site.btaMRF Leader Meets with Turkish President amid Apparent Thaw in Relations

MRF Leader Meets with Turkish President amid Apparent Thaw in Relations


Istanbul, September 13 (BTA exclusive by Nahide Deniz) -
Bulgaria's Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) Chairman
Lyutvi Mestan met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in
 Ankara on September 12, local media reported.  The meeting was
held at Cankaya Palace, the President's residence.

There was no official information about the talks. Brief reports
 only said that the meeting was held behind closed doors.

Turkish media noted that this was the first meeting of the
recently elected Turkish President with the leader of one of
Bulgaria's major parties. Until recently, Erdogan communicated
mainly with MRF defectors Kassim Dal and Korman Ismailov,
founding members of the rival People's Party for Freedom and
Dignity (PPFD), who visited Ankara frequently.

In the run-up to the latest Bulgarian parliamentary elections,
Erdogan, who was prime minister at that time, had instructed
Turkey's ruling party, the Justice and Development Party, to use
 its entire network to canvass for PPFD. Envoys of PPFD were
very active in seeking support for their party from among
Bulgarian expatriates in Turkey and their organizations.

According to unofficial reports, the Turkish government provided
 financial support to PPFD especially for the latest Bulgarian
parliamentary elections.

Ankara's stance back then caused strong discontent among
Bulgarian expatriate organizations in Turkey affiliated with
MRF. Bulgarian media in Turkey accused Ankara of trying to split
 up ethnic Turks in Bulgaria, who traditionally supported MRF.

The election failure of PPFD, which did not make it into
Parliament, gave Ankara a cold shower, according to a source who
 spoke on condition of anonymity.

Now, members of Bulgarian expatriate organizations in Turkey
speculate that Erdogan and Mestan probably discussed the
upcoming October 5 parliamentary elections in Bulgaria.

"MRF relations with Ankara have thawed," said a Bulgarian
activist in Istanbul, commenting on the Erdogan-Mestan meeting.

Mestan and other senior MRF executives also met over working
breakfast with the Presidency for Turks Abroad and Relative
Communities (YTATB). The meeting was attended by Turkish
Ambassador to Bulgaria Suleyman Gokce.

The Bulgarian delegation complained that election campaign
canvassing in Bulgaria may not be conducted in Turkish or any
other minority language. "Bulgaria, which has been an EU member
for seven years now, allows discrimination, which constitutes a
violation of the fundamental rights and freedoms of its
citizens," Mestan said.

YTATB chief Kudret Bulbul described his organization's meeting
with the MRF delegation as very fruitful. Bulbul said that the
issue of using minority languages for campaign canvassing has
been solved successfully in Turkey. He expressed hope that
Bulgaria, which is a European nation, will reconsider this kind
of restrictions and everyone will be free to talk to everyone
else in their own language and canvass for votes in that
language. SN/VE

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