site.btaMoustafa Karadyi Elected as Movement for Rights and Freedoms Chairman at National Conference

Moustafa Karadyi Elected as Movement for Rights and Freedoms Chairman at  National Conference

Sofia, April 24 (BTA) - The centrist Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) held its ninth national conference on Sunday in Sofia. Moustafa Karadyi was unanimously elected as MRF Chairman.

MRF Honorary Chairman Ahmed Dogan attended the forum, and was given a standing applause on his entry in the hall where the conference was held.

The event took place five months after its then chairman Lyutvi Mestan was denounced as MRF leader and expelled from the party. In early April Mestan established a new party of his own, called Democrats for Responsibility, Freedom and Tolerance (DOST).

In the intervening period the MRF was chaired by three co-chairmen - Moustafa Karadyi, Chetin Kazak and Roushen Riza.

In an opening address MRF member Yunal Lyutfi said that the conference takes place in a complex moment fraught with challenges. Lyutfi said also that Bulgaria and Turkey traditionally have good neighbourly relations and that "the two people are destined to live as good neighbours". "Bulgaria should support Turkey's efforts to become a member of the EU as soon as possible, and by meeting the membership criteria," Lyutfi said.

The politician noted that the incumbents are still far from delivering on their election promises for stability and reforms, for combatting crime and corruption.

In a report at the conference in his capacity as MRF co-chairman Karadyi said that main priority of the formation now is to keep its unity and integrity. "The MRF is the indispensable factor of the Bulgarian political life with the party's role in keeping the peace, stability and security - a sine qua non condition for any governance that is nationally responsible and adequate for its time," Karadyi said.

He went on to note that in the past 25 years there have been many attempts to substitute the MRF with various political projects but that "MRF's code of liberal values proved extremely resilient in the complicated political time".

Karadyi also noted that the MRF has proved time and again as a nationally responsible party.

Dwelling on the governance of the incumbents, he said that the ongoing political instability fuels the public pessimism and that the governance generates more scandals than reforms. "The absence of prospects, the social insecurity, the growing prices, the alarming level of unemployment, and the absence of incentives to drive business up should direct the main political debate in this country while the solution of the problems should be at the focus of attention of both the powers that be and the opposition," Karadyi said,

In an address to the conference delegates read out by MRF MEP Filiz Hyusmenova, Dogan noted that the past 25 years have shown that the MRF "is a strategic investment for Bulgaria's stability and peace". The address further said that the Bulgarian ethnic model is a unique liberal project that is yet to be appraised by Europe and the world. Dogan called on the MRF members "to safeguard and reproduce this political capital and to rest assured that the freedom will pay off". The MRF Honorary Chairman further urged the MRF "to capture the force of unity and togetherness so as to overcome the numerous serious challenges looming on the horizon".

About 900 delegates took part in the conference. Also attending were Hans van Baalen, President of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party, Liberal International Vice President Robert Browne, the Secretary General of the Turkey's Republican People's Party, representatives of the Bulgarian Socialist Party, the ABV Movement, the National Movement for Surge and Stability, the Bulgarian Democratic Centre, and others.