The leaders of the local Bulgarians in Bosilegrad and members of the Cultural Information Center there were detained and taken to the police during the visit of the Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic to the town and its surroundings. This was the first visit of a Serbian head of state in 97 years.
During his speech in Bosilegrad, Vucic said the following: “I am glad that there is no difference between Serbs and Bulgarians in the way they live, and that you feel the way the state treats you.” He thanked and praised the mayor of the city, Vladimir Zahariev, who became the main tool of the police repression against the Bulgarians in the region. “He will be in power as long as he lives,” Vucic also said.
“I and a woman named Daniela were arrested – she is a scientist, a professor. I was detained around 10 a.m. because I had several posters that I wanted to show Vucic,” Dimitar Dimitrov Treperski told BGNES. He is a long-time activist for the rights of Bulgarians in the city, and the teacher Daniela Mihailovich is the mother of a small child.
Treperski also said that he was detained in the detention center, where he waited for 30-40 minutes without anyone telling him anything. He was released after a few hours when Vucic’s visit ended.
“20-30 days ago, the police told me not to carry placards that say, for example, ‘The western outskirts have nothing to do with Serbia.’ With this, I violated the territorial integrity of Serbia, etc. This was the previous conversation, 20-30 days ago. But now it started “why did I put flags around the Levski monument on March 3?”, well because it’s March 3, because it’s Bulgaria’s best public holiday and that’s why I put it up. Regardless of where we live, we must defend our Bulgarian cause and not be ashamed of this Bulgarian holiday, right?”, stated Dimitar Dimitrov.
