Turkish-Bulgarian Leader's Election Speech in Turkish Resonates in Turkey

Turkish media have been reacting since the start of the week to a speech given by ethnic Turkish Bulgarian politician Kasim Dal in his mother tongue as part of the campaign for Sunday's municipal elections in Bulgaria.

Sunday in the northeastern Bulgarian city of Razgrad, Dal gave an unprecedented 15-minute speech in Turkish, which was aired live by dozens of Turkish channels.

Monday and Tuesday Turkish sources such as major Hurriyet newspaper and agencies IHA and Son Dakika Haberleri have commented that Dal might spell the beginning of the end of 20 years of loyalty among Bulgarian Turks to the Movement for Rights and Freedoms party chaired by Ahmed Dogan.

Tuesday Bulgarian agency BGNES cites other Turkish media sources which have dubbed Dal, who is known to have very good connections with the Turkish-Bulgarian diaspora in Turkey, "the new leader of Bulgarian Turks."

February Kasim Dal, for a long time vice-chair of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms and a very close aide to leader Dogan, was expelled from the party's leadership after voicing harsh criticisms of Dogan, who has led the party since its creation in 1990.

Dal criticized Dogan of authoritarian leadership, unclean tactics, corruption and ties with the communist secret services, State Security, who staged the shameful so-called "Revival Process" that led to the forceful expulsion of hundreds of thousands of ethnically Turkish Bulgarian citizens in the 1980s.

Since then, a number of other dissenters have been expelled by the Movement, including young front-bench MP Korman Ismailov, who was until then seen as spearheading a fresh new force in the party.

Sunday Ismailov was also present in Razgrad and gave a speech in Turkish - something that is illegal in Bulgaria, as the law mandates that campaigning is conducted only in the official language, Bulgarian.

In August, Kasim Dal and his associates announced a coalition with the minor United People's Party, led by erswhile rightist MP Maria Kapon, for upcoming local and presidential elections October 23.

Since then, Kapon has announced she will run for President of Bulgaria, backed by VP candidate Colonel Nikolay Kisyov.

Dal has stated that at upcoming elections voters will "severely punish" the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, which is currently the third-largest Bulgarian party in terms of support.

At present, ruling center-right GERB party is also making a very strong bid in regions populated by ethnic Turks in Bulgaria's north- and southeast, attempting to gnaw away voters from the Movement.

On his part, Movement leader Ahmed Dogan has raised a sharp voice criticizing what he sees as the incompetent governance on the part of PM Boyko Borisov's cabinet and has vowed that the good results of the Movement in the municipal elections will contribute to the creation of a situation for snap parliamentary elections.

The Movement for Rights and Freedoms has not tabled a candidate for the presidential elections also scheduled for Sunday, nor has supported any of the candidates running.

Some commentators have claimed that support on the part of the Movement for one of the two candidates in the very likely second presidential round might prove decisive.

On the other hand, Dal's connections with the Turkish-Bulgarian diaspora in Turkey might also influence the outcome, since as Bulgarian citizens they have the right to vote for president (even though they do not vote for local authorities).

BGNES and other Bulgarian media have also recalled on the good connections that Kasim Dal has with official authorities in Turkey.

Dal has repeatedly met with Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and was the sole Bulgarian politician present at the recent funeral of Erdogan's mother October 8.

When Erdogan was on an official visit to Bulgaria to meet his counterpart Borisov October 2010, he chose not to meet the Movement leader Dogan, meeting with Dal instead.