Bulgarian MP Yulian Angelov condemned the attacks against representatives of the Bulgarian minority in Ukraine. In a statement on behalf of the group “United Patriots” which has 27 members in the National Assembly in Sofia, Angelov sharply criticized the countless attacks against ethnic Bulgarians, especially in Bessarabia. Some days ago Basil Kashti, one of the representatives of Bulgarians in Ukraine, was violently attacked by Ukrainian ultra-nationalists.
Angelov’s statement reads: “We urge the Foreign Ministry and the Bulgarian embassy in Ukraine and ask all parliamentarian groups in the Bulgarian parliament clearly and firmly to condemn this attack against Basil Kashti. The Bulgarian state is obliged to protect the representatives of the Bulgarian community in Ukraine.”
Angelov reminded Sofia as well as Kiev, that between 500 000 and 800 000 ethnic Bulgarians live in Ukraine.
Already yesterday Prof. Stanislav Stanilov, one of the leading members of Bulgaria’s patriotic Ataka party and vice-chairman of the Ataka group in the Bulgarian national assembly, stated:
“I know that recently Ukrainian “nationalists” – most of them are real fascists – put pressure on the Bulgarian minority. I think that this is a natural reaction, a consequence, caused by the disintegration of Ukrainian society which actually has never been integrated. Ukrainians literally want to kick out Bulgarians from Ukraine in the framework of a program of creating “a pure Ukrainian nation”. Besides, a part of Bulgarians are Russophiles something that is already considered as a huge crime in Ukraine.”
Sources in the Bulgarian National Assembly told Free West Media that also MPs from other groups in the parliament are willing to join a resolution for the protection of the ethnic Bulgarians in Ukraine.