Bulgaria's Army to Assist Border Police Officers as of Monday

As of Monday, Bulgaria's Armed Forces will assist police officers patrolling the border with Turkey in a bid to cope with the refugee flows increase.

At the beginning of the week, Deputy Interior Minister Filip Gunev and Deputy Defense Minister Dimitar Kuyumdzhiev will visit the Elhovo border crossing point to mark the official start of the collaboration between police and armed forces, according to the press office of the Interior Ministry, as cited by Sega daily.

The main responsibilities of Bulgaria's Armed Forces will consist in the transportation of border patrol agents to places that are hard to reach and repairing equipment.

Although he was initially opposed to the idea amid concerns for the tensions that could be caused by the move in the sphere of Bulgaria's relations with Turkey, Defense Minister Nikolay Nenchev eventually approved the proposal for logistics support by the Bulgarian Army to the Border Police unit.

In end-January, Nenchev said that a total of 180 troops would be dispatched to the Bulgarian-Turkish border.