site.bta Plovdiv Administrative Court Repeals Karlovo Mayor's Decision to Ban Muslim Protest

Plovdiv Administrative Court Repeals Karlovo Mayor's Decision to Ban Muslim Protest

Karlovo, Central Bulgaria, June 30 (BTA) - The Plovdiv
Administrative Court has repealed Karlovo Mayor Emil
Kabaivanov's decision to ban the Muslims' protest, scheduled to
take place in the town on Tuesday, the Mayor himself told BTA.
Kabaivanov said that he would not comment the Court's decision,
adding that from now on it is the police's job to ensure order
in the town. He also wished all who come to protest in Karlovo
to come visit the home of Bulgarian revolutionary and freedom
fighter Vassil Levski. According to the Mayor, no notification
of a counter-protest has been submitted to Town Hall.

The Muslim community's protest is to claim ownership of such
historical monuments as Kourshoum mosque in Karlovo. A panel of
the Appellate Court in Sofia came out with a pronouncement in
May on the claims of the Chief Mufti Office for ownership of
historical monuments and properties. The Appellate Court
rejected the claims on grounds that the present leadership of
the Muslim denomination in Bulgaria is not the legal successor
of the Muslim communities which existed in the Principality of
Bulgaria, the Kingdom of Bulgaria and the People's Republic of
Bulgaria, Emil Kabaivanov said back in May.

Commenting his decision to ban the protest, Kabaivanov said that
is was based on concerns about possible disturbances of the
public order in the town and introducing ethnic problems there,
which in his words, do not exist. According to him, the
protestors are not from Karlovo, but are organized from
Kurdzhali, Velingrad and Assenovgrad, which boast significant
Muslim populations. Kabaivanov explained that the mosque has not
functioned in the past 150 years, adding that if the locals had
wanted it, they could have demolished it by now. This, in the
Mayor's words, shows that Vassil Levski's fellow townsmen are
ethnically tolerant. Commenting the excavation works which
started around the mosque, Kabaivanov explained that the
building is public municipal property and as such the
Municipality has the right to include it in the excavations.

The Chief Mufti's Office confirmed for BTA that the protest will
start at 11:00 am and Muslims from South Bulgaria are on their
way to the town.