Last night at around 20:35 p.m. in the area of ​​the 242nd pyramid around the village of Golyam Dervent, a border patrol consisting of Sergeant Petar Bachvarov and an employee of the Ministry of Defense came across a cut in the fence. Getting out of the official vehicle, the policeman pointed the flashlight at the section in question, immediately followed by a shot from the neighboring territory of the Republic of Turkey, with which the Interior Ministry employee was killed. This was announced at a briefing today by Interior Minister Ivan Demerdzhiev.

"The colleague from the Ministry of Defense managed to hide behind the vehicle, someone started shooting at him, he fired back with his service weapon, and according to him, 10-15 shots were fired from the neighboring territory," Demerdzhiev also said.

The serviceman was unharmed.

The group that fired the shots retreated into Turkey's interior.

Contact has been made with the Turkish authorities, and steps have been taken to identify the perpetrators.

"I want to strongly emphasize that we will take all the necessary measures regarding the security of our personnel. I have ordered that each outfit should have a long weapon for the safety of the employees," said Demerdzhiev.

"It is extremely important to proceed with legislative changes. There cannot be only a hundred sentences that are effective out of thousands of sentences. All this leads to a feeling of impunity for those people who carry out this type of activity, which is a crime under Article 281 from the Penal Code. Immediate tightening and increasing the severity of the punishments... This will be one of the ways to save the colleagues who risk their lives every day and every night at the border," insisted the acting interior minister.

He confirmed that the shooters are migrant traffickers, and the Turkish authorities are working on the case and making efforts to bring these people to justice.

According to him, the border teams constantly and daily come across holes in the fence.

“In the event of escalating aggression that involves the use of firearms, we will respond with the necessary force, and I assure you that if there are incidents at the border, they will not be in the direction of our officers. We will be absolutely uncompromising towards anyone who creates a danger to the life and health of our employees along the border”, added Demerdzhiev.

Our fence with Turkey pierced! The Minister of War wants a three-meter concrete wall

“The fence along the border with Turkey has holes, it is unreliable. We need a completely different facility, with concrete walls and barriers three meters high”, insisted to bTV the Acting Minister of Defense Dimitar Stoyanov on the occasion of the tragic incident last night.

Along with the Ministry of Internal Affairs officer, a military man was on patrol, but he was not injured.

Minister Stoyanov was categorical that at the moment the barrier facility along the border with Turkey is not doing the necessary work.

“Migrants make holes, they are very inventive, and even the cameras are placed at a low height and do not cover a large perimeter”, it became clear from his words. “In addition, the video surveillance is aimed at the Bulgarian border, and it is better to face the Turkish side”, he pointed out, his reasoning being to see what the migrants' approach is.

"The height at which the cameras are placed is not sufficient. This facility of this type is, to put it mildly, unreliable. If the cameras are higher, it will be possible to see further. It will not be done by patching, it must be another facility was thought of, with concrete walls, with partitions three meters high. We are dealing with the migrant pressure, but we are dealing with the cost of human lives," the defense minister also commented.

Dimitar Stoyanov did not hide that part of the duties of the military personnel at the border is also the "mending" of the fence.

Nearly 40 military personnel are currently engaged in this, another more than 150 employees of the Ministry of Defense are also posted along the border.

"The migrant flow is strong. Migrants show ingenuity, but the fact that the pressure is strong does not mean that it has been missed," the MoD chief also noted.

Georgi Dimov: More army, more police, plus forest and local residents to help along the border!

“Coordination units have been established between Bulgaria and Turkey in line with the regional administrations. These channels have been activated. The aim is to clarify the situation.”

This was clarified in an interview for BNR by Georgi Dimov, former consul general of Bulgaria in Edirne, after the fatal incident in the area of the Bulgarian-Turkish border, in which a 30-year-old border guard was shot.

Dimov outlined several versions of what happened. The first option – that the perpetrator/perpetrators are migrants. Next, they are traffickers of migrants, who can be both foreign and Bulgarian citizens. The third - the perpetrators of the shooting were drug traffickers, arms traffickers or other persons involved in terrorist activities. As a fourth option, the former consul indicated a shooting by a Turkish soldier or policeman, which, however, he said, is "very unlikely".

"Most likely they're either traffickers or channelers. We're not stopping them. That's the problem."

"First of all, tactically - certainly more army, more police, plus forest officials and local residents to be engaged. To have the necessary training as border guards. Don't get me wrong let's put them as cannon fodder on the border. They can be used as experts on the field," said Georgi Dimov on the radio. He added that the Turkish border is guarded by the military, not the police.

"Now this fence facility is being repaired, but we have to think about building something more serious - a concrete wall," commented the former consul in Edirne.

Follow Novinite.com on Twitter and Facebook

Write to us at editors@novinite.com

Информирайте се на Български - Novinite.bg

/BNR

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!