Outraged Eco Activists to Rally across Bulgaria

Society » ENVIRONMENT | February 11, 2014, Tuesday // 10:04
Outraged Eco Activists to Rally across Bulgaria: Outraged Eco Activists to Rally across Bulgaria Bulgarians have been recently staging protest rallies against plans to allow construction in preserved coastal areas of the Strandza mountain. Photo BGNES

Eco activists are organizing Tuesday protest rallies in the Bulgarian capital Sofia and ten other cities across the country.

The concrete motive for the demonstration is a controversial appointment in the "Bulgarka" nature park near the central city of Gabrovo, but environmentalists have been warning since last week of nationwide protests due to fears of construction in the Strandzha protected area along the southern Black Sea coast.

Over 5 000 have joined the organizers' Facebook page and the number keeps growing.

The rallies start around 6 pm. In addition to Sofia, (the gathering point is the Eagles' Bridge intersection at 6:30 pm) they will be held in the cities of Plovdiv, Ruse, Burgas, Stara Zagora, Sliven, Veliko Tarnovo, Pazardzhik, Gabrovo, and the town of Tryavna.

Last week, the so-called Files Commission, the panel investigating the Communist era secret services' records, announced that the newly-appointed director of the "Bulgarka" park, Ali Aliev, has been an agent of the Communist State Security (DS) working under the codename Victor.

Aliev, who is a member of the party Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS), which largely represents the Turkish minority in Bulgaria, is one of 25 exposed DS agents who held senior posts in the local administration after the fall of Communism.

Nevertheless, Aliev was appointed by the Forestry Agency to the post of director of the nature park, without ever being part of its management prior to that.

In addition to being the leader of the local DPS branch, he has a private company dealing with lumbering and transportation. This is a breach of the State Administration Act, which prohibits State Servants to carry out private business activities.

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Tags: Strandzha, DPS, Nature Park, Ministry of Environment and Waters, VAS, Tsarevo, general development plan, Black Sea coast, construction, Bulgarka, Ali Aliev, Forestry Agency, Files Commission, State Security

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