29 May 1989 is a date that reminds us of an event, arrogantly called "the great excursion". Another rude naming used for it, was the "revival process". Today, we call them by their real names – they were an attempt at forced assimilation, an attempt to steal our names, our language, faith, identity, our life. Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) leader Mustafa Karadayi reminisced about those events when addressing the huge crowd gathered in the square in Rouen (near the Black Sea city of Bourgas) for the town's holiday.
"To us, the “great excursion”, as it was arrogantly called, was an ethnic cleansing and a deportation of over 360 000 Bulgarian citizens to the Republic of Turkyie in just 2-3 months," Karadayi recalled.
Today, we pay tribute to the great courage of all those who set up the organisation for struggle, for rights and freedoms. This was an organisation that helped us fight for the sake of our names, in the name of our faith, dignity, identity. This organisation was established under the leadership of our honorary chairman Dr. Ahmed Dogan, Karadayi said.
We live in hard times - a two-year Covid pandemic is followed by a global economic crisis. But there is also a war. Therefore, this year we remember the “May events” (marking the struggle of Bulgarian Turks against the communist regime’s decision to change their names and identity in 1989) with commemorative rallies under the "Peace in the country. Peace in the world” motto, Karadayi said reminiscing on the same words used by the great leader Kemal Ataturk.
"More than 100 years ago, he said, 'Whoever is against Bulgaria is also against Turkey.' That was how we built our relations. The great Ataturk established modern democratic Turkey. But we too have a great “Ataturk” in the Balkans. Because in the Balkans there are two models for resolving ethnic problems. One is the Yugoslav model, and the other is the Bulgarian ethnic model, the latter pioneered by Dr. Ahmed Dogan. Our “Ataturk” in the Balkans is Dr. Ahmed Dogan", Mustafa Karadayi categorically said.
Bulgaria’s ethnic model lies in the peaceful transition from communism to democracy. We say NO to revanchism, and YES to the philosophy of togetherness, which is the essence of the Bulgarian ethnic model, whose author and architect is Dr. Ahmed Dogan, the MRF leader said.
Today we have a regime that can hardly communicate within itself. A government that was formed in the name of revanchism. A regime whose first steps were to illegally invade the people's privacy of home. This government was conceived unlawfully. A few grandstanders entered the field of politics after squashing the Constitution of democratic Bulgaria. We see them now devising fascist laws that would be enacted in our country, Karadayi warned.
The MRF has always shown the direction for this country to progress. We paved the way for achieving the great goals of the EU and NATO memberships, we helped reach a consensus within the society. In these difficult times, we must assign a path for Bulgaria, and this path is to have a worthy, reliable, resolute Euro-Atlantic government. It can be achieved only if in the upcoming ahead-of-term parliamentary elections, all Bulgarian citizens, who want to accelerate the economic development of Bulgaria and overcome the crises, who want peace and democracy in this country, vote for the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, Karadayi reasoned.
