site.btaNationalists Demand Hearing of Foreign Minister to Clarify Home Affairs Intervention Attempt

March 29 (BTA) - On Thursday, the press centre of the
VMRO party from the power-sharing United Patriots coalition said
 the party will demand a Parliament hearing of Foreign Minister
Ekaterina Zaharieva to clarify whether there was any diplomatic
attempt to intervene in Bulgaria's home affairs from Ankara
regarding the Religious Denominations Act.

The VMRO wants it clarified whether a Bulgarian government
representative committed to legislative changes favouring
Turkish foreign affairs.

"If there were no official annotations, then we must ask: is
Cavusoglu's statement fake news or was it a way of lifting the
curtain on the shadiness on the axis Erdogan - Movement for
Rights and Freedoms - Democrats for Responsibility, Freedom and
 Tolerance (DRFT)," the VMRO press release said.

The party declared that they want guarantees that Bulgarian
politics is protected from foreign interferences.

The reaction comes as a response to a statement made by Turkish
Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Thursday. He commented on 
the Religious Denominations Act adopted Thursday, noting that 
the initial bill "was against all freedoms and rights, it 
violated rights. The mufti there [in Bulgaria] have some debts,
 they wanted to sell buildings of the Grand Mufti Office in 
exchange for those debts; I made contact again and now [the
Bulgarian authorities] are trying to find a solution; they must
find a solution".

The revisions to the act allowed for denominations to defer the
payment of the their obligations to the Exchequer for a period
of up to ten years.

On Friday, Volen Siderov, United Patriots floor leader and Ataka
 leader was asked whether there is Turkish interference
regarding the Religious Denominations Act, to which he agreed
and said it had become obvious.

Valeri Simeonov, leader of the National Front for the Salvation
of Bulgaria (NFSB), commented that Turkey is always interfering
in Bulgaria's affairs. "These are recurring provocations, and
Turkey is continuously drilling into the vigour of Bulgaria's
survival instinct," Simeonov said. He noted that the passed
revisions were a case of treason that allowed all denominations
to be financed by other countries.

The Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) called Friday an
extraordinary meeting of the party's Executive Bureau to discuss
 the issue. At a press conference following the session, BSP
leader Kornelia Ninova said the party wants the Prosecutor
General to start an investigation into whether another country
interfered in Bulgaria's home affairs, and who were the
"vehicles" of this intervention.

The BSP turned to President Rumen Radev with a request to veto
the Religious Denominations Act and to call a meeting of the
Consultative Council on National Security (CCNS). "The Council's
 decision, which we all agreed with, was to find a way to stop
the financing of denominations in Bulgaria by other countries,
and the passed revisions only deferred the Grand Mufti Office's
debts and kept the foreign financing," Ninova noted.

According to her, the DRFT's request to announce a Turkish
minority in Bulgaria, Cavusoglu's statements, and Prime Minister
 Borissov's silence are all a threat to national security and
ethnic peace in Bulgaria. RY/TH