PM ERDOHAN’S PRESS CONFERENCE CANCELED DUE TO EXTREMIST PARTY
Today’s Zaman
March 28 2008
Turkey
A planned joint press conference in Sofia between visiting Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdohan and his counterpart, Bulgarian Prime
Minister Sergei Stanishev, had to be cancelled yesterday after
deputies of the extreme-right Attack Party insisted that they would
pose controversial questions to Erdohan.
Attack Party leader Volen Siderov, accompanied by five deputies
from the Bulgarian party, came to the hall at the Bulgarian Prime
Ministry where the joint press conference was to be held, saying
that they wanted to ask Erdohan questions on controversial issues,
including allegations that the controversial World War I era killings
of Anatolian Armenians constituted genocide.
Since Siderov and the deputies insisted on waiting for Erdohan and
Stanishev to arrive to pose their questions, it was later announced
that the press conference was canceled. Hearing the announcement,
Siderov and the five deputies left the hall. Bulgarian officials
didn’t provide any explanation for the cancellation, while Siderov
suggested that he and his party members were not its cause.
Earlier in the day, during an official greeting ceremony held
by Stanishev for Erdohan in front of Sofia’s St. Alexander
Nevski Cathedral, around 100 supporters of the Attack Party held
a demonstration in protest of the Turkish prime minister. Siderov
stated then that Erdohan wanted to "seize Bulgaria’s waters," an
apparent reference to the Gorna Arda electricity generation project.
A deal on the project was to be signed during Erdohan’s visit,
Siderov said.
Earlier this week, Siderov said Erdohan’s planned visits outside
Sofia were illegal because they did not comply with official
protocol. Erdohan is scheduled today to visit the town of Kýrcaali
in southeastern Bulgaria, which is heavily populated by a Turkish
ethnic minority.
After the press conference was canceled, the two leaders later
participated in a meeting of the Turkey-Bulgaria Business Council.
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