TURKISH PEOPLE HAVE CONQUERED BULGARIA

A1+
[07:22 pm] 02 October, 2007

"Bulgaria is the country, where there is no need to tell about
Armenians and you cannot find a single Bulgarian who will express a
negative attitude towards Armenians", said Armenian Ambassador Sergey
Manasaryan to Bulgaria. In Bulgaria pupils are taught about Armenia
at schools.

"Everyone is aware of the Armenian liberating movement. You may find
various materials about Andranik and his supporters in the center
of Sofia.

One of the leading channels broadcasts one hour program about Armenia
each week, where they elucidate not only the modern Armenia, but also
reflect on its historical problems, including 1915 Armenian Genocide",
he said. About 300 Armenians live in Bulgaria today. By the way,
no Azerbaijani community exists in Bulgaria. Instead, the Armenian
community collides with Turkish community, which is quite big, about
9000, and powerful and "Movement of Rights and Freedoms" is the third
in the Bulgarian parliament by its power. Ruben Grigoryan is the
only Armenian representative in the Bulgarian Parliament. And that
Armenian deputy tries to monitor all steps of the Armenian community
in Bulgaria.

The recognition of the Armenian genocide in 1915 is a matter of fact
in Bulgaria: "The Armenian Genocide is a vulnerable issue for the
Armenians living in Bulgaria. This issue becomes more hurtful on 24
April each year. This year the Genocide bill entered the Bulgarian
parliament for the first time. Only one article was published by
the Turkish community, which was rather unreasonable and that was
the only way that the Turkish community expressed its discontent",
said the Ambassador.

Sergey Manasaryan said that judging from that article we could suppose
that the Turkish community admitted the Armenian Genocide. "If you talk
to an average Turkish then he will, certainly, say that what happened
to the Armenians in 1915 was a genocide and will add, that their
society is not ready to admit that fact". The bill of recognizing
the Armenian Genocide was present to the Bulgarian parliament by
"Ataka" power, later the Macedonian party and the whole opposition
jointed the bill, but it was not adopted since it did not gather
enough votes. "Ataka" often organizes protest actions in Bulgaria
where they give harsh estimations to Turkish misdeeds. Not only the
Turkish power hampers the recognition of the Armenian Genocide in the
Bulgarian Parliament, but also other Turkish officials in Bulgaria
do not allow it.

"There is a coalition in Bulgaria and the Turkish ethnic party is the
consistent part of it and it’s hard to say how the Armenian issue
will be solved in the parliament". By the Bulgarian legislation,
the activities of ethnic parties are forbidden. "That party is called
"Movement of Rights and Freedoms" and it is open to everyone. This is
a pure Turkish organization, which is economically powerful and well
organized", said the Ambassador Manasaryan. The Ambassador noticed
that the Turkish activities cause great tension in Bulgaria.