VARNA CONDEMNS ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
Petar Kostadinov

Sofia Echo
May 22 2008
Bulgaria

The municipal council in the city of Varna on the Black Sea adopted a
declaration on May 21 2008, which condemned Armenian genocide in 1915,
local Cherno More daily said.

Twenty-four councilors supported the declaration. Councilors also
decided to declare May 24 as the day of commemorating the victims
of the genocide, which happened in the times when Ottoman empire
still existed.

Councilors hoped that their decision would prompt a similar reaction
from other cities in the country and would lead to a similar decision
made on a nation level, Cherno More said.

The issue on recognising the 1915 events as a genocide against Armenian
people has been raised several times in Parliament by the opposition,
but there has never been a decision on it, with the ruling majority
refusing to put on the agenda.

The last time this happened on January 17 2008, when the ruling
majority refused to review three draft declarations that aimed at
recognising the Armenian genocide.

They were tabled by ultra-nationalist Ataka party’s leader Volen
Siderov, the leader of nationalist party Internal Macedonian
Revolutionary Organisation Krassimir Karakachanov and the United
Democratic Forces coalition.

Alexander Radoslavov from the ruling Bulgarian Socialist Party said
back then that he voted against the declarations because there was
too much "hatred" in them, which "was not what a national Parliament
should preach".

He also said that "historical facts are one, but the political reality
was something else". This remark referred to Bulgaria’s neighbour
Turkey, the successor of the Ottoman empire, who denies the events
from 1915/1922 as a genocide.

A declaration adopted by Bulgarian Parliament on the topic would beyond
doubt have consequences on bilateral relations. Such a position is
strongly defended by the ruling coalition partner the Movement for
Rights and Freedoms (MRF), which represented mainly Muslim Bulgarians
of Turkish decent.

When the issue was raised in Parliament in April 2007, MRF MPs left
the hall as a sign of protest against the discussion on whether the
death of nearly 1.5 million Armenians was a genocide or not. MRF MPs
were also against Parliament holding a minute of silence in memory
of the victims.

MRF deputy-chairman Lyutvi Mestan said that the MRF had distanced
itself from historical events that have not been properly evaluated
yet and had been used for political purposes.

The May 21 vote in Varna put the town on the list with Bulgarian cities
that have already recognised the events as a genocide. Plovdiv, Rousse
and Bourgas have adopted similar declarations, with MRF challenging
the vote in Rousse in court. Unfortunately, Sofia is not on the list.

Earlier this April, Sofia was one step closer to adopt a declaration,
but councillors from the Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria
(GERB) party of Sofia mayor Boiko Borissov, withdrew their proposal
in the last minute. "I don’t want to confront Turkey," Borissov told
reporters at the time.