Borisov offered his reassurances during a telephone conversation with Erdoğan, the Bulgarian Prime Ministry said in a written statement on Thursday. Turkey had already protested recent developments in a written statement released by the Foreign Ministry on Wednesday, a day after Volen Siderov, the leader of Bulgaria’s far-right ultranationalist Ataka party, asked Borisov for support in order to set a date for a national referendum on the broadcasting issue. Borisov declared his support for Ataka’s call for a referendum. Borisov said he believed a national referendum was the best way to make sure that the majority of the Bulgarian population was in favor of the daily 10-minute news broadcasts in Turkish.
Borisov’s remarks led to reaction even from Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov. Calling the debate over the broadcasting of Turkish-language news on state television “irrelevant,” he said he suspected that “a large trap has been set for Prime Minister Borisov” with the initiation of the debate.
The move concerning Turkish-language news on Bulgarian National Television (BNT) sparked reaction from the European Parliament, too. Guy Verhofstadt, liberal group leader in the European Parliament, on Thursday voiced his concerns over plans in Sofia to hold a referendum aimed at banning the short TV news program.
“The Bulgarian government must see sense,” Verhofstadt stated in Strasbourg, where the European Parliament was holding its last plenary session of the year. “Supporting Ataka’s request for a national referendum on a matter of minority rights is inevitably going to favor the linguistic majority,” warned the former Belgian prime minister.
According to Verhofstadt, the initiative risks putting Bulgaria at odds with fundamental international legal and political obligations governing the protection of and respect for minorities and minority languages.
“Closure of this news program will inflame tensions within Bulgarian society and discredit the country’s reputation in the international community as well as breaching the EU treaty principle of non-discrimination on grounds of ethnicity and language,” Verhofstadt said in a statement.
