1 candidate on the proportional ticket of the GERB party in the Kardzhali electoral district.

Rashidov is an outspoken critic of the DPS party and its leader Ahmed Dogan for conducting a policy seeking to encapsulate Bulgaria's ethnic and religious minorities by instilling fear in them in order to control them better.

Rashidov condemned those politicians who visited their constituents only before elections, and forgot about them for the next four years; he vowed not to lose touch with the people who elected him.

The Culture Minister committed himself to the cause of a construction of a Christian church and cemetery in the village of Pripek near Dzhebel, which is overwhelmingly populated by ethnic Bulgarian Muslims.

"The people of Pripek are open, and they want to have a Christian temple and cemetery. No one bothers anyone else. The problem here is how to find the funds to make this project come true", Rashidov said.

The Minister also revealed that the Agriculture Ministry had been "sitting" for 4 years on BGN 50 M from the Program for Development of Rural Regions, destined for the Bulgarian "chitalishta", i.e. local cultural community clubs. He said the money was probably not utilized because someone wanted to find a way to siphon it off.

Rashidov will continue his tour around Kardzhali until Sunday in order to thank his constituents for electing him, in his own words.

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