site.btaMRF Leader Mestan: "I Expect My Meeting with Erdogan in Ankara to Be Welcomed"

MRF Leader Mestan: "I Expect
My Meeting with Erdogan in Ankara
to Be Welcomed"


Veliko Turnovo, North Central Bulgaria, September 16 (BTA) - "I
expect my meeting with Erdogan in Ankara to be welcomed rather
than met 'at daggers drawn'," Movement for Rights and Freedoms
(MRF) leader Lyutvi Mestan told a news conference here on
Tuesday.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey conferred at the
Cankaya Residence in Ankara on Septmber 12 with Mestan, MRF
Deputy Chairman Rushen Riza and MP candidates Hyusein Hafuzov
and Shabanali Ahmed, Chairman of the Supreme Council of Muslims
in Bulgaria. This was Erdogan's first meeting with the MRF
leader. According to local media, the conversation lasted for
about an hour and was off limits to journalists.

Mestan described the visit as "a classic example of party
diplomacy to the benefit of Bulgaria." He said the dialogue of
the MRF Chairman with the President of Turkey was quite natural,
considering that hundreds of thousands of Bulgarian citizens
live there "not of their own desire". He was apparently
referring to the Bulgarian Muslims who emigrated to Turkey as a
result of an internationally condemned assimilation campaign by
the Communist regime in the mid-1980s.

"The political force that represents these voters must be in
effective dialogue with the President of the Republic of
Turkey," Mestan said.

He recommended to the leaders of the other political forces,
too, to meet with representatives of the Turkish State "so as to
see for themselves that it is a country friendly to Bulgaria".

Another item on the agenda of the talks between the two was the
opportunity for an increase of Turkish investments in Bulgaria.
According to the MRF Chairman, "active diplomacy is needed for
the invigoration of bilateral trade and economic relations."

"The third reason for this meeting is geopolitical," he said. In
his words, "the world is facing ethno-religious challenges that
can be addressed by the approach of the Bulgarian ethnic
model."

"The Bulgarian ethnic model accommodates the principles of the
nation state with the rights and freedoms of the different
ethno-religious groups that populate every state," Mestan
pointed out.

He added that this model includes respect for the principle of
territorial integrity and the sovereignty of the nation state,
guaranteeing the equality of multi-cultural communities.

Mestan said that Turkey and Bulgaria, as NATO Member States,
have an enormous role to play for the expansion of the "zone of
civilized security of the region and of the world." "The
alternative to civilized security is a military conflict," he
added.

Mestan noted that the Bulgarian delegation's visit took place at
the invitation of the Turkish side, which is why its first
coverage appeared in the Turkish media. He said that the MRF did
not circulate a press release to the media lest the visit be
interpreted as part of the election campaign.