/ world today news/ Already the former leader of DPS Lyutvi Mestan stated that the Euro-Atlantic position of DPS should not be criticized, and the visit of any Turkish statesman to our country should be accepted as good news because of the strategic partnership.
“I will not enter into a personal dialogue with anyone, do not expect that from me. I am aware of what I am being subjected to, including the suggestion that a super-organized operation by a group of diplomatic missions will take me out of the country. You see me in Kardzhali, in my hometown, on my birthday, I will go around with my colleagues, we will drink coffee. I want to reassure everyone, I will not run away anywhere and whatever I have to say, I will say it from here – from Bulgaria, Kardzhali, Sofia, I will do it valiantly, I will only talk about political positions, about values and I will not go into the fist fight style , it’s not typical for me,” commented Mestan. He clarified that he was not the one who convened the extraordinary meeting of the Central Council, he could not find out who, he understood that he would not be admitted to this meeting, which was held today in Sarai. “You do realize that it matters whether it’s in the DPS building or there. I have always been of the opinion that politics is a transparent business and therefore I cannot comment on anything except the official criticisms that were made to me late after midnight on the 17th/18th of December. I heard criticism in several directions, the main one is against the declaration, hence the conclusions that the DPS will not be allowed to become a 5th or 6th column, Ankara was not mentioned, but of another country. I do not think that the pro-NATO policy of the DPS can be reduced to pro-Turkish, I do not see anything unnatural, I even think that it is mandatory for every NATO member country to show Euro-Atlantic solidarity with every other in the bloc, in the case of Turkey Mestan stressed. According to him, we should have not just a partnership with the Republic of Turkey, but a strategic partnership. “I believe that the dialogue that we managed to restore with great effort with the politicians in neighboring Turkey is one of the strategic achievements of this leadership of the DPS and we cannot be reproached that with our contacts with Ankara we would contribute to the deepening of relations between the two countries. This is entirely in the Bulgarian national interest. In addition, I believe that the defense of rights and freedoms, including the right to use one’s mother tongue during an election campaign, also do not give reasons to designate the DPS as almost a Fifth Column. On the contrary, we will continue to pursue a policy of integration, but with a clear identity preserved. If someone wants integration from us at the expense of identity, that means they want us to be assimilated. This is a definite principle in politics that we will not give up,” Mestan also stated in the hours before he was removed from party posts.
Asked if he had invited Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu to visit Kardzhali, Mestan emphasized that the organization of the commemorative rallies for the victims of the “revival process” was the work of the DPS regional leadership. He specified that there was no connection between Çavuşoğlu’s visit and his own appearance in Kardzhali at the same time. “There is really nothing more incorrect and elementary than that the frank pro-NATO position of DPS is reduced to self-serving pro-Turkish positions. If you ask me if I see any problem with the presence of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey at the commemorative rally at the Turkyan Fountain, my answer is emphatically no. This is good news for our community here, for Bulgaria, and for our bilateral relations. We should not forget that this will be a representative of a country that in the summer and autumn of 1989 took on the burden of nearly 500,000 expelled Bulgarian citizens. You would hardly be able to point to a Turkish family here that is not divided, that does not have relatives from the other side driven away by the events. So it is imperative that the relations between Bulgaria and Turkey develop in a friendly way, and it is a unique chance that Turkey is a friendly country and Bulgaria should have a partnership strategy from which it can derive huge benefits. From this point of view, every visit of a Turkish statesman to our country should be welcomed as good news for the Bulgarian national interest. Everything else is suggestions that invoke well-known historical complexes and burdens, so inherent to the Bulgarian extreme nationalists,” said Lyutvi Mestan.
Regional leader Bahri Yumer got involved and stated that in fact the municipal structure in Kirkovo deals with the guests near the Turkyan fountain in the village of Mogilane, and the one in Ardino – for the events in the city and in Mlechino. Mestan said that regardless of his capacity, he would attend the commemorations and refuted the myths about the hiding place. He did not give an answer to the question of whether an alternative to DPS would appear on the political scene if his resignation were to happen today. According to him, the best solution is for the debates regarding the criticisms from the honorary chairman to be held within the party at all levels and accordingly to make the political decision about the direction of the development of the DPS, and thus to solve the issue with the chairman of the party. “I don’t know who, why and for what purpose called the meeting today, I guess I will be given the best possible gift for my 55th birthday. I am proud of the content of this declaration and will work for the further development of DPS as a synonym for Euro-Atlanticism, because this party arose as a synonym for democracy. In such critical situations, the position of the rest and the right-wing parties is rather timid, unfortunately,” Mestan added. “It is a matter of propriety that my resignation be requested in the appropriate order, at the moment I do not have an official request for this. To submit it myself would be to agree with the main reasons and arguments with which it is requested. On the contrary, I disagree with the assessment that the pro-NATO declaration was a political mistake. I want to know if this is the position of the entire Central Council, the voters and the community. In the absence of an official request for my resignation, we are already facing another problem. I have been correct for all 19 years and you will hardly get the image of a traitor out of me. I know that this is an internal drama for many of the members of the Central Council and the parliamentary group at this time as well. My appeal to them is to be aware that if we lose our human dignity, we lose ourselves. I know what awaits me, but I am more confident than ever that I have nothing to be ashamed of, and I am sure that after today, when perhaps I will receive my most precious gift, I will continue to defend those positions with which you know me Freedom, Sancho, is a great thing. I will not comment on a situation in which it would lead to the humiliation of human dignity, I will leave it to the conscience of my colleagues, who know very well who I am,” said Mestan.
Husein Hafazov, who was also in Kardzhali today, indicated that he and his colleagues consider what is happening to be extremely unacceptable and wrong, not only in relation to the chairman Lyutvi Mestan, but also in relation to the values for which DPS fought. “That is precisely why we stand in solidarity with him, we are people of the basic values, of the ideas that all of us, both as a community and as party members, must defend. And if it comes to his resignation today, we will stand behind the ideas for which all the martyrs fought and died,” the deputy pointed out. According to him, until now, none of the deputies has expressed a negative attitude either about the personality of the leader or about his statements, on the contrary, they have always been unanimous. Categorically, clearly and accurately we stand behind Mr. Mestan, his messages are the messages of our voter and we are not side by side with him, Hafizov swore. He added that everyone was baffled by the methods and style being applied to “our president”, but did not specify on whose behalf he was saying this. The regional chairman of DPS Bahri Yumer stated that it is still too early to say who he would support, as time is needed to analyze what is happening, and this should be done by all structures in the country. Our path is the Euro-Atlantic direction of DPS, if there is anything else, I want to know, he stressed. The question of whether MP Delyan Peevski is the unequivocal name of the tremors in the party remained unanswered. According to Lyutvi Mestan, the word that makes sense of the whole problem is a new Euro-Atlantic image of Bulgaria, through which the myth of some hidden dependencies is overcome. “This is the path to the legitimate return of the DPS in the management of the country, otherwise, with the shackles of these mythologues, the legitimate return to power dominated by a right-wing political entity will be impossible for us. Entering a center-right management formula goes through cleaning up the public image of DPS,” Mestan said at the end. He was not available for comment on the decision taken in his absence by the central leadership to remove him from the leadership post.
#Mestan #visit #Turkish #statesman #country #good #news
