site.btaMovement for Rights and Freedoms Chairman Mestan Relieved from Post, Expelled from Party

Movement for Rights and Freedoms Chairman Mestan Relieved from Post, Expelled from Party

Sofia/Kurdjali, December 24 (BTA) - Chairman of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) Lyutvi Mestan has been relieved from the post and expelled from the party, MRF Spokesperson Velislava Krusteva told reporters after the end of a meeting of MRF's governing body - the Central Council, on Thursday afternoon. "This will be the fate of everyone who stands against the
national interests of Bulgaria," MRF's honorary chairman and former long-serving leader Ahmed Dogan said at the meeting, quoted by Krusteva. She said that this is a sufficiently strong argument with which all decisions were made at the meeting.

Until MRF's national conference expected to be held in April 2016, the party and its parliamentary group will be led by MPs Roushen Riza, Mustafa Karadayi and Chetin Kazak. They will carry out the powers of heads of MRF, of its Central Council, the Central Operative Bureau, and of the parliamentary group, Krusteva said. She noted that all decisions at Thursday's meeting were passed unanimously in the presence of more than 80 per cent of the Central Council. All acts and decisions on Thursday were adopted as per the party's statutes, she said.

The Meeting of MRF's National Council and What Caused It

The meeting was held in Dogan's house in Sofia's Boyana suburb.

The crisis in the MRF started after in a Christmas party speech Dogan called "a blunder" a declaration Mestan had made in support of Ankara following the downing of a Russian fighter aircraft by Turkey in November.

Mestan Gives a News Conference in Kurdjalu before the Central Council's Meeting Starts in Sofia

Shortly before the meeting was due to start, the still incumbent MRF Chairman Lyutvi Mestan gave an extraordinary news conference in Kurdjali, Southern Bulgaria. "I am not a person who hides behind formalities of the party's statutes but every single meeting of the Central Council of the MRF is convened by the chairman, whereas I have not convened such a meeting," Mestan said.

Mestan said that having learned that MRF's parliamentary group and Central Council were meeting on Thursday in Boyana, he tried to contact his deputy, Roushen Riza. Getting no answer from Riza, Mestan understood that he was not going to be allowed to attend the meeting.

Commenting Dogan's sharp criticism in respect of the declaration and position vis-a-vis the Russian aircraft downed by Turkey, Mestan assured that the statement had been written collectively in MRF's parliamentary group. "Dogan's clear and strong criticism needs to be discussed in the local chapters of the party and put to a deep-going debate in MRF's Central Council," Mestan said. Mestan is adamant that the MRF is the most consistent
Euro-Atlantic party in Bulgaria but "at this stage the party's public image is burdened with heavy ideologemes". "We are neither pro-Russian, not fifth or sixth column of Turkey, but Bulgaria and the MRF cannot seek balance as neutral entities between Russia and NATO," Mestan stressed.

"For 19 years now I have not allowed for a speck of dust to fall on Dogan's public image. I have always been fair in my relations with him and will not go into any personal assessments," Mestan said.

"All kinds of writings and speeches appeared about my alleged presence in a diplomatic mission, but yesterday [Wednesday] I was in Sofia, last night in Plovdiv, and today I am here in Kurdjali," Mestan said, adding that in the next days he will take part in events commemorating the anniversary of the
so-called Regeneration Process. Mestan said that the forthcoming participation of the Turkish Foreign Minister in the commemorative event in Mogilyane, near Kurdjali, has been organized by the local chapter of the MRF, and not him.

MP Hyussein Hafuzov said he supports Mestan in all he said. MRF regional leader in Kurdjali Bahri Yumer called fro patience and time to hear and analyse all positions in the party.

Mestan Issues a Statement after the Dismissal

"Bulgaria's national interest has been connected with the EU and NATO for years now, and not with Russia. I may not be accused of standing against the national interests of Bulgaria on account of defending Euro-Atlanticism," Mestan says in a statement released to the media after the decision of MRF's Central Council ousting him as chairman of the party.

"The declaration of MRF's parliamentary group on the downed Russian aircraft is a most superior expression of championing and defending the Bulgarian national and European-integrational interest," Mestan says.

"As a Chairman of the MRF and the Movement's central party organs and as MRF's floor lead I have been guided, first and foremost, by the national interests of Bulgaria and of its citizens," Mestan says further. "My cause are the liberal democracy and the solidarity among all member states of the EU and NATO - alliances in whose future I believe unconditionally," Mestan concludes.