site.btaAhmed Dogan: "Big Goal Is to Eliminate MRF and Attack Unity of Our Community"

Addressing the members of the Central Council of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) on Monday, the party's founder and Honorary Chair Ahmed Dogan said "the big goal is to eliminate MRF so as to hit the unity of our community". A video of Dogan's statement was published on the Facebook page of "MRF Press Centre" on Sunday.

Dogan said in his opening words, "I appreciate your assessment of, and your respect for, me. I want to point out, though, that respect is only a step away from a personality cult. Always remember the thin line between the two."

He said he was pleased with the nominations made for the party's candidates for the October 27 elections, and also impressed with some of the nominees and the energy in the party ranks. He praised youths who said, "What happened was good - we had slumbered before that". Dogan also said, "What happened with this boy - I refuse to say his name - was good for otherwise we would have disappeared."

"This boy" is apparently the head of the rival faction of MRF, Delyan Peevski, who is fighting a battle with Dogan over the party leadership.

Dogan said further, "MRF's defence system were close to nil in the past seven-eight years, and so was collective decision-making. Intentionally or not, we somehow encouraged single-handed decision-making, which brought us here."

He argued that "democracy itself has a crisis in its defence mechanisms" and that he had repeatedly said that democracy in Bulgaria and Europe lacks a defence system. 

"It is all a show a for us, here in the Balkans. We watch gross violations of the law, of the rule of law, and we do nothing but observe, waiting for somebody else to do the work," he said.

He called for restoring MRF's defence system and said that would be done via "the collective life of the party and via restoring collective decision-making". 

He also said, "At one point we started holding meetings only at the level of the political elite. A mistake, a fatal mistake! I call for a direct live connection with the people so we know their problems and try to solve them."

"I was shocked to see party functionaries who had a career, a seat in the EP or the National Parliament and the executive power branch, become dictators and use repressions against our men. Our men put to repressions our men. That is inadmissible. We have to say 'Stop!. [...] I feel ashamed of what this boy is doing. Their big goal is to eliminate MRF from the political stage. Why? because MRF is a guarantor of the defence system of our community. In the course of long years, he has won personal positions in the judicial system without the knowledge of MRF but acting on behalf of MRF, and how he uses this positions for personal goals," said Dogan.

He ended by calling his supporters for "utmost mobilization" for the upcoming snap parliamentary elections.