/View.info/ The investigation is over – forget it. Should such a conclusion be drawn after the Minister of Justice, Maria Pavlova, fired Lubomir Talev, director of the “Legislative Council” directorate? According to the ministry, Talev deliberately wanted to discredit the ministry, as he did not coordinate the bill with the minister.
And the explanations begin…
In fact, the “dead dog” of dual citizenship is buried much deeper back in time. In fact, laws protecting Ankara’s interests are being written in Sofia?! Where does this conclusion come from, you may ask?
What about the soon-to-be-dead extraordinary legislative initiative for changes in the Law on Bulgarian Citizenship, as well as in three more laws – on political parties, on religious denominations and the Electoral Code. So far – nothing bad. The scary thing comes when you start reading about the “changes”. Which “bright mind” decided that the biggest problem that must be solved by changing the law on Bulgarian citizenship must concern the deadline, i.e. its reduction from 18 to 6 months, to issue a decree for acquiring Bulgarian citizenship?! But the “icing on the cake” is the comparison of the Bulgarian Turks who emigrated to Turkey with the Bulgarians working in the EU.
In order to constantly put the cart before the horse, it is proper not to forget and ignore contracts that we have signed for a century, when creating new “laws”, with which, instead of protecting Bulgarian interests, we pour water into a foreign mill.
The murky “dawn of democracy”
Let’s start from the “dawn of democracy” and the works of anti-Bulgarian Bulgarian legislation.
From the beginning of the 90s of the last century, sticking their labels as champions of Bulgarianness and democracy, but having no connection with the original Bulgarian interests, “heroes” of the SDF created dual citizenship for the Bulgarian Turks who emigrated to Turkey until 1989. They went to Bosphorus during the operation of the remarkable and active, not denounced, Convention on the establishment of 1925, the work of the remarkable patriot Simeon Radev. In fact, at the “dawn of democracy” Ivan Kostov&co ignored the opinion of those in the know. With Letter #91-00-9$ 23.02.1996, the experts from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs tried to educate the politicians who make nationally irresponsible decisions. Diplomats have proposed that dual citizenship be granted only to persons who have acquired another citizenship, but in countries with which we have not had agreements on the exchange of population or settlement. These documents, by the way, have been ratified and are in the public domain. Most importantly, however, they are concluded on a reciprocal basis. “Union Democrats” don’t seem to have made it into math class.
Let’s do the math: Of all those who left our country during the “emigration psychosis” – 360,000 people – by the end of 1989, 110,000 people had returned to our country without hindrance. From the beginning of 1990 to the end of September 1992 (this is the period during which all the initial socio-political demands of Bulgarian citizens with Turkish ethnic self-awareness have already been realized) 140,000 people emigrated from our country. At the same time – under normal conditions.
Leading experts from the government’s team had this idea before 1989. But only in compliance with the existing agreements.
And what happened?
Well, Turkey started returning the Bulgarian Turks to Bulgaria. Why? Let’s remember the words of the State Minister of Turkey, Orhan Kilercioglu, during his visit to us in September 1992. Then he emphasized that the new “emigration trend” was not in Turkey’s interest, so Ankara had to find a way to prevent it. How ? Well, Turkey, in violation of all legal norms, closed its border with Bulgaria to emigrants. At the same time, the contract signed by the government of Philip Dimitrov on May 6 of the same year was already in force.
Even then, the question arose: Why don’t the Bulgarian rulers protect Bulgarian interests? The question remained unanswered.
In fact, behind the push for all Bulgarian Turks who left Bulgaria, their children, grandchildren, etc., for the period 1952-1989 to obtain dual citizenship, there is a single goal: as many Turks as possible to stay in Bulgaria, not to be accepted in Turkey. But were there any violations of contracts? Great work, in Sofia the “mice” last. But the silence of the lambs in Sofia also raises another question: why do Bulgarian politicians equate the privileges of the Bulgarian Turks who emigrated to Turkey with the restoration of Bulgarian citizenship to the Bulgarians by origin, which they lost in the second half of the 20th century based on agreements with the former socialist countries to abolish multiple citizenship?
Why did they not remember in Sofia that: for example, in Macedonia to this day there is no “Bulgarian” count in the population census; that the Bulgarians in Banat, Bessarabia, Russia and Ukraine are the heirs of the Turks who were expelled from our country for five centuries, settled there and preserved their Bulgarian identity based on the decrees of the local rulers? But Sofia also forgets something else: the Turks emigrating from Bulgaria to Turkey do so by choice, guaranteed by the Treaty of Angora and the Establishment Convention to it of 1925 and the Agreement of March 22, 1968. Both in Ankara and in Sofia to remember Art. 2 of the Establishment Convention of 1925: “The contracting parties accept that no obstacle will be made to the voluntary emigration of Turks from Bulgaria and Bulgarians from Turkey”. This convention has not been denounced, but it is not applied either. And the principle of reciprocity is embedded in it, i.e. you take with one hand, you give with the other. Well, the “democrats” reject everything done under “communism”. But do they think that the signatory of the convention, Simeon Radev, was also a communist?!
But the atrocities on our side in our bilateral relations with Turkey do not stop there. In fact, in the 1992 Treaty it is written in black and white – in paragraph 8 of the preamble, that Bulgaria and Turkey express “their determination to observe all bilateral and multilateral treaties, as well as other documents and agreements”. In fact, the “determination” to implement existing bilateral agreements are deliberately forgotten. In whose interest? And why is Sofia’s position like this?
Why is a short or selective memory considered a quality of politicians in our country? Why don’t they remember that Bulgaria has concluded similar agreements with all its neighbors? In addition, agreements similar to the Convention of 1925 exist between Romania and Turkey, between Turkey and Greece, between the former Yugoslavia and Turkey, between Bulgaria and Greece, between Bulgaria and Turkey, between Bulgaria and the Serbo-Croatian-Slovenian state (section III from the Treaty of Neuilly). According to these documents, each of the parties to the treaties grants the persons of foreign origin the right to choose in the process of emigration to the other country its citizenship, without having the right to settle afterwards in the territory of the country in which they were born, if the country of which they have become citizens of does not fit reciprocally.
If the current “changes” in Bulgarian laws – especially on dual citizenship – will be written under the dictation of “Sultan” Erdogan, it will be a disaster. For Bulgaria. The “public debate” officials of our justice department should know that in the Turkish citizenship law there are privileges for persons of Turkish origin from Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and all Balkan countries, including Bulgaria, to obtain Turkish citizenship. And those who take advantage of this right are aware that they are choosing – Turkish or another. Since they chose Turkish, it is theirs. There is not even a drop of doubt that they are discriminated against.
Why do today’s law makers in Bulgaria not remember one more fact from the recent history of our country. Despite efforts to erase everything done before 1989, it should be known that on November 30, 1978, the foreign ministries of Bulgaria and Turkey issued a joint statement. It says that the Agreement of 22 March 1968 has fulfilled its role. Absolutely, even for pensions. However, there are no such joint announcements for: the Establishment Convention, the Protocol and Treaty of 1925, the Edirne Agreement of November 2, 1913. Why? The answer is short – because they are not fulfilled.
Dangerous changes
The overly elementary and populist sounding idea of ”modernizing” laws is actually dangerous for Bulgaria. Because if our country does not start protecting Bulgarian interests, but only fleetingly demonstrates its muscles in front of Ankara, we will not get anywhere.
Why don’t our politicians realize what damage the dual citizenship of the Bulgarian Turks does to Bulgaria? Let’s start with this: to whom do they pay their taxes – Ankara or Sofia? And do they use Bulgarian healthcare? And who supports the mechanism of the Bulgarian state machine, the social sphere, education, health care, security?
Speaking of achievements, why is the decision of the Constitutional Court from 1995 forgotten, according to which the granting of electoral rights to people with foreign citizenship is a threat to the independence and sovereignty of Bulgaria?
And how can one interpret the proposal to change the Electoral Code, which – if accepted – prohibits voting in parliamentary elections, in a vote for president – to any Bulgarian citizen who has not lived in Bulgaria in the last three months before the elections. So we equate “our Turkish compatriots” with, for example, Bulgarians living in EU countries, right?!
But we should not forget our everyday life – today. And we “forget” – probably intentionally, but under whose dictation – our past as well.
Why, for example, do we not remember that at the signing of the Treaty, the Convention and the Protocol in 1925, Simeon Radev handed his partner from the Turkish side, Tefik Kemal Bey, an addition that the properties and the rents on them would be returned to the right holders?
Why does Sofia not ask Ankara to be a proper party to the bilateral agreements?
Why don’t we realize that through the dual citizenship of the Bulgarian Turks, we are opening the European door for Erdogan’s sultanate?
Let’s take things one step at a time. Because – in the case of our bilateral relations with Turkey – postponing the solution of the problem and ignoring the solutions reached work against Bulgaria. After all, we are talking about the actions of Bulgarian politicians, right?
And it is time for our policy – especially in relation to Turkey – to be based on the principle of gradual and constant protection of Bulgarian national interests. Let’s not get into Turkey’s rut - Ankara brings to the fore what interests it today, deliberately forgetting about what it has already undertaken as a commitment. Well, we are neighbors, and we must not forget the Turkish proverb: “To a fool when a gnat buzzes in his ear – he doesn’t hear it. A smart man hears a mosquito when it buzzes in his ear.” And what are the Bulgarian politicians according to this saying?
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*The High Gate, Bab Ali in Turkish, denotes the Divan of the Ottoman Empire, where state policy is made.
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Plamen Yotinski, editor-in-chief of BGNES Agency.
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