site.btaNationalist Party Leader Lashes Out against Mestan's Visit to Turkey

Nationalist Party Leader Lashes Out against Mestan's Visit to Turkey

Sofia, August 26 (BTA) - Krassimir Karakachanov, leader of the moderate nationalist VMRO Party and Co-chairman of the pro-government Patriotic Front, Friday issued a strongly worded reaction to Thursday's meeting of DOST Party Chairman Lyutvi Mestan with Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, VMRO said in a press release Friday.

Karakachanov commented that Mestan is trying to become a steady intermediary in the relations between Turkey and Bulgaria. "Everybody like Mestan should be aware that they will step on a Bulgarian mine if they keep overtly advancing foreign interests," the VMRO Chairman said. He noted that Mestan is on the verge of marginalization and apparently relies on support from emigrant organizations in Turkey. "That is why the Patriotic Front insists that no voting sections at all be established in Turkey for the forthcoming presidential elections," the party's position reads.

VMRO recalls Karakachanov's appeal that political entities in Bulgaria should distance themselves from parties like the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, DOST and the Freedom and Dignity People's Party by not interacting with them for the presidential elections. The three parties in question represent the Turkish-Muslim minority in Bulgaria.

When they conferred in Ankara on Thursday, Mestan and Yildirim discussed the failed coup attempt in Turkey on July 15, www.mediapool.bg reported on Thursday evening, quoting a DOST press release. "The Bulgarian delegation emphasized that DOST not only condemns the attempted military coup of July 15 but recalled that the newly registered party was the first one that came up with a formal position as early as immediately after the night of the coup."

The two also talked about the DOST Party, "which enjoys the open support of the Turkish Government. Mestan familiarized the Prime Minister with the political goals of the newly registered DOST party, including a deepening and intensification of all aspects of Bulgarian-Turkish relations."

During his visit to Turkey, Mestan is accompanied by independent MPs Shabanali Ahmed and Ventsislav Kaymakamov.

He also conferred with Turkish Grand National Assembly Speaker Ismail Kahraman, with the Chairman of the Turkey-Bulgaria Friendship Group at the Turkish Parliament, Aziz Babuscu, and with Nationalist Movement Party Chairman Devlet Bahceli.

According to the press release, Mestan and the DOST delegation will attend the inauguration of the third bridge over the Bosporus in Istanbul on Friday.