site.btaKiev Sends Note to Bulgarian Foreign Ministry Over Animator Who Forbids Camping Children to Wear Ukrainian Symbols

Kiev-Sofia, July 26 (BTA) - The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has sent a note to the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry with a request to give a legal assessment to the actions of Igor Abessinov, head of a group of animators at the Mistral children's summer camp at the Bulgarian Black Sea coast, Ukrainian electronic
media said on Saturday.

Contacted for a reaction, the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry told BTA that a detailed check is underway and that once the ministry has enough information on the matter, it will be made public. 

The note, quoted by Ukrainian site news.liga.net , insists on an investigation into an accident related to "discrimination and Ukrainophobian actions towards the Ukrainian children". Referring to statements of the children's relatives and eyewitnesses, the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs says that Abessinov has forbidden the demonstration and wearing of Ukrainian national symbols in the holiday camp. These actions of the animator "are nothing else but a moral outrage against the Ukrainian children because of the demonstrative act of disrespect towards the Ukrainian national symbols", the note reads.

The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs compares Abessinov's actions to a "discriminative nationality-based crime, an infringement on human rights and freedoms, stirring of xenophobic attitudes and of international intolerance".

The note also reads that a Ukrainian consul has arrived at the camp so as to provide the necessary consular and legal defence and assistance to the Ukrainian children, as well as to clear up all circumstances. The case has been taken under the special control of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Embassy of Ukraine in Bulgaria.

On the Internet, Mistral is presented as an international chidlren's health camp near St Vlas, established by Stefan Trifonov in 2000 and visited by Russian, Ukrainian, Romanian, Polish and Bulgarian children. It consists of 20 three-storey houses on an area of 10,000 sq m. Prestupnosti-net  presents Abessinov as a "Russian teacher".