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Sun, Nov 22 2009
Bulgaria’s strange saga of Slavyanovo
The monument of the unknown Turkish soldier in the village of Slavyanovo was brought down in the late hours of September 30
Photo: Цветелина Ангелова
When a bulldozer, escorted by police, rumbled to smithereens a monument in a Bulgarian village on the last night of September 2009, it was a high point in a drama that had sent temperatures soaring throughout Bulgaria’s political spectrum.
The saga centres around two brothers, Ali and Yuzer Yuzeirov, Bulgarians of ethnic Turkish descent and of the Muslim faith, who built a monument to "An Unknown Turkish Soldier" in their native village of Slavyanovo in north-eastern Bulgaria.
Further, they founded a "Bulgarian Red Crescent" and founded an entity something between a political party and a movement called the Muslim Democratic Union.
Temperatures may be cooling as Bulgaria enters autumn, but the actions of the Yuzeirovi made politicians of all colours turn red with anger.
In a country where sentiments about the five centuries of Ottoman rule run deep, where political parties based on ethnic or religious affiliation are illegal, where a nation that won its freedom on the harsh slopes of Shipka Peak has little truck for the memory of Turkish soldiers, and where nationalists and ultra-nationalists feed on anti-Turkish and anti-Islamic hostility, the doings of the Yuzeirovi were bound to get everyone’s attention.
Ahmed Dogan’s Movement for Rights and Freedoms, the mainstream party that is led and supported mainly by Bulgarians of ethnic Turkish descent, and which served in the two previous national governing coalitions, seemed almost palatable by comparison, and that is against a background of ultra-nationalists like Ataka deeply despising them. (Not only Ataka; dislike of Dogan’s perceived arrogance and undue influence in national life helped to beat his party out of power in the July 2009 elections.)
The monument quickly became a familiar sight on television, along with the founding rally of the Yuzeirovi’s party, or rather, as it described itself, "an association of individuals who have accepted the moral and ethical standards of Islam as a lifestyle".
Bulgaria’s mass-circulation newspapers went into overdrive, quoting Yane Yanev, leader of the right-wing Order Lawfulness and Justice party as denouncing the "party" as unconstitutional and announcing that he was referring the matter to the State Agency for National Security.
He wanted the agency and prosecutors to interrogate the Yuzeirovi brothers, Yanev said. The Yuzeirovi wanted to bring radical Islam to Bulgaria and were a threat to national security, in his view.
Ataka leader Volen Siderov saw the hand of his long-standing bête noire the MRF behind the Yuzeirovi’s party, as a "provocation" through which Dogan’s party wanted to undermine Prime Minister Boiko Borissov’s new Government.
On September 29, Borissov said that Bulgaria’s law enforcement agencies should look into the matter, and that the party was unconstitutional.
MRF deputy leader Lyutvi Mestan said that there was "no room" in Bulgaria for a party based on ethnicity or religion.
The right-wing Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation, which takes its name from a movement that fought for liberation from the Ottomans, said that it intended taking matters into its own hands to flatten the monument.
The organisation gave the Yuzeirovi until October 2 to remove the movement, and after that deadline, the organisation would make its way to Slavyanovo itself.
On September 30, Bulgarian-language daily Sega said that the Yuzeirovi party had "admitted to having excellent relations" with Dogan’s MRF.
The MRF had distanced itself from the new party, which – according to Sega – intended rewriting Bulgaria’s constitution and changing the country’s borders.
The Yuzeirovi party preached the "most dangerous" Turkish nationalism, which was shunned even by the Turkish government, Sega said.
Then, on September 30, came news that added fuel to the talk of radical Islam. Bulgarian-language media reported that during searches of buildings belonging to the Yuzeirovi in Slavyanovo, police had found publications that advocated radical Islam, including material in Arabic and Bulgarian allegedly designed to teach children the praiseworthiness of jihad.
Armed with a court order, police took away two sacks of publications and sealed the building of the Yuzeirovi’s "Friendship Club" in the village.
Village mayor Vassil Stoilov had been in touch with Borissov, telling the Prime Minister that he suspected that the "Friendship Club" was being used as a base for propagating radical Islam.
In the late hours of September 30, the bulldozers rolled. Police turned out in force in the village, but the situation remained calm, reportedly. Borissov was quoted as saying that Bulgaria had laws about illegal construction, and the state had reasserted itself. He had no fear about ethnic tensions, Borissov said.
On October 1, Bulgarian-language Standart said in a commentary article that "the ethnic fuse is burning only in the heads of politicians".
The Yuzeirovi, according to Standart, could hardly speak Turkish, let alone Arabic.
"They are hardly able to read the entire Koran, let alone transform the local Roma into
‘martyrs of faith’," Standart’s commentary said.
Ataka leader Siderov said that provocations such as the monument could only have been erected by people who were "mentally deranged". Anti-Bulgarianism had gone over the edge, and the state had responded appropriately, Siderov said.
"To whom should we raise the monument of the Turkish soldier who killed 14 million Bulgarians in the war of Suleiman Pasha?" Siderov said.
Bulgarian news agency Focus quoted President Georgi Purvanov as saying that what had happened in the previous few days was a "provocation" against ethnic peace and constitutional law in Bulgaria.
The state had reacted appropriately, Purvanov said, calling for those really behind the episode to be tracked down.
"They (the Yuzeirovi) are not the most important. It is important for me whether there is a structure from the outside in the person of radical Islam," Purvanov said.
He said that he doubted that there would be further problems and said that he hoped that the saga would not be exploited for political purposes.
However, for Ivan Kostov, leader of the right-wing Democrats for a Strong Bulgaria and co-leader of the Blue Coalition, the Slavyanovo affair had been all theatre.
Slavyanovo, Kostov said, had been an "irrelevant and ridiculous provocation" and the Yuzeirovi were "obviously incompetent," he said.
The argument that what had been going on at Slavyanovo was "some kind of fundamentalism that had to be nipped in the bud" was not a serious one, Kostov said.
Bulgarian news agency Focus, in an October 1 interview with Ali Yuzeirov, quoted him as saying that the monument was not to the unknown Turkish soldier, but to "all people who perished on this land".
"This is a monument of all who perished on this land, Christian or Muslim. By pulling down the monument in Slavyanovo, the Government showed how tolerant it really is to these people, who are living peacefully all around the country," he was quoted as saying.
No one had said whether the literature confiscated was legal or illegal, he said.
"When they do, then we can talk about it being unlawful or whether it incited radical Islam or any sick mind’s ideas."
Asked how he explained the unhappiness about what he had been doing, including the Bulgarian Red Crescent and the Muslim Democratic Union, he said that it was normal to see some discontent at every initiative undertaken in a democratic country.
"When there is discontent, there are supporters. No one can do something that is approved by everyone 100 per cent. There are always ill- and well-wishers."
Yuzeirov, asked if he was concerned about charges being brought, said: "If charges are brought against us, then we will have to face the consequences or the law and norms of Bulgarian. However, such move would violate our rights, I do not know. I do not know".
The saga centres around two brothers, Ali and Yuzer Yuzeirov, Bulgarians of ethnic Turkish descent and of the Muslim faith, who built a monument to "An Unknown Turkish Soldier" in their native village of Slavyanovo in north-eastern Bulgaria.
Further, they founded a "Bulgarian Red Crescent" and founded an entity something between a political party and a movement called the Muslim Democratic Union.
Temperatures may be cooling as Bulgaria enters autumn, but the actions of the Yuzeirovi made politicians of all colours turn red with anger.
In a country where sentiments about the five centuries of Ottoman rule run deep, where political parties based on ethnic or religious affiliation are illegal, where a nation that won its freedom on the harsh slopes of Shipka Peak has little truck for the memory of Turkish soldiers, and where nationalists and ultra-nationalists feed on anti-Turkish and anti-Islamic hostility, the doings of the Yuzeirovi were bound to get everyone’s attention.
Ahmed Dogan’s Movement for Rights and Freedoms, the mainstream party that is led and supported mainly by Bulgarians of ethnic Turkish descent, and which served in the two previous national governing coalitions, seemed almost palatable by comparison, and that is against a background of ultra-nationalists like Ataka deeply despising them. (Not only Ataka; dislike of Dogan’s perceived arrogance and undue influence in national life helped to beat his party out of power in the July 2009 elections.)
The monument quickly became a familiar sight on television, along with the founding rally of the Yuzeirovi’s party, or rather, as it described itself, "an association of individuals who have accepted the moral and ethical standards of Islam as a lifestyle".
Bulgaria’s mass-circulation newspapers went into overdrive, quoting Yane Yanev, leader of the right-wing Order Lawfulness and Justice party as denouncing the "party" as unconstitutional and announcing that he was referring the matter to the State Agency for National Security.
He wanted the agency and prosecutors to interrogate the Yuzeirovi brothers, Yanev said. The Yuzeirovi wanted to bring radical Islam to Bulgaria and were a threat to national security, in his view.
Ataka leader Volen Siderov saw the hand of his long-standing bête noire the MRF behind the Yuzeirovi’s party, as a "provocation" through which Dogan’s party wanted to undermine Prime Minister Boiko Borissov’s new Government.
On September 29, Borissov said that Bulgaria’s law enforcement agencies should look into the matter, and that the party was unconstitutional.
MRF deputy leader Lyutvi Mestan said that there was "no room" in Bulgaria for a party based on ethnicity or religion.
The right-wing Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation, which takes its name from a movement that fought for liberation from the Ottomans, said that it intended taking matters into its own hands to flatten the monument.
The organisation gave the Yuzeirovi until October 2 to remove the movement, and after that deadline, the organisation would make its way to Slavyanovo itself.
On September 30, Bulgarian-language daily Sega said that the Yuzeirovi party had "admitted to having excellent relations" with Dogan’s MRF.
The MRF had distanced itself from the new party, which – according to Sega – intended rewriting Bulgaria’s constitution and changing the country’s borders.
The Yuzeirovi party preached the "most dangerous" Turkish nationalism, which was shunned even by the Turkish government, Sega said.
Then, on September 30, came news that added fuel to the talk of radical Islam. Bulgarian-language media reported that during searches of buildings belonging to the Yuzeirovi in Slavyanovo, police had found publications that advocated radical Islam, including material in Arabic and Bulgarian allegedly designed to teach children the praiseworthiness of jihad.
Armed with a court order, police took away two sacks of publications and sealed the building of the Yuzeirovi’s "Friendship Club" in the village.
Village mayor Vassil Stoilov had been in touch with Borissov, telling the Prime Minister that he suspected that the "Friendship Club" was being used as a base for propagating radical Islam.
In the late hours of September 30, the bulldozers rolled. Police turned out in force in the village, but the situation remained calm, reportedly. Borissov was quoted as saying that Bulgaria had laws about illegal construction, and the state had reasserted itself. He had no fear about ethnic tensions, Borissov said.
On October 1, Bulgarian-language Standart said in a commentary article that "the ethnic fuse is burning only in the heads of politicians".
The Yuzeirovi, according to Standart, could hardly speak Turkish, let alone Arabic.
"They are hardly able to read the entire Koran, let alone transform the local Roma into
‘martyrs of faith’," Standart’s commentary said.
Ataka leader Siderov said that provocations such as the monument could only have been erected by people who were "mentally deranged". Anti-Bulgarianism had gone over the edge, and the state had responded appropriately, Siderov said.
"To whom should we raise the monument of the Turkish soldier who killed 14 million Bulgarians in the war of Suleiman Pasha?" Siderov said.
Bulgarian news agency Focus quoted President Georgi Purvanov as saying that what had happened in the previous few days was a "provocation" against ethnic peace and constitutional law in Bulgaria.
The state had reacted appropriately, Purvanov said, calling for those really behind the episode to be tracked down.
"They (the Yuzeirovi) are not the most important. It is important for me whether there is a structure from the outside in the person of radical Islam," Purvanov said.
He said that he doubted that there would be further problems and said that he hoped that the saga would not be exploited for political purposes.
However, for Ivan Kostov, leader of the right-wing Democrats for a Strong Bulgaria and co-leader of the Blue Coalition, the Slavyanovo affair had been all theatre.
Slavyanovo, Kostov said, had been an "irrelevant and ridiculous provocation" and the Yuzeirovi were "obviously incompetent," he said.
The argument that what had been going on at Slavyanovo was "some kind of fundamentalism that had to be nipped in the bud" was not a serious one, Kostov said.
Bulgarian news agency Focus, in an October 1 interview with Ali Yuzeirov, quoted him as saying that the monument was not to the unknown Turkish soldier, but to "all people who perished on this land".
"This is a monument of all who perished on this land, Christian or Muslim. By pulling down the monument in Slavyanovo, the Government showed how tolerant it really is to these people, who are living peacefully all around the country," he was quoted as saying.
No one had said whether the literature confiscated was legal or illegal, he said.
"When they do, then we can talk about it being unlawful or whether it incited radical Islam or any sick mind’s ideas."
Asked how he explained the unhappiness about what he had been doing, including the Bulgarian Red Crescent and the Muslim Democratic Union, he said that it was normal to see some discontent at every initiative undertaken in a democratic country.
"When there is discontent, there are supporters. No one can do something that is approved by everyone 100 per cent. There are always ill- and well-wishers."
Yuzeirov, asked if he was concerned about charges being brought, said: "If charges are brought against us, then we will have to face the consequences or the law and norms of Bulgarian. However, such move would violate our rights, I do not know. I do not know".
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Repeat of the row over monument to Unknown Turkish Soldier
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Wow, this is very interesting, I am an american and lived in slavyanovo 2 years ago. I never would have thought something like this would have happened in my quiet little town!
Magistrates' Peace at home in the world
Atatürk
thoughts,
A small monument is here to talk to you o not important.
***Muslim Turkey to the school, religion, faith must be completely free of rights in bulgaria,
**of Jews, Armenians of Greeks turkey istanbul private schools, churches, hospitals there.
***Jews, Armenians, ler, of the languages of the Greeks in their own schools in Istanbul Turkiyedeki speak in their own schools.
Bulgarian citizens türkiyede istanbulda kilisere, go to school. bulgarian speak freely.
**turkey and Turks, Jews, Armenians in, rum lara, bulgar always nice to have.
Muslims must treat well the rights of bulgaria should give turk..
**we are neighbors bulgaria la
***Bulgaria visa must remove for turkey
**bulgaria needs to turkish tourist!!!money!!
no visa for turkish people.!!!.
This comment has been removed by the moderator because it contained не е по темата на статията.
Al:
"Did anyone ask these guys WHY they built this monument?-just asking..."
probably because they wanted to commemorate the Turkish soldiers?
Did anyone ask these guys WHY they built this monument?-just asking...
T'anas,
I don't agree with that.
This is what I hated the most about the US - their insistence that I am American if I live there. As if I couldn't just be a Bulgarian who is in the US temporarily for financial reasons.
Their thinking is that if I have the papers, I am an American - that's silly, because without the papers, I couldn't earn there, not enough to eventually come back to BG.
It's a global world these days and if the Turks feel Turkish, that's their business. I know that because I've been in situation when people are trying to tell me what I am and it creates nothing but hate...
The same with the FYROMtsi - it's the Alexander bit that's irresistible for me to mock, otherwise they can consider themselves Senegal-tsi if they like...
send them back to turkey where they can hang out with their comrades. end of story.
T'anas/ your comment tantamount to racism and bigotry.Just like any other place in the world Balkan Peninsula has changed so many hands.Different people ruled different times.As a consequence of that the Turks who lived in the Balkan Peninsula became integral part of Bulgaria. And that is: each citizen of the country regardless of their ethnic back ground should exercise their rights within the boundaries of the law. If the countries laws are broken the judicial system of the country should take over the case and prosecute the persons or groups ( who ever they may be)who have broken the law.What we see here is:media,authorities, politician and people are displaying their hate towards identifiable ethnic group and with that they are making mockery of the law. In democracy between various ethnic groups peace, harmony and prosperity can only be achieved if everybody respects the Law and lets the Law deal with people who BREAKS THEM.
I apologize for the typographical errors in my preceding comentar, but mye eye sight is not as good as it was before.
There is nothing the Bulgarians could do to change things. Bulgaria is now a vassal state - to the European Union and the United States. In 1991 when the
Dogan party was being formed and a
number of Bulgarian members of parlaments challenged it as unconstitutional before the Supreme Court, it was under American pressure that the challenge faild. One Judge absented himself, the Court did not have a quorum, and the case
died. Now, if the authorities
demolish the offending monument,
the fbbenders will go to the EU
agencies, or the World Court - whatever court deals with thee matters - and the Bulgarians will ose the case. So, yesterday Bulgaria was a servile vasal to the Soviet Union. Today it is servile vassal to "The Allies."
It has not been an independent country since 1944 - to this day.
King Boris was able to deny Hitler's demand to send bulgarian troups to the Eastern front, but neither Zhivkov could deny Moscow sending the Bulgarian army units to Prague, nor the present leaders of Bulgaria could deny to the US
sending the Bulgarian to chase the winds in Afghanisatn with the Americans.
Now here we gat ourselves a paradox. Bulgarian citizens are building a monument to a Turkish solder... I wonder what would happen if I build a monument of a Fidel Castro in USA and create a "party for social justice and communal prosperity". I'll be deported. My citizenship will be revoked... And I shall become a man without a country. Do you realize that I cannot buy a T-shirt with the face of certain national heroes. Yet No one is confronting the great superpower, the wholesome democracy of all... etc. Bulgaria on the other hand will get scrutinized for its actions over two villagers disrespectful to their own country. After 25 years I think that comrade Zhivkov started something good by renaming & deporting people who thought of themselves to be Turks. In USA there is one nation under god, American nation, if you think you belong to a different such you just get send home to the place you belong. If the country you live is Bulgaria, You are Bulgarian. You can be Muslim, have a African name & be black, speak broken Bulgarian. If you call yourself Bulgarian you adopt your new country as your own. In our case this guys are born in Bulgaria aren't they? Deport them, strip their citizenship & deport them. as simple as that.
The actions taken by the State here must be closely scrutinised not for any other reason, but for the message they send. As there are a number of points it seeks to traverse, these are best dealt with separately.
The constitutional injunction against political parties is a fact of law. The drafters of the constitution must well have been aware that in the secular democratic society Bulgaria is, political views are to be expressed via their appropriate medium. This medium, in a system of proportional respresentation, is the political party. Political views and programmes asserted by them must, thus, within a democratic context, be carried out in secular, constitutional, democratic terms germane with with the fundamentals of doctrine of the rule of law. This understanding leaves little room for ethnic, religous, and other parties representing narrow sectional interests, for they do not speak the language of secular democracy. Rather, their views are informed by ideologies which by and large are ill-suited to the current constitutional order. In a democracy, they are given the appropriate means to voice their concerns and assert their rights, should those be infringed, through democratic process and ordinary court machinery. Accordingly, the constitutional injunction is reasonable. It will be stating the obvious that it as also valid and enforceable. Seen in this light, the State is entitled to take action to enforce the provisions in the law. What the article does not mention is whether due legal process, perhaps in terms of a court order, has been complied with. If it has not, there will be grave doubts cast over the legitimacy of the governmental move. One may hope this is not the case, as the State, indeed above all the State, must necessarily be bound by its own rules. If it has complied, its actions are praiseworthy indeed.
The topic of radical Islam raises strong feelings in the general public, and this should hardly be surprising in view of its track record against it. If it is a genuine ideology that seeks to spread a message of a vision of an exemplary society, the means undertaken by it are necessarily suspect. Since actions speak louder than words, and the best indicator of future behaviour is past behaviour, the general public is right to treat with suspicious awareness any propaganda and activity propagated and carried out by the adherents of radical Islam. Accordingly, the action taken by the State, as an entity representing the general public, cannot be seen, and is not, a case of unfair discrimination on the grounds of religion. Indeed the State's record of affording ethnic Turks and Moslems in general is indicative of its desire to integrate these communities within the larger framework. As memebers of these communities sit in Parliaments and staff Cabinets, the sincerity of official measures cannot be doubted.
The danger of sending in bulldozers and armed police to take care of a paltry 'monument' in an obscure village is that it signifies a measure of disproportionality. It is almost the case of using a hammer to kill a fly. Whilst the governmental move is legitimate and, hopefully, legitimised, it is not readily apparent whether, internationally, the Bulgarian government is winning the moral battle. For this could not be a better example of a clash of ideologies. In any war, truth is the first victim, and one would thus expect the government to keep its high moral ground and not lose the war of words. For they express the justness of one's cause.
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