24 March 2017•Update: 28 March 2017
By Salih Baran
KAPITAN ANDREEVO, Bulgaria
A group of Turkish reporters and Turkey-resident Bulgarian voters were prevented from entering the EU country on Friday, amid protests at a frontier crossing point.
Right-wing activists staged a demonstration in Bulgaria’s Kapitan Andreevo area -- a resumption of protests mounted on Wednesday.
Around 50 members of the right-wing United Patriots coalition protested about expat Bulgarian voters living in Turkey taking part in Sunday’s general election.
The demonstrators, many brandishing anti-Turkey banners and Bulgarian flags, blocked traffic at the border, forcing passengers from Turkey to disembark from buses and walk across the frontier on foot.
These demonstrators were later removed by police and traffic resumed as normal. The Bulgarian citizens who crossed the border on foot were picked up by relatives.
Earlier, the Bulgarian authorities also obstructed several Turkish journalists, citing security concerns. The reporters remain at the Bulgarian border.
Lutvi Mestan, head of the Democrats for Responsibility, Freedom and Tolerance (DOST) coalition wanted to meet Bulgarian voters at the border.
DOST, which means "close friend" in Turkish, generally has ethnic Turks or Muslims among its members.
“The border is now closed because of the racists, extreme nationalists. What we see here is not appropriate for an EU member country like Bulgaria,” Mestan told reporters.
“Our Bulgarian brothers forced to migrate [now] cannot enter in their own country”, he added, a reference to 1989 when Bulgaria’s Communist regime forced 360,000 people of Turkish origin to leave.
Many of these people settled in neighboring Turkey.
Journalists restricted
Earlier on Friday, three journalists -- including Anadolu Agency staff -- had been prevented from entering the country.
Separately, two other Turkish journalists who had crossed the border two days before were sent back on Friday.
Turkey’s Consul General to Plovdiv, Huseyin Ergani, told reporters he hoped order would be maintained by the Bulgarian authorities.
“There is a sensitivity due to the elections. People have the right to demonstrate,” Ergani added.
Tensions
Bulgaria has a large Turkish minority of about 10 percent, according to official census figures.
Tensions between Bulgaria and Turkey recently escalated over claims Ankara is interfering in the election by favoring the DOST coalition.
Bulgarian citizens are getting ready to vote in the country's third parliamentary election since 2013.
Bulgaria has also issued a new law limiting the number of ballot boxes for Bulgarians living in Turkey to 35 -- for an estimated 500,000 expat residents -- a move the Turkish Foreign Ministry said was intended to hinder ethnic Turkish Bulgarians from voting.
Earlier on Friday, the governor of Turkey’s northwestern Edirne province said Bulgarian citizens living in Turkey were traveling home unobstructed to cast their votes.
"Our Bulgarian citizens in Turkey are going to [Bulgaria] to exercise their democratic right,” Gunay Ozdemir told Anadolu Agency.
