[size=55:2tgxrfm5]novinite

Protesters Clash with Riot Police in Bulgaria's Plovdiv, Tensions Explode



Protesters have clashed with gendarmerie and riot police in Bulgaria's Plovdiv as local tensions escalate during protests against the murder of 19-year-old Angel Petrov in the village of Katunitsa but also because of problems associated with Bulgaria's Roma minority.

The crowd of youngsters, which is likely to include far-right groups and football hooligans, clashed with gendarmerie on the Maria Luiza Blvd in the city, which delineates the location of ethnic Roma-populated Adzhasan Mahala.

Hundreds of youths were noticed running across downtown Plovdiv, local news sites reported.

Even though Monday night's rally in Plovdiv started peacefully on the Unification square, as dusk arrived, emergency alerts came from various parts of the city.

The riot police are reported to have started to arrest protesters. The police have even found themselves forced to resort to pulling out gendarmerie forces from the nearby village of Katunitsa in order to transfer them to Plovdiv.

Several dozens of youth shouting nationalist slogans are reported to have besieged the Dzhumaya Mosque, which is heavily guarded by riot police.

Tensions are reported to be escalating all over Plovdiv in spite of the relative calm that appeared to have set earlier on Monday after President Georgi Parvanov and Prime Minister Boyko Borisov visited the city, and community leaders of the local ethnic Roma and ethnic Turks voiced messages for tolerance and ethnic peace.

The new rallies, which were organized on Facebook and started at 7 pm in both Sofia and Plovdiv, come after on Sunday Plovdiv nearly became the center of ethnic clashes between ethnic Bulgarians and ethnic Roma over the weekend, following the murder in the nearby village of Katunitsa of 19-year-old Angel Petrov by associates of notorious Roma boss Kiril Rashkov, aka Tsar Kiro, committed Friday night.

The murder of Angel Petrov, who was deliberately run over by a mini-bus, according to witnesses, led to massive protests of the ethnic Bulgarians in the village of Katunitsa against Rashkov's Roma clan on Saturday, culminating Saturday night into the burning of Rashkov's properties by football hooligans from Plovdiv.

The tensions grew in Plovdiv on Sunday, the day of Petrov's funeral, when the police barely prevented clashes between a protest rally and local Roma in Roma-populated quarters Stolipinovo, Sheker Mahala, and Adzhisan Mahala.

I understand that they are angry but this isn't gong to help. I suppose this is what you call being bitten back? but it's not going to work I'm afraid . I think the Bulgarian government should get their finger from up their ar**s and sort this matter out once and for all and start treating these people with some respect I know some of you will say why? should the government do that!! well its simple they have allowed this situation to go on for years so now its time they put things right even if it means humble pie.

[size=55:3vd4rt8l]novinite

Bulgarian President Calls Security Council over Ethnic Clashes

Bulgarian President, Georgi Parvanov, is calling an emergency meeting of the Consultative National Security Council, KSNS, over escalating ethnic tensions in the country.

The meeting is scheduled to begin at 2 pm on October 1 at the presidential building and will be titled: "
Current problems in internal security – emergency measures to guarantee law and order in the country and prevent and counter ethnic tensions."


Reports are to be prepared by Deputy Interior Minister, Veselin Vuchkov, who is temporarily in charge of the Ministry since Interior Minister, Tsvetan Tsvetanov, is on leave over being the Head of the Election Headquarters of his ruling, center-right Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria, GERB, party and by the Head Secretary of the Interior, Chief Commissar, Kalin Georgiev.

Under Bulgaria's legislation, members of KSNS include the Speaker of the Parliament, the Prime Minister, the Ministers of Defense, of the Interior, and of Finances, the Director of the State Agency for National Security, DANS, the Army Chief of Staff, and the chairs of all parliamentary groups.

Chief Prosecutor, Boris Velchev, has been invited to the meeting as well.

Meanwhile, Velchev ordered Tuesday all his subordinates across the country to treat cases of ethnic hate as a priority, and police to make timely arrests.

The leader of the main opposition force – the left-wing Bulgarian Socialist Party, BSP, Sergey Stanishev, accused the Interior of being inadequate, passive and helpless thus contributing to the escalation of violence. The Socialists demand that Tsvetanov appears in the Parliament Wednesday for a hearing.

Tensions in the Plovdiv Region and the entire country escalted after associates of notorious Roma boss Kiril Rashkov AKA Tsar Kiro from the Plovdiv district of Stolipinovo ran over and killed 19-year-old Angel Petrov from the village of nearby Katunitsa late Friday. The incident flared large-scale violence and protests which culminated Saturday night in an attack on Rashkov's properties, allegedly staged by several hundred football fans.

In addition, more than 100 people in total were arrested by the police in a number Bulgarian cities after a wave of small-scale but vigorous rallies Monday night.

The protesters rallied against Angel Petrov' murder, but also because of the "
Roma issue"
, i.e. what they see as a "
privileged situation"
of the Roma minority in Bulgaria.

Pleased to see there isn't any slagging going on with this topic :Clap:I only say that because I've just been reading about it elsewhere and you wouldn't believe some of the things that are being said by the mindless ones as always. Anyway this is a difficult one and who is to blame? that's if blame should be laid anywhere? Unfortunately as most Bulgarians are racist towards the Roma and Turkish people it has now drawn great attention to the situation although it's for the wrong reasons. Lets hope that this kind of thing can be a thing of the past one day

Perhaps this article from Novinite answers a few questions ? Or does it

Why Did Bulgaria's Cauldron Boil Over?

"
No, we won't let a mafia baron, all the more so a gypsy, boss us around! There is no justice for him! There is no court! He buys them with whole briefcases of money!"


The firm vow, voiced by a local from the southern village of Katunitsa near the town of Plovdiv, sums up best the recent bloody events there, which shook the whole country. Ten years of smoldering tensions between an affluent self-proclaimed Roma "
tsar"
and the residents, escalated at the end of the week into riots, cutting short the lives of two young Bulgarians. Their murder stirred sheer outrage in social networks and a wave of rallies across the country.

The unprecedented for Bulgaria events were widely described as ethnic clashes, but that is something of, though not entirely, a misnomer.

The violence erupted Friday after a 19-year old teenager was struck and killed by a mini-bus driver linked to the local Roma leader Kiril Rashkov, who piled up his huge wealth thanks to unscrupulous trade in fake alcohol and votes.

Rashkov and the boy, friend of the former mayor's son, had unsettled scores over land plots. Apparently the Roma baron decided to settle scores by killing the boy - an insolent and hideous act, which (accidentally) coincides with the launch of the presidential election campaign.

The issue here is not the bravado of a Roma. The issue here is the bravado of a man - who happens to be a Roma - that he can place himself above the law and terrorize the locals.

The question here is why the (obviously) corrupt police has left this mafia (not just Roma) clan to do whatever they want?

"
Tsar"
Kiro comes from the typical derelict, garbage-strewn streets of Bulgarian Roma ghettos, which are home to most of the country's 375,000 Roma - although unofficial data estimates their true numbers come closer to 750,000, out of a population of 7.8 million. Here he lived together with skinny men rooting through piles of rubbish alongside pigs and fat women in flowing skirts cradling babies.

Today he has turned into a clan chief, one of those who struck it rich after the collapse of Communism, lives in luxury, drives gleaming cars and has replaced his ramshackle house, made of poorly "
cemented"
bricks of clay and straw, with a true royal palace.

It was this palace that the rioters torched, creating a powerful symbol of what happens when there is no rule of law – people just take the law into their own hands.

The widely touted muscle-flexing police exercises failed to yield satisfactory results during the riots as well – the men in uniforms just stood in silence and watched.

It turns out that the authorities in Bulgaria, generally not held in high esteem, have little power not only over the larger Roma ghettos, where clan chiefs are left to rule, but also at villages and towns where the Slav people are majority, but Roma clan chiefs are left to rule. So the culture of the local Roma ghetto easily takes the upper hand and the place becomes rife with extortion, human trafficking, baby selling and other menaces.

And this is exactly why the simple wrangling over land plots escalated into a so-called ethnic clash, giving politicians the chance to play the ethnic card.

The Roma baron's power has been so extensive that Katunitsa was on the brink of becoming the "
first private village"
in popular parlance. His control relied on a small squad of Roma hitmen, who terrified anyone who dared to disobey.

It was only natural that at one point nationalists, chanting racist abuse, joined the riots. The culprit is a Roma man (and a mafia boss at that) and the stereotype is hard to fight for many reasons. Pickpockets and thieves, dirty, lazy, uneducated people, who have tons of kids and sponge off social assistance. This is how the average Bulgarian perceives the Gypsy people, despite the inroads the politically correct term "
Roma"
has made in people's everyday speech.

The self-proclaimed Roma tsar and a virtual landlord of the village of Katunitsa has been delivered a number of sentences, totaling thirty years in prison. But that was before the communist regime collapsed in 1989.

After that he seems to have been the darling of all those in power – none of the complaints or investigations against him has ended up in court. Reports say Rashkov was ready to fork out a whopping BGN 100,000 in bribes to make officials "
forget"
his case.

Besides it is more than clear that those in power need Rashkov – he is the man they rely upon to secure the votes of the Roma minority, who tip the balance in any elections in Bulgaria.

The events are clear defeats for Prime Minister Boiko Borisov and his interior minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov who, since taking office in late July 2009, repeatedly pledged to send top-level criminals to jail.

Katunitsa has turned into a symbol of the consequences of an inefficient judicial system and rule of law deficit. The conflict is a national problem, which perfectly illustrates the corruption and hideous perversions of justice that reign in Bulgaria.

And this is exactly why the country was forced, just days before Katunitsa's cauldron boiled over, to say goodbye to its bright Schengen hopes.

Yes I would say that the Bulgarian Mafia are above the law and probably are the law but again, the law in Bulgaria is virtually none existent
Racism towards the Turkish ? I have many Turkish and Bulgarian friends and there is no racism amongst any of them.

More trouble on the horizon I fear?
Taken from All voices.

Imminent Charges Loom for Bulgaria's Roma Tsar


Legal charges are to be pressed against notorious Bulgarian Roma boss, Kiril Rashkov AKA Tsar Kiro no later than Wednesday, according to information from the authorities.

The news was reported Tuesday by Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, citing reports sent to him by the Interior Ministry, the National Revenue Agency, NRA, and the Prosecutor's Office.

Tsar Kiro came into the spotlight after some of his associates from the Plovdiv district of Stolipinovo ran over and killed 19-year-old Angel Petrov from the village of nearby Katunitsa late Friday. The incident flared large-scale violence and protests which culminated Saturday night in an attack on Rashkov's properties, allegedly staged by several hundred football fans.

In the following days, tensions in the Plovdiv region and the entire country escalated with more than 100 people arrested by the police in a number Bulgarian cities after a wave of small-scale but vigorous rallies Monday night.

The protesters rallied against Angel Petrov' murder, but also because of the "
Roma issue,"
i.e. what they see as a "
privileged situation"
of the Roma minority in Bulgaria.

In the aftermath of clashes in Katunitsa, NRA auditors from Sofia began 18 probes of Rashkov's real estate properties and assets. On Monday, Borisov informed that another probe against the Roma boss had been launched 10 days before the incidents.

The Rashkov family was included in the list of individuals having properties worth over BGN 0.5 M. It had to be probed for sources of income and due taxes in 2010, but the probe never materialized. NRA Plovdiv offered the explanation that they "
skipped"
Tsar Kiro because his mansions in Katunitsa were erected as early as the 90s thus there was a 5-year tax prescription.

Borisov explained that only after legal charges are pressed, the Commission for Confiscation of Illegally Acquired Assets would deal with the properties of the Roma boss.

Regarding the meeting of the Consultative National Security Council, KSNS, called by President, Georgi Parvanov, the PM said that "
stability in Bulgaria must persist because it guarantees economic and political growth of the country."


He further informed that he had talked to Parvanov Tuesday morning and they finalized the day of the meeting as October 1 at 2 pm since Borisov had to break ground in the morning of that same day of Lot 1 of the Struma highway in southern Bulgaria.

"
The meeting is needed to give an opportunity to everyone to state their position. Those who believe that Roma must be "
made into soap,"
and Turks must be chased away from Bulgaria will have to assume political responsibility. I insist that ethnic peace is the only way to guarantee the country's prosperity. Any other move, any other action is dooming us to failure and isolation,"
the PM declared.

It was reported meanwhile that Kiril Rashkov and his family were accommodated late Monday evening in the "
Shipka"
hotel in the capital Sofia, guarded by plain-cloth policemen. Hours later, however, Rashkov's son, a nephew and several other relatives left the hotel, escorted by the police. Tsar Kiro had also been led away through a side exit.

The family is going to be taken to an unidentified location, 80 km away from Sofia.

[size=55:agmlcfmy]novinite

Why Are Bulgarians So Angry?

BULGARIA'S biggest cities have seen violent protests this week, following the death in a hit-and-run last weekend, in the village of Katunitsa near Plovdiv, of a 19-year-old boy, allegedly at the hands of a member of a local bigwig's clan.

What makes the case particularly incendiary is that the bigwig in question, Kiril Rashkov, or "
Tsar Kiro"
as he is known locally, is a Roma (gypsy), and Angel Petrov, the young victim, was an ethnic Bulgarian.

Mr Rashkov, a wealthy man with few visible sources of income, had supposedly had a number of previous brushes with the law, none of which had led to any charges. Following the incident enraged locals surrounded and torched Mr Rashkov's palatial house, overwhelming the police, who had to escort his family to safety.

Earlier this week protests spread to Bulgaria's largest cities, as groups of mainly young people held banners calling for "
Equal Rights and Responsibilities for All,"
and shouted slogans against the country's Roma and Turkish minorities.

On Wednesday Mr Rashkov was arrested in a separate case, and the protests appeared to have died down by yesterday. It is not yet clear if further marches planned for the weekend will take place.

The disorder is unwelcome for Bojko Borisov, Bulgaria's prime minister, who came to power two years ago promising to deal with the kind of corruption that allows criminals to buy their way out of legal trouble. A former bodyguard who cultivates the image of an efficient strongman, Mr Borisov was hoping for an easy ride at local and presidential elections next month.

But the prime minister's image has taken a few blows lately. Last week the European Union decided not to admit Bulgaria and Romania into its passport-free Schengen zone. Throughout the past year the EU's poorest country has been struggling to break out of a recession, which has been exacerbated by the troubles of neighbouring Greece. Not only is Greece a major destination for Bulgarian exports, Greek-owned banks have a strong presence in the country.

Corruption and crime were at the top of Mr Borisov's domestic policy agenda, and joining Schengen was the first foreign-policy priority. But progress has been limited. The government has blamed the Schengen rejection on Eurosceptic, anti-immigration sentiment in Finland and the Netherlands. But the Dutch immigration minister has suggested otherwise.

"
Imagine you have a door with eight of the best locks in the world. But before that door is standing someone who lets everybody in—then you have a problem,"
he said last week.

This week's protests have been about more than the Roma. "
This is about the failings of the political class over 20 years,"
says Kiril Avramov, a political analyst. "
People are in despair about their futures, about jobs and they're angry about corruption."
Talk of a highway-building programme which Mr Borisov hopes will win him next month's elections is unlikely to help much.

There are bright spots. The Bulgarian lev is tied in a currency board to the Euro, meaning it has avoided the foreign-currency debt problem that has been crippling for some other eastern Europeans. Tough economic management by Simeon Djankov, the finance minister, has left the public finances in a relatively healthy state.

But the situation is tense. The Movement for Rights and Freedom, an ethnic-Turkish party that gets much of the Roma vote, has shown commendable restraint over the past week. But Volen Siderov, leader of Attack, an anti-Roma party, who is running for president under the slogan "
I am your weapon, use it"
, must be licking his lips.

7 Major Bulgarian Cities Threatened by Ethnic Clashes

Seven major cities in Bulgaria are potentially dangerous with respect to ethnic tensions as a result of the recent anti-Roma protests after the murder of an ethnic Bulgarian boy in the village of Katunitsa a week ago, according to the Interior Ministry.

The cities in question are Sofia, Plovdiv, Varna, Pazardzhik, Veliko Tarnovo, Blagoevgrad, and Kyustendil, shows a report of the Interior analyzing the organization of protest rallies across the country in the past fews days.

19-year-old Angel Petrov was murdered by associates of Roma boss Kiril Rashkov, aka Tsar Kiro, in the village of Katunitsa last Friday, which spurred protests across the country over the situation of the Roma minority, which many ethnic Bulgarians view as "
privileged"
when it comes to collecting taxes or punishing criminal gangs.

"
There has been one positive thing about everything that happened since last Friday – we now have an idea about the location of potential ethnic conflicts that can arise in the future, if this problem doesn't find a more responsible solution,"
Veselin Vuchkov, acting Interior Minister (Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov is on vacation), told Darik Radio Friday.

When it comes to the identification of the seven most dangerous spots about ethnic clashes, Vuchkov pointed out that there are dangerous locations elsewhere as well but that these cities are the major ones, and warrant the greatest amount of attention.

Bulgarians are angry about lawlessness in general. The fact that this guy is Roma has definitely exacerbated the situation but, to be honest, there are a lot of small cities/villages which have a (non-Roma) 'Tsar Kiro'. That is usually a person who controls how the locals vote (e.g. because he owns the only factory where the locals are employed). In case of Roma, the local 'tsar' is a pawn broker to whom most of the Roma are indebted. The politicians find it easier to pay the local baron, buy the people's votes and win an election rather than confronting him. Most Bulgarians are fairly tolerant and would like everyone to abide by the rules. I'm sure many of you are familiar with the pattern of lawlessness and the symbiotic relationship between mafia and politicians that has plagued most of Bulgaria for quite sometime.

It is easy to see that this is an uprising against the painful social injustices, against the fact that the authorities are protecting the rich criminals but they are unable to provide basic security for the common people . Racial clashes in Katunitsa, Putin will run for president again time sometimes seems to be moving backwards. What next I ask