site.btaMRF Leader Mestan: Events from So-called Regeneration Process Must Find Their Proper Place in History Books

MRF Leader Mestan: Events from So-called Regeneration Process Must Find Their Proper Place in History Books

Smolyan, South Bulgaria, March 28 (BTA) - The events from the
so-called Regeneration Process, a forcible assimilation campaign
 against ethnic Turks carried out by the communist regime before
 1989, must find their proper place in history books, said
leader of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) Lyutvi
Mestan on Saturday during a commemorative meeting in the village
 of Barutin.

On March 16, 1972 local residents staged a peaceful protest
against the forcible replacement of their Turkish names by
Slavic ones by order of the communist government. Two people
were killed as the authorities dispersed the crowd.

According to Mestan, these events are still not appreciated by
the Bulgarian historiography and 43 years are enough of a
distance in terms of historical time for emotions to fade and
for an objective historical analysis to be made. It is about
time the events in Barutin and the Rhodope Mountains from
1971-1973 find their proper place in history books, because they
 are an example of heroism in the name of freedom and democracy,
 he said.

Mestan also called on Prime Minister Boyko Borissov for the
Bulgarian governance to free itself of hate speech and the
xenophobes. Mestan's call comes in response to an alleged
statement made by a political party leader, who according to
Mestan compared mosque prayers to howling in an unintelligible
language.