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Bulgarian minister backtracks on compensation claims
Bojidar Dimitrov, a minister without a portfolio who runs the Agency for Bulgarians Abroad, said he spoke about a matter on which he is not an expert and made a large gaffe, the Anatolia news agency reported on Thursday.
Dimitrov said in remarks published on Sunday that Bulgaria would veto Turkey’s bid to join the European Union unless Ankara pays $20 billion in compensation for hundreds of thousands of Bulgarians who emigrated from Thrace to Bulgaria in 1913. Dimitrov said the compensation was due under a 1925 treaty.
On Thursday, Dimitrov admitted that the treaty did not require payment of compensation, saying he misinterpreted the text. Borissov’s remarks came after Prime Minister Borissov threatened to sack Dimitrov over his Sunday statement. “I have warned Dimitrov that the next time something like this happens, we will have to let him go. You don’t come out and make such declarations without discussing them with the prime minister, the cabinet, or the parliament,” Borissov, who is due to visit Turkey in the next few weeks, said in remarks broadcast by Bulgarian TV on Wednesday.
Bulgarian Deputy Foreign Minister Marin Raykov has also reiterated that there is no threat of a veto and that Bulgaria “backs all the decisions of the European Union, concerning dialogue between Brussels and Ankara,” according to Bulgarian press agency Novinite.
The compensation claims elicited a harsh response from Ankara. On Tuesday, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said the claim could harm bilateral ties and pointed out that up to 2 million Turks also left Bulgaria during that part of history.
The controversy has reportedly cost an official in the Bulgarian government’s media office, Veselin Ninov, his job. In remarks to Internet news portal EUobserver on Monday, Ninov backed Dimitrov’s stance and said his position reflected that of the Bulgarian government. Reports in the Bulgarian media confirmed that he had been fired.
Turkey opened accession negotiations with the EU in 2005 but progress has been limited since then. Talks on eight of the 35 chapters were suspended due to the Cyprus problem. France, which opposes Turkish full membership, and Greek Cyprus, which pressures the EU for sanctions on Turkey because of its refusal to open its ports and airports to Greek Cypriot ships and planes, also unilaterally block a total of 10 chapters, leaving only a few chapters left open for negotiations.
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