The parliamentary group of Bulgaria's ethnic Turkish party DPS (Movement for Rights and Freedoms) voted late Tuesday evening to expel Kasim Dal.

30 DPS Members of the Parliament have voted for, two have abstained and one has been against the move.

The Bulgarian daily Dnevnik reports those abstaining were Tuncher Kardzhaliev and Remzi Osman, who said earlier for the media he was against expelling Dal from the party over fears it could split the movement.

The one MP against the move has been Georgi Kolev.

DPS MPs commented the decision has been a very difficult one.

"An entire era ended for DPS. But Dal was so radical; he used such strong words that he burned all bridges; even people who sympathized with him and loved him, did not have any grounds to stand up for him," an unidentified MP is quoted saying.

Earlier Tuesday, the Central Operational Bureau of DPS accepted Dal's resignation and defined his motives as instigation and slander.

Last week, Kasim Dal, until recently believed to be the second person in the party, only after leader Ahmed Dogan, and the latter's long-term right hand, left the party's operational leadership.

In a letter to party structures, Dal said DPS has suffered a deep internal collapse and unprecedented isolation, blaming Dogan with all his "activities and inactivity" in the last year.

"The gravest consequence from Dogan's behavior is the disappearance of the common cause of the movement, which was replaced by the personal cause of amassing material wealth with full disregard to everyone and anything," Dal's letter reads.

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