TURKISH GOVERNMENT FREEZES ITS PARTICIPATION IN EU OPERATIVE PROGRAM ON TRANS-BORDER COOPERATION WITH BULGARIA FOR 2007-2013 DUE TO DECISION OF COMMUNITY COUNCIL OF BURGAS TO RECOGNIZE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
arminfo
2008-03-11 16:09:00
ArmInfo. The Turkish government has frozen its participation in the
EU Operative Program on trans-border cooperation with Bulgaria in
the Burgas-Edirne region for 2007-2013 due to decision of Community
Council of Burgas to recognize Armenian Genocide and proclaim April
24 Commemoration Day of the Armenian Genocide victims. Burgas is the
second largest Bulgarian region by the number of Armenian population
after Plovdiv.
The initiative to put the declaration to discussion belongs to the
nationalist anti-Turkish party "Attack", but it was also supported
by Mayor of the city Dimitr Nikolov and all the representatives
of the GERB party (Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria)
prevailing in the Council.
According to all the national public opinion polls, over 50%
of Bulgarians think that GERB is the future ruling party in the
country. A great number of Bulgarian citizens of Turkish origin live
in Burgas. Despite the strong resistance of the representatives of
the party of ruling coalition (Bulgarian Socialist Party – former
Communists and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, which is an
unofficial pro-Turkish ethnic party), the Community Council of Burgas
adopted the declaration by the majority of votes (41 out of 45)
on Feb 28, 2008.
As Ivan Ivanchev, the founder and head of the first embassy of
Bulgaria in Armenia (1999-2003) told ArmInfo correspondent, the
agreement on Turkey’s participation in the EU Operative Program was
to be signed between Burgas (Bulgaria) and Edirne (Turkey) regions
on March 6, 2008. However, being guided by the report of Turkish
Consul General in Burgas Ismail Yucer, the Turkish side refused the
official ceremony. The letter of Edirne Regional Mamager Nusret
Miroglu announced freezing of business projects worth 32 mln EUR
in the region in 2008-2013. The main reason was disagreement with
the decision of the Community Council of Burgas on "such disputable
historic issue". Moreover, there was a warning: if the decision is
not cancelled, all the economical, cultural, political and other
ties between the regions will be broken off. Ivan Ivanchev himself
thinks that after the Bulgarian parliament rejected the proposal to
recognize the Armenian Genocide at the national level twice (in 2006
and 2007) under the pressure of the ruling coalition, this step of the
Community Council of Burgas may be qualified as "making overtures"
on the reality and scale of Turkey’s future reaction connected with
this delicate historical and political issue. To recall, about one
million ethnic Turks and about 40 thsd Armenian live in Bulgaria.
In addition, Turkey is a territorial neighbor of Bulgaria, as well
as one of the largest investors in Bulgaria’s economy.