Make Bulgaria a country worth coming back to

What are the ‘Octabka!’ protests in Sofia?

Bulgaria is one of the countries with the lowest scoring Press Freedom Index; the majority of its media outlets are paid by the government to broadcast whatever they are told, and many of them are owned by Delyan Peevski, primarily an oligarch, but also a Bulgarian political member of the Movement for Rights and Freedom (DPS) party... or was it the other way around? As it is right now, Kapital and the newspaper Sega (meaning “Now” in Bulgarian) are two of the very few print publications practising freedom of speech, autonomous from the censorship of the government. For this reason, it is hard to source information about current political ongoings which has not been edited in one way or another, especially as a foreigner, native speaker, or someone abroad.

The same is true for somebody like myself. Having grown up in a different country, the entirety of my education being in English, and leaving Bulgaria as soon as I graduated high school, I cannot say that I am the exemplar citizen. Truthfully, I rarely keep up with political and social happenings in my country, and I mainly stay informed via my parents versus my own independent reading and research. Although, admittedly, this is mainly due to lack of interest and drive, partially it is because of the lack of reliable and coherent information available in English; though Bulgarian is my mother tongue, it is not my strongest language.

In light of raising awareness and addressing the fact that few international media outlets have properly covered the recent civil and political unrest - as well as under a wider scope, the negligence and corruption which has prevailed in Bulgaria (and a big portion of Eastern Europe as whole) - I'd like to bring your attention to the current affairs in my home country.

Unlike its low scoring Press Freedom Index, Bulgaria has actually done pretty well in some other categories. In fact, we've ranked #1 for seven consecutive years as the European Union's most corrupt country - what an honour! This brings me to the July 2020 protests...

If you have found yourself in the Sofia centre, or anywhere in its surrounding area in the past five days, chances are you've seen the protests, or heard the crowds screaming "Ostavka!" Ostavka, directly translated as "resignation," which is the key word that protestors in Sofia have been chanting, urging for the resignation of the country's Prime Minister Boyko Borisov and Chief Public Prosecutor Ivan Gechev. As PM, for years Borisov has been the head of the corrupt government which has led and controlled Bulgaria as a nation. The current protests seek to abolish that; through the resignation of these aforementioned key figures, as well as a plea for them to face trial for their crimes.

Although arguably long overdue, the protests sparked following two key incidents: The “Rosenets Incident” (I will address this later), as well as a conducted armed raid of the presidency, in that order. Bulgaria's version of the Department of Justice (we love a little irony) searched the offices of Plamen Uzunov, the country's presidential secretary of legal affairs and anti-corruption, and Iliya Milushev, the secretary of defence - arresting both in the process.

Allegedly, the raids were an attempt to deliberately shift focus and delay investigations into Bulgaria's political elite and oligarchy - a section of society that the PM Borisov is no stranger to.

Bulgaria's President, Rumen Radev, joined the demonstrators and in a short speech called for a “purge of the mafia” within the government and the prosecutor's office, where he was met with agreement, as the demonstrators began to chant "out with the mafia!"

However, it is important to note that these protests are not in any way in support of any one Bulgarian political party. I have read too many pieces which hold the common misconception that the demonstrators are somehow in support of Radev and his party; this is false. The protests are against the suppression of freedom and presence of corruption, which happen to be widely endorsed by Boyko Borisov and his cabinet. They are in support of the Presidential Cabinet, not the president specifically.

Radev was elected in 2015 as an independent candidate, with backing from Bulgaria's Socialist Party (BSP), and has never silenced his harsh criticism of the PM's conservative cabinet, even accusing him of having "links with oligarchs." In fact, Borisov came under a lot of scrutiny and was even forced into delivering an emergency press conference, following a leaked set of photos, showing the PM asleep with a gun on his bedside table and a drawer full of €500 notes. This falls in line with many accusations addressed towards the Bulgarian government, questioning the allocation of its EU funds. Unfortunately, money laundering has become a sort of twisted bucket list for many influential figures in Bulgaria.

This evident political rivalry between the two heads of state leaves nobody surprised at the fact that Borisov's own political party GERB was quick to organise a separate counter-protest in Borisov's defence, allegedly paying crowds from nearby cities to attend these demonstrations. The clash between the two protesting parties unsurprisingly caused tensions, leading to protestors falling victim to police brutality (Warning: video contains scenes some viewers may find distressing).

Men and women were brutalised, handcuffed and pushed to the ground like animals, without legitimate cause and despite their obedience to the police's requests. Some, like Evgeniy Mirchev, are currently fighting for their lives as a direct consequence of the injuries they endured.

As I mentioned previously, this political and civil uproar is heavily intertwined with the Rosenets Incident earlier this month, which was in fact the initial catalyst. By law, Bulgarian beaches are state owned, public, and cannot be privatised. However, as a nation, we recently became witness to a very disturbing incident. Hristo Ivanov, Dimitar Naydenov and Ivaylo Mirchev were all aggressively kicked off what should be a publicly accessible beach, at the hands of the armed guards of the Marine Palace associated with Ahmed Dogan, a Bulgarian oligarch and honorary chairman of the Movement for Rights and Freedom in Bulgaria (once again, we love a little irony).

The guards got aggressive, even pushing the men (who were not breaking any laws) into the water, and later defacing the Bulgarian flag by pushing it to the ground. When the police eventually arrived, only the men in the water were asked to identify themselves through documentation, despite it being legally necessary for the guards to do so themselves, regardless of their hire. I mention hire, because both Ahmed Dogan and Delyan Peevski, whom I mentioned previously and who coincidentally happens to be Dogan's right hand, have come under public scrutiny for the fact that they are guarded by the National Security Service (NSO). Putting aside the fact that the country pays something around eight million BGN per annum for their private security teams, the blatantly illegal seizure of land paired with the NSO creates a barrier around the two men, making them seem fundamentally untouchable and placing the country at their feet.

Touching similar notes, the Rosenets Residence has become a sort of symbol of Bulgarian law and politics, turning their heads the other way when it comes to specific people, and “letting things slide.” A place where the corruption that everyone feels but cannot necessarily describe is embodied by an illegal usurpation of land funded by the nation's taxes.

On the second day of Sofia's protests (11 July), the Rosenets protests began. After the original incident, Hristo Ivanov - the former Minister of Justice and current leader of the "Da, Bulgaria!" (Yes, Bulgaria!) political party - vowed to come back on Saturday (July 11) to reclaim the defaced flag, and urged others to join him at the residence's gate, marking the beginning of the Rosenets protests.

After the video of the men getting kicked off the beach went viral, President Radev stepped in by demanding a reconsideration of the legalities of the residence and the details of what was offered to Dogan and Peevski (both members of the DPS party), which is allegedly what fuelled the raids of the presidency.

As I mentioned previously, the uproar and the protests have been long overdue. Through various microaggressions, the government has attempted to mute its citizens in several ways, more recently through its handling - or to put it more appropriately, mishandling - of the Covid-19 pandemic. Some of these microaggressions are well summarised and addressed in an Instagram thread, though I do urge everyone to research, fact check, and abstain from taking unbacked sources as the full truth. I will attempt to summarise some of it for the sake of coherence.

“One virus is enough” - Photography by Sketches of Sofia

Back in April, the Bulgarian government passed a law allowing them to extend its state of emergency indefinitely; as long as deemed necessary by ruling bodies. This has virtually allowed the government to use the outbreak of the pandemic as a judicial free-for-all, whereby parliament has unchecked power. Although I was not in Bulgaria for the majority of the lockdown itself, my parents' and friends' reports painted a pretty vivid picture for me. Instead of educating its people, the government chose to instil fear in its population (as a preventative measure, of course). Our nation was even warned against misbehaviour, as “refrigerated trucks are ready to carry your corpses away”. Out of fear, statements like those were met with little-to-no public criticism or request for rationalisation.

As per public knowledge, it is important to note the fact that the EU delegates higher budgets for countries with higher Covid-19 cases. There have been multiple allegations of falsified positive tests, in order to “up” our statistics. Bulgaria and its members of parliament are no strangers to the idea of redirecting EU budget money for personal profit, bringing me back to the commonality of money laundering. It becomes increasingly evident how heavily interrelated and intertwined all of these issues are.

I have often found myself sighing and saying something along the lines of "the corruption in this country is buried so deep within every aspect of our nation, that I do not even know where one would have to begin to unravel it." Throughout my upbringing, I never felt like a life in Bulgaria was an option for me; my parents have repeatedly discouraged me from coming back, under any circumstances. At the risk of backlash from my Bulgaria-loving friends and readers, I do understand where they are coming from. Despite its beautiful nature and rich culture, Bulgaria has done very little to help me envision a future there, especially in recent years. But at the same time, I feel as though it is up to us to fight this battle; by going out to protest, making your voice heard and educating yourself. While everyone's protest sign carries a common message, with slightly differing pleas, I think I speak on behalf of thousands of kids, young adults and parents when I simply ask that Bulgaria become a country worth coming back to.

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