EXTREMIST DEPUTIES PREVENT PRESS CONFERENCE OF TURKISH AND BULGARIAN LEADERS IN SOFIA

The New Anatolian
March 27 2008
Turkey

A joint press conference by Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev
and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan –which was scheduled
to be held after their tete-a-tete meeting– was cancelled because of
a move by the deputies of racist and extreme nationalist ATAKA party.

ATAKA chairman Volen Siderov, together with five deputies, arrived
in the hall where the press conference was scheduled to be held. He
wanted to ask questions to Erdogan about assets of Bulgarians who
migrated from Thrace as well as the so-called Armenian genocide
claims of 1915 incidents; and also a question to Stanishev about
their demonstrations which were obstructed by police.

Upon insistence of Siderov and deputies to stay in the hall,
Erdogan-Stanishev joint press conference was cancelled.

After the cancellation, Siderov and deputies left the hall.