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Informal leaders of the four quarters in Bulgaria's Plovdiv with minority population have spoken out in defense of ethnic peace and tolerance in the aftermath of outbursts that threatened to turn into ethnic clashes over the weekend.
The community leaders of the quarters populated with ethnic Roma and ethnic Turks met late Sunday with the Alexander Dolev (who is temporary in charge of Plovdiv Municipality as Mayor Slavcho Atanasov is running for reelection), and a number of other senior municipal officials, local news site Plovdiv24.bg reported.
Plovdiv, which prides itself in its traditional tolerance and ethnically and religiously diverse population since the Middle Ages, nearly became the center of ethnic clashes between ethnic Bulgarians and ethnic Roma over the weekend, following the murder in the nearby village of Katunitsa of 19-year-old Angel Petrov by associates of notorious Roma boss Kiril Rashkov, aka Tsar Kiro, committed Friday night.
The murder of Angel Petrov, who was deliberately run over by a mini-bus, according to witnesses, led to massive protests of the ethnic Bulgarians in the village of Katunitsa against Rashkov's Roma clan on Saturday, culminating Saturday night into the burning of Rashkov's properties by football hooligans from Plovdiv.
The tensions grew in Plovdiv on Sunday, the day of Petrov's funeral, when the police barely prevented clashes between a protest rally and local Roma in Roma-populated quarters Stolipinovo, Sheker Mahala, and Adzhisan Mahala.
"Why is the problem that appeared in the village of Katunitsa getting politicized?" was the major question posed by the ethnic Roma and ethnic Turkish leaders, who demanded extension of the massive police presence in their communities until the tensions are entirely gone.
Plovdiv, a city of 350 000, is the home of Stolipinovo, the largest Roma quarter in Bulgaria with a population of some 40 000.
"No such thing has happened in Adzhasan Mahala in the past 50 years. And all of that because of of Kiril Rashkov, a kardarash who came from Romania," declared Inan Aliev, one of the community leaders, as cited by Plovdiv24.
"Nobody needs a bloody war," Mehmed Asan, another of the minority leaders, was quoted as saying.
Selim Mehmed, a representative of the board of trustees of the Dzhumaya Mosque in Plovdiv, declared that "tolerance and democracy failed to work out in the case with the incident in Katunitsa, and laws remained passive."
"Who, why, and how caused this tension making us live in a war-like situation? A crime and the abnormal reality caused this chaos. All ethnicities and religions should live in Bulgaria in a brotherly way," Gyursel Aliev, chair of the Association of Turks in Bulgaria and in Plovdiv, said.
Temporary Mayor of Plovdiv Alexander Dolev and his deputies said they would not allow any demonstrations around the two mosques in the city.
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