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Protests against Varna District Governor over Armenian Genocide Controversy
Sofia News Agency, Bulgaria
June 11 2008
About 50 persons protested Wednesday before the building of the
District Governor against his decision to contest the recognition of
the Armenian Genocide by the City Council.
On June 5, the Varna District Governor Hristo Kontrov, who is a navy
admiral from the reserve, issued an order returning for another hearing
to the City Council its decision from May 21 to establish April 24
as the day for honoring the victims of the Armenian Genocide in the
Ottoman Empire in 1915-22.
The protesters were mostly sympathizers of the nationalist party VMRO,
the Sofia Mayor's rightist party GERB, and member of the Armenian
community in the city of Varna.
They raised slogans saying "Varna Is Not the Bosphorus" alluding to
the fact that Kontrov was appointed District Governor from the quota
of the ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms, which is one
of the three parties of the governing three-way coalition.
The Governor agreed to meet with representatives of the protesters
but according to the local VMRO leader Kostadin Kostadinov he had
failed to explain the reasons for contesting the decision to honor
the victims of the Armenian Genocide.
Kostadinov expressed his resent at the Governor's actions, and sad he
was politically biased and a servant of the ethnic Turkish Movement
for Rights and Freedoms.
The VMRO members threatened they would organize a much larger and
less peaceful protest against the District Governor's action.
Sofia News Agency, Bulgaria
June 11 2008
About 50 persons protested Wednesday before the building of the
District Governor against his decision to contest the recognition of
the Armenian Genocide by the City Council.
On June 5, the Varna District Governor Hristo Kontrov, who is a navy
admiral from the reserve, issued an order returning for another hearing
to the City Council its decision from May 21 to establish April 24
as the day for honoring the victims of the Armenian Genocide in the
Ottoman Empire in 1915-22.
The protesters were mostly sympathizers of the nationalist party VMRO,
the Sofia Mayor's rightist party GERB, and member of the Armenian
community in the city of Varna.
They raised slogans saying "Varna Is Not the Bosphorus" alluding to
the fact that Kontrov was appointed District Governor from the quota
of the ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms, which is one
of the three parties of the governing three-way coalition.
The Governor agreed to meet with representatives of the protesters
but according to the local VMRO leader Kostadin Kostadinov he had
failed to explain the reasons for contesting the decision to honor
the victims of the Armenian Genocide.
Kostadinov expressed his resent at the Governor's actions, and sad he
was politically biased and a servant of the ethnic Turkish Movement
for Rights and Freedoms.
The VMRO members threatened they would organize a much larger and
less peaceful protest against the District Governor's action.