site.btaMEPs from GERB-UDF Inform European Institutions about Repressions against Bulgarians in Serbia

MEPs from GERB-UDF warned European leaders about the existence of potential blacklists of books in Serbia and about preventing a Serbian citizen who identifies as Bulgarian from importing a book by a Bulgarian poet into the country.

A letter regarding an incident involving the Chairman of GLAS Association in Bosilegrad, Aleksandar Dimitrov, was  sent to the EP rapporteur for Serbia, Vladimir Bilcik, to the presidents of the European Commission and the European Council, to the European Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement, and to other MEPs.

On August 9, Dimitrov was stopped from entering Serbia from Bulgaria at the Ribarci border checkpoint on the grounds that he was carrying three books in Bulgarian, Dimitrov told BTA. He said Serbian border and customs authorities had held him at the checkpoint for four hours for carrying three copies of "The Fate of Bulgarians in the Western Outlands" by the former consul in Nis, Edvin Sugarev. 

"I myself wrote the introduction to this book and I know that there is nothing provocative in it. The book simply presents the life of the people in Bosilegrad and its surroundings in the last century. In fact, it focuses on criticism of the Bulgarian authorities, not the Serbian authorities.” said MEP Andrey Kovatchev, who is also a member of the EP's Committee on Foreign Affairs.

The incident happened a few days after Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic stated in a TV interview that there were no Bulgarians in Serbia, despite the official Serbian census for 2022 organized by the Serbian authorities, according to which there are 12,918 ethnic Bulgarians in the country, but the real number is probably even higher.

In their letter, the MEPs from GERB-UDF stressed that it is unacceptable for a European country in the 21st century, especially one that is applying for EU membership, to behave like a totalitarian regime from the middle of the 20th century.