site.btaInterior Minister Stoyanov Discusses Illegal Migration with Edirne Governor Sezer

Bulgarian Interior Minister Kalin Stoyanov discussed countering illegal migration during a working meeting with Edirne Governor Yunus Sezer, the Bulgarian Interior Ministry said in a press release on Thursday.

Sezer assured Stoyanov that there has been a radical change at the Bulgarian-Turkish border in the last four months, as Turkish authorities try not to allow a single illegal border crossing.

Stoyanov expressed his gratitude to the Turkish authorities for their cooperation and good communication and in turn confirmed that for the past several months the situation at the border has been extremely calm. He stressed that the number of prevented attempts of illegal crossing of the Bulgarian-Turkish border and detentions of illegal migrants in the interior of Bulgaria have decreased significantly.

On Thursday, Stoyanov attended the second hearing in the murder trial on the killing of Bulgarian Border Police officer Petar Bachvarov of Elhovo. Stoyanov voiced a hope that the guilty will receive an effective sentence.

The Border Police officer, Junior Inspector Petar Bachvarov, was shot dead on November 7, 2022 while patrolling the border with Turkiye near the village of Golyam Dervent. A Turkish national was detained for the killing. The autopsy showed that Bachvarov had been hit with hunting shotgun pellets, which rules out the possibility of a shootout between Bulgarian and Turkish border police, the then National Investigation Service Director Borislav Sarafov (now acting Prosecutor General) explained back in November 2022. The main lead followed by Bulgarian and Turkish investigators is that Bachvarov was shot by a Turkish national attempting to steal livestock.

The two defendants tried for the killing are Engin Erguvan, 36, and his brother Mustafa Erguvan, 30. The prosecution pleads for life imprisonment for Engin Erguvan, who allegedly fired the shot, and for a 9 to 15 years' prison sentence for Mustafa Erguvan.