Addressing a rally on Saturday commemorating the victims of the communist-era regeneration process, Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) leader Mustafa Karadayi pledged to stop “with legal instruments the undermining of democracy and statehood in our motherland”.
The village of Barutin is the venue of the rally held in March of every year to commemorate the victims of the forcible renaming of Bulgarian Muslims in the Rhodopi Mountains. Two residents of the village were killed during the events of March 1972.
Karadayi said: “It is our mission to safeguard the integrity of our motherland Bulgaria, to be a guarantor of peace, security and stability, a guarantor of democracy.”
Recalling events of the regeneration process, Karadayi called the victims “heroes of democracy who accelerated the fall of the totalitarian communist regime”. Togetherness is the key philosophy of the Bulgarian ethnic model, whose author is [MRF founder] Ahmed Dogan, said Karadayi, who called for peace in Bulgaria, the Balkans and the world.
The event was attended by members of the MRF leadership, MPs, mayors and Grand Mufti Mustafa Hadzhi. The speakers at the rally emphasized the importance of standing up for one’s identity.
