The Balkans are protesting – Turkey, Greece, and now Bulgaria.
After admiring the Turkish demonstrations for weeks, Bulgarians are rallying with their children, pets, and national colors in a fight against the suffocating status quo - old and young, smiling, polite, mostly educated and with good jobs - the fragmented, small, often ignored "middle class."
These people, who almost to date a year ago protested to protect nature from greedy oligarchs, were propelled to the streets by the outrageous election of a controversial media mogul and lawmaker as national security chief. The reasons deserve a separate commentary, but it united many with different views.
With earlier unflattering parallels between the rallies in Turkey and those in Bulgaria against poverty, (though also righteous), there is now an inspiring similarity.
Bulgarians rose for democratic values, for civil rights, for their voices being heard. It is now crucial to evade violence and political and ethnic rifts.
One senior MP warned today they could bring millions in a counter rally. Erdogan bused nearly a million supporters to Istanbul Sunday.
What both fail to understand is that the very same people they are fighting are the ones who can push their countries forward. They are the better future.