Movement for Rights and Freedoms

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Движение за права и свободи Dwischenie
sa Prawa i Swobodi
Movement for Rights and Freedoms
Party leader Mustafa Karadaja
founding 1990
Alignment Liberalism ,
minority politics
Parliament seats
25/240
( Narodno Sabranie , 2017 )
Number of members 66,000 (2015)
International connections LI
MEPs
3/17
European party ALDE
EP Group RE
Website www.dps.bg

The Movement for Rights and Freedoms , DPS / ДПС ( Bulgarian Движение за права и свободи , Dwischenie sa Prawa i Swobodi , Turkish Hak ve Özgürlükler Hareketi (HOH)) is a liberal party in Bulgaria that the interests of the mainly Turkish minority represents . It is often referred to simply as the “Turkish Party”. The Turkish minority, along with other Muslim minorities such as the Pomaks and Roma, form the core of their electorate. It was officially founded as a party in 1990. The party is known for several corruption cases. From January 19, 2013 to December 24, 2015, Lyutvi Mestan was chairman of the party.

After the parliamentary elections in Bulgaria in 2013 , she and the Socialist Party formed the government.

history

The party developed out of the underground organization Turkish National Liberation Movement in Bulgaria (Bulgarian Турско национално-освободително движение в България), which partly used terrorist means to resist the policy of the Bulgarian minority. Among other things, she is held responsible for the attack on March 9, 1985 on the Sofia – Burgas train in Bunowo station, which claimed seven lives, including two children.

Ahmed Dogan and Yenal Bekir during the founding conference

The Movement for Rights and Freedoms party was founded in 1990 with Ahmed Dogan as party chairman and Yenal Bekir as party secretary. Ahmed Dogan and other party leaders were active members of the Bulgarian State Security Committee at the time . Many of the members of the DPS were previously active in the Independent Society for the Protection of Human Rights , but distanced themselves from it when Rumen Vodenitscharow (an active member of the State Security at the time) took over its chairmanship and the party no longer advocated the rights of Bulgarian Muslims began.

Since it was founded, the DPS has consistently achieved stable results of 7% of the electoral vote and 20 of the 240 parliamentary seats, making it the third largest parliamentary group after the Conservatives and the Socialists . In the 2001 elections, the movement won 21 seats with 7.5% of the vote and entered the coalition government with the Simeon II National Movement under the former Tsar Simeon Sakskoburggotski . In the 2005 elections, it increased significantly and reached 12.7% and 34 seats, which was also due to the low turnout of the non-Muslim Bulgarian population. The DPS was once again involved in the government, this time with the socialists and the Simeon movement. However, her participation in government was accompanied by several corruption scandals. In 2009, Vice Minister of the Interior Rauf Mustafa from the DPS had to vacate his office because he had demanded a bribe of 50,000 leva (approx. € 24,000) from a businessman.

The DPS has been a member of the Liberal International since 2003 and of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe , the former European Liberal, Democratic and Reform Party, since December 2001 . In doing so, it also contradicts the allegations that it is a purely ethnic party, which would not be permissible under Bulgarian law. Nevertheless, a large part of the Bulgarian population calls it the Turkish Party . Traditionally, up to 100,000 votes for the DPS come from the Bulgarian-Turkish and Pomak communities living in Turkey, which has a considerable impact on the election result.

Elections 2009

In the election campaign for the 2009 parliamentary elections , Dogan described himself as the tool in whose hands all power was concentrated, whereas the members of parliament had no power: “ I am the tool in the government that allocates their portions to the companies in the country . ".

In the run-up to the 2009 elections, the ruling parties tried to manipulate the election by severely restricting the voting rights of Bulgarian citizens living outside the country's borders, mainly in Europe and the USA. For example, 259 polling stations were set up worldwide, of which 123 were in Turkey alone, where around 240,000 resettlers from Bulgaria live permanently; in Greece, however, there were only 3 polling stations for approx. 380,000 Bulgarian citizens; in Spain 16 for around 35,000 Bulgarian nationals; in the USA 15 polling stations for approx. 800,000 Bulgarians, in Moldova 1 for approx. 30,000.

Dogan's statements and the election manipulation that has been going on for years led to an anti-Dogan mood , which affected the DPS in the form of political isolation from the other political parties in the country and to an ethnic confrontation between Bulgarians and Turks.

The DPS was able to win over 600,000 votes and win the remaining five mandates according to the majority vote principle. This made it the third strongest party in parliament and achieved the best result in its history. One reason for the result achieved was the polarization sparked by Dogan's statements, which on the one hand led to an anti-DPS mood among the parties of the majority population and on the other hand to a consolidation and revitalization of the party's core electorate. So the DPS could count on the votes of the Islamic minorities (ethnic Turks and Pomaks ) and the Roma in the country, as well as on the Bulgarian-Turkish and Pomak exile communities. 87 percent of the Turks living in the country voted for the DPS. The DPS was able to win more than 100,000 votes from abroad, especially the Bulgarian-Turkish and Pomak communities living in Turkey. In the elections, the party was again accused of large-scale election manipulation in the areas it dominated.

After the parliamentary elections in 2009 it became known that the DPS faction in the Bulgarian parliament has most of the employees of the former communist secret service (DS for short). In November 2009, the immunity of MPs Günai Sefer and Mithat Tabakow from the DPS parliamentary group in the Bulgarian parliament was lifted as they were being investigated and charges of corruption and misappropriation of public funds were brought in May 2010.

2011

The isolation of the DPS also became clear in 2010 when Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan did not meet with representatives of the party during his official visit to Bulgaria in early October. This was the first time in the history of the party. In January 2011, Central Council member and former number two of the party, Kasim Dal, made serious allegations against the political style of party leader Ahmed Dogan and the party's connections with the structures of the former communist secret service. As a result, he was expelled from the party on February 20, 2011. The structures of the party in Bulgaria sided with its chairman, all structures of the party in Turkey and the MP Korman Ismailov , also a member of the Central Council, supported Dal and called for Dogan's resignation. Dogan himself has not made any public appearances since the 2009 elections.

At the end of April, Ismailov was expelled from the DPS faction in parliament and shortly afterwards from the party. In early June, six more supporters of Kasim Dal and his policies terminated their membership in the party. Among the excluded were the four representatives of the party in Turkey and members of the party's central council, as well as Weselin Penew, long-time chairman of the liberal and party- affiliated foundation Liberalna Integrazija .

In July 2011, the former mayor of Velingrad and member of the DPS parliament, Fidel Baew, was sentenced to imprisonment for mismanagement.

2013

The public prosecutor's office investigated Hristo Bisserow in November 2013 on suspicion of money laundering and tax fraud. He was dismissed as Vice-President of Parliament on November 7, 2013 at his own request. On November 3, 2013, Bisserow had already resigned all political offices and DPS membership “for personal reasons”. The politician known as the "Gray Cardinal" and his stepson are said to have transferred money to accounts in the Seychelles , among other things .

Criticism of the party

In 2006, Ahmed Doğan publicly stated in a corruption debate that there is a "circle of companies" (Bulgarian "обръч от фирми") around him and his party. In autumn 2007, after the regional elections, he declared that “buying votes is a European phenomenon” and that this is quite normal if you want to win an election. No legal action was taken in either case.

Although the party claims to be liberal and open to other sections of the population, before and after every election in Bulgaria it is regularly accused of not only mobilizing 15,000 to 20,000 Turks of Bulgarian origin from Turkey, but also organizing them to the ballot boxes. This was partly confirmed by former members of the party, such as former minister Mehmet Dikme at the 2007 mayoral elections in Ardino and Kardzhali .

Chairperson

Web links

Commons : Movement for Rights and Freedoms  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. www.24chasa.bg
  2. ↑ The bourgeois opposition wins the European elections in Bulgaria www.welt.de, First parliamentary election after joining the EU www.faz.net
  3. Another corruption scandal leads to the DPS , newspaper article on the website of the newspaper Dnevnik from September 15, 2009
  4. Sabine Riedel: The political system of Bulgaria . In: Wolfgang Ismayr: The political systems of Eastern Europe. VS Verlag, Wiesbaden 2009 (3rd edition), ISBN 978-3-531-16201-0 , pp. 700ff.
  5. http://www.novinite.com/articles/172378/Bulgaria's+%3Cb%3EDPS%3C/b%3E+Party+Expels+Chairman+Lyutvi+Mestan
  6. Alexandre Lévy: La fièvre monte dans la capitale bulgare in Le Figaro , June 27, 2013; Quote: Et cela au prix d'une alliance inédite avec le Parti socialiste (PS, ex-communiste) et le Mouvement pour les droits et les libertés (MDL) de la minorité musulmane du pays
  7. Archive link ( Memento from November 1, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), original: http://www.netinfo.bg/?tid=40&oid=1011656
  8. Archive link ( Memento of the original from June 26th, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.podlupa.bg
  9. Разочаровани от Румен Воденичаров, мюсюлманите отдавна са се насочили към ДПС и км ДПС и соскан ДПС у соскан ДПС и сосканана ливавна.
  10. Rauf Mustafa was charged with bribery (Bulgarian) on www.mediapool.bg on June 17, 2009
  11. Video on YouTube (Bulgarian; June 2009) with the remarks mentioned, with subtitles and reaction of the MPs 2009: "MPs have no power. Their power is legislative. They pass laws. A MP [must be particularly steadfast] , so that it can be transformed into an instrument of power to solve specific problems. How is an MP to solve their [the audience present] problems for their projects and their funding. That is not possible. The power is in my hands. I want that they understand. [Applause] Power is concentrated with me, not with your MPs. I want you to know that. I am the instrument of power that distributes the portions of funding across the country. I want them to do it all it's clear." Note: He spoke these words at an election rally
  12. Party leader of the Bulgarian Turks: "I am the power". in sueddeutsche.de
  13. http://news.ibox.bg/news/id_1530818565
  14. All those who are against the "Dogan" model should support Kasim Dal (Bulgarian) , interview with Osman Oktaj , mediapool.bg, January 13, 2011
  15. Doert, Doert, Doert. The technology of the Turkish vote in the villages around Karschdali (Bulgarian) Newspaper article on the website of the newspaper Capital , from 10 July 2009
  16. http://www.capital.bg/show.php?storyid=757335
  17. ^ Constitutional court overturns law against former spies in Bulgaria
  18. Two members of parliament have remained without immunity (Bulgar.)
  19. Successful start of the trial against two members of parliament (Bulgarian)
  20. Ердоган не се е срещал с Доган (Bulgarian) , to German about Erdogan did not meet Dogan , Darik Radio.
  21. Dogan has misused the idea of ​​DPS for lies and self-enrichment (bulg.) , Capital , accessed on February 21, 2011
  22. ^ See: Bulgaria's Ethnic Turkish Party DPS Expels Dissenter , www.novinite.com, accessed on February 21, 2011; The resettlers in Turkey called for the resignation of Dogan (Bulgarian) , Dnevnik , accessed on February 21, 2011; The resettlers in Turkey called for Dogan's (Bulgarian) resignation , Darik Radio , accessed on February 21, 2011
  23. http://mediapool.bg/show/?storyid=178549&srcpos=8
  24. DPS excluded another six supporters of Kasil Dal from the party (Bulgarian), Dnevnik , accessed on June 10, 2011
  25. Three years for Fidel Baew
  26. http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/07/us-bulgaria-politics-moneylaundering-idUSBRE9A60ND20131107
  27. Söder calls for an investigation into the Bulgaria election. In: welt.de . November 10, 2007, accessed October 7, 2018 .
  28. http://mediapool.bg/show/?storyid=139583&srcpos=1
  29. Report on mobilizing voters living in Turkey (Bulgarian)
  30. Report on electoral tourism (Bulgarian)
  31. Report on the contestation of the election results (Bulgarian)