Erdoğan Started Meddling in Bulgaria’s Home Affairs, Analysts Say

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has started to interfere openly in Bulgarian domestic politics, pundits said after he made an unprecedented video address to Bulgaria's mostly ethnic Turkish Movement of Rights and Freedoms (DPS).

On 12 December, Erdoğan addressed in a short video a party conference of DPS (Renew Europe), which re-elected Mustafa Karadayi to a new leadership term.

DPS has a steady presence in Bulgaria's political landscape, with 25 MPs in the 240-member National Assembly. Officially, DPS is in opposition, but they have supported the government of Boyko Borissov in decisive moments, in exchange for economic benefits.

"Dear members of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, dear brothers and sisters, I congratulate you with the most heartfelt feelings of love and longing," Erdoğan said in the address.

He added: "We see that under the chairmanship of my dear friend Boyko Borissov, Bulgaria is coping with the crisis caused by the pandemic. Based on the understanding that friends in need know each other, Turkey also supports, to the best of its ability, friendly and fraternal peoples. "

The statement came a day after it became known that Borissov, together with Germany's Angela Merkel, had been instrumental in blocking efforts to impose sanctions on Turkey at the 10-11 December EU summit.

It is important to note that Erdogan praised Borissov but failed to mention Ahmed Dogan, the historic leader of DPS, who called Erdoğan a "dictator" in the past. Before the 2017 elections, Turkey unsuccessfully tried to create DOST, a second ethnic Turkish party in Bulgaria, in a direct insult to DPS.

Asked by EURACTIV to comment, former Bulgarian foreign minister Ivaylo Kalfin recalled that DPS has had...