Easter Monday in Bulgaria: Tradition and Family Visits
Orthodox Easter Monday is the day following Easter Sunday and is observed across Bulgaria as part of the wider Easter celebration within the Orthodox Christian tradition
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Sasha Ruseva, presumed mother of Maria from Greece, said the child looks like her own, but could not be 100% certain. She admits she has left one of her children in Greece, but denies taking money for the girl. Photo BGNES
Greek media, reporting Thursday morning that the biological mother of the blond girl, found in a Roma camp in Greece, has been identified and is Bulgarian, will most likely, prove correct
Bulgarian police are interrogating in the Gurkovo police precinct, in central Bulgaria, Sasha and Atanas Rusevi, the alleged parents of the girl, the Bulgarian public TV informs.
The child, known as Maria and aged about four, was found by Greek police during a drug raid on a Roma community near Larissa in central Greece.
A 40-year old woman and 39 -year-old man have been arrested and charged with kidnapping, since DNA tests revealed that the couple with whom Maria lived was not her biological parents.
Greek authorities then requested assistance from Interpol to find the parents of the girl.
It remains unclear, whether the child was left in Greece, abducted or sold because the information is contradictory. Some neighbors of the couple from the Roma district of the village, say the child was sold, but Rusev's eldest son, Jesus, is quoted in insisting the family left the child in Greece and then returned to Bulgaria.
The family is extremely poor and has between 8 and 10 children. Bulgarian media report as very interesting the fact that at least 5 of these children are albino and have obvious resemblance to Maria.
Neighbors say a few years ago the family really worked in Greece. 11-year-old Fanka, a presumed sister of Maria, has shared with reporters that when her mother Sasha saw the little girl on TV, she started to cry and to repeat "this is my child." Neighbors mentioned the sum of BGN 500 for which the girl was sold in Greece, because the family had no money to return to Bulgaria.
A spokesman for the Roma in central Bulgaria is at the site of Nikolaevo's Roma district. According to him, schemes do sell children do not exist and the child was not Maria. He stressed her biological parents can be determined only after a blood sample is drown and a DNA test is conducted.
In Yambol's Roma neighborhood, said to be Sasha Ruseva's place of birth, no one knows her. Roma people there stated they have not heard of sale of children. Many of them did not know anything about the case of little Maria and were surprised that the mother of the child is from their neighborhood.
The official report of the police in Gurkovo has not yet been released.
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