Yordan Tsonev to Stay with MRF Chairman Peevski, Will Not Align with Honorary Chair Dogan if Rift Persists

National Assembly Deputy Chairman Yordan Tsonev of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) Friday said that he is part of the team of MRF Chairman Delyan Peevski and will remain on that team. In Tsonev's words, if the division in the MRF and expelling of MPs continues, and it will obviously continue, for the first time he will not remain by the side of MRF Honorary Chairman Ahmed Dogan. Tsonev further said on bTV that he respects Dogan. 

"What has been happening in the last days personally makes me doubt some of my first believes from  the last 25 years," he added. In his words, the whole attack comes at a time when the MRF is at its historical peak and in a superb condition. "Good or bad, approved or not, loved or hated, Peevski has made wonderful things for the people and for the MRF. He has built a wonderful team," Tsonev argued. In his words, the party has always been governed with a firm hand.

"I told the colleagues who support the [Dogan's] demand for the resignation [of Peevski] and have supported all of the Honorary Chairman's actions: I am left with the impression that for 25 years I have been misled that togetherness is a philosophy of the MRF," Tsonev said further.

"What I saw in the Facebook group moderated by Elvan Atilla [of the MRF] is very disturbing. I saw purely ethnic calls: 'the Bulgarians and the pomaks are taking our party', 'we Turks should get it back'. This is not Dogan's lifework, his lifework is inter-ethnic compatibility, which he extremely accurately described with the word 'togetherness'," Tsonev commented.