FIRST DAY IN PARLIAMENT: ATAKA
by Petar Kostadinov

Sofia Echo
day-in-parliament-ataka
July 14 2009
Bulgaria

In his opening speech at the first sitting of the 41st National
Assembly on July 14 2009, ultra-nationalist Ataka party leader Volen
Siderov targeted outgoing Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev, who is
also leader of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), and Stanishev’s
coalition partner Ahmed Dogan, leader of the Movement for Rights and
Freedoms (MRF).

Referring to Stanishev’s statement that he feared political repression
now that his party was in opposition, Siderov said that it was
Stanishev’s Government that had used repression on pensioners and
youngsters who had turned out to protest in the streets.

"You turned the police into a repressive machine against people who
were expressing their discontent with your rule," Siderov said.

"You were the ones who conducted a policy of repression, using the
support of the Turkish party, the MRF (which is supported mainly
by Bulgarians of Turkish descent). This is a party which is direct
descendant of a terrorist organisation which used to place bombs in
the 1980s, and that promotes hatred," Siderov said.

He was referring to the times when the then-communist regime in
Bulgaria had a policy of changing the names of Bulgarians of ethnic
Turkish descent and who were Muslims, forcing them to take Christian
names. This led to underground resistance and terrorist attacks on
train stations, in which a number of people died.

According to Siderov, it was the MRF that promoted hatred
through its statements and arrogant behaviour. He called on the
Prosecutor-General’s Office to investigate Dogan’s words a few weeks
ago that he was the instrument of power in Bulgaria who decided what
money went where.

Siderov asked Parliament to set up an ad-hoc committee to investigate
breaches of electoral rules at polling stations in neighbouring Turkey
and in areas of Bulgaria populated by Muslim Bulgarians.

Siderov said that Ataka was ready to table four draft bills: condemning
what Siderov termed the "genocide" suffered by the Bulgarian people
during close to 500 years of Ottoman rule; asking Turkey to pay
Bulgaria its debt owed to Bulgarian refugees who were forced to leave
their land because of the Balkan Wars of the early 20th century;
condemning the genocide suffered by Armenians under the Ottoman
empire; and setting up an ad hoc committee on rules being broken
during the elections.

Siderov said that Ataka would work for the abolition of the
Turkish-language daily news bulletins on public broadcaster Bulgarian
National Television.