The leader of “Continuing the Change“ Assen Vassilev, the deputy chairman of the party Nikolay Denkov, as well as the leaders of the PP-DB lists in Shumen and Kardzhali Aylin Pehlivanova and Sebahatin Gökçe, met with Bulgarian expatriates in Istanbul.
The hall was packed with hundreds of our compatriots. The problems of Bulgarians in Turkey were discussed at the meeting and the PP representatives made a commitment in the first days of the new parliament to put them on the table for resolution, the party's press center reported.
Assen Vassilev explained his personal conviction – that people should not be divided into Bulgarians, Christians, Muslims, Roma.
“We are all Bulgarian citizens, we love our country, we pay our taxes there and we want it to take care of all Bulgarian citizens like a mother, not like a stepmother for some“, said the leader of the PP.
He added that unfortunately in Bulgaria there are still many people who are afraid and who are not free. “There are many people for whom our country is a stepmother. How many of you like the roads when you come home to Bulgaria? Not because there is no money – there is money, but there is shameless stealing. And those who refuse to steal and participate in the schemes are put in prison, instead of those who steal being in prison“, said Vassilev.
And he added: “Nothing in Bulgaria will get better until the thieves go to prison“.
The PP leader recalled that he had lived abroad for 10 years. “I know how painful and sad it is to be far from home. And I know that no one chooses this for good. If we do our job as politicians, all of you, as well as all Bulgarians everywhere in the world, will want to return to Bulgaria – with good hospitals, good schools, good roads and good salaries“, said the former finance minister.
“In the last 4 years, Bulgaria has started to catch up with European salaries and people can live a little better. This was not magic, this was our understanding that the money from your taxes should come back to you“, explained the philosophy of the budgets prepared by Asen Vassilev.
He told the Bulgarian expatriates in Istanbul what the “Denkov“ government did for the development of the regions in Bulgaria – a program for municipal projects was developed, under which every mayor can apply for funding to fix their roads, water, playgrounds, kindergartens. “And the money should not be given based on whether the mayor is a friend of the finance minister or the prime minister, but on the basis of how many people live in this municipality. I heard that in Kardzhali they boasted a lot about how well the municipality has done – with new streets, new sidewalks. The question is why this didn't happen in the previous 30 years?“, asked rhetorically Asen Vassilev.
The Bulgarian emigrants raised the question of why there are only 20 polling stations in Turkey, England, and the USA. “Because the same people who steal from you want to steal your right to vote. My colleagues and I fought, but unfortunately, with our 36 deputies we didn't have enough strength to stop this law“, explained the PP leader.
He guarantees that in the next parliament this will be one of the first laws to be submitted for consideration. The PP delegation undertook to propose changes so that Bulgarian citizens can submit documents electronically to our consular services, as well as to resolve the issue of pensions fairly – so that everyone who has contributed to a system can get back from it.
Acad. Nikolay Denkov told our compatriots that our problems are common and we can solve them together. “In the new National Assembly, in the very first month, we will invite the chairmen of the emigrant organizations in Turkey to come to the parliament and tell exactly what their problems look like. In the very first week of the National Assembly, we will introduce a change in the laws that will return the number of electoral sections to what it was before. We will put on the table a bill on the pensions of emigrants. I have worked in three foreign countries and was entitled to either a pension or they returned the money from my pension contributions. This is fair, this is honest and this is what we will put on the table in the National Assembly“, said Denkov.
He added that there is no country on the Balkan Peninsula where Bulgarians have not complained about consular departments not working, about having to wait very long, about being asked for money under the counter to get their work done. According to him, the way to stop this vicious practice is for consular services to switch entirely to electronic services.
The leader of the PP-DB list for Shumen, Aylin Pehlivanova, added that the PP deputies are looking for a solution to the problems of Bulgarians everywhere in the parliament. “The problems that our friends named have been around for many years and we only hear promises about how they will be solved. It takes courage to solve them. First, to speak up when no one listens to you, when everyone is shouting against you, and to be able and have the courage to vote in favor of the citizens and their rights“, concluded Pehlivanova.
A day earlier, Denkov met with over 60 participants from the organization “Balgöç” at their headquarters in Bursa. He, together with the leaders of the PP-DB list in Shumen and Kardzhali – Aylin Pehlivanova and Sebahatin Gökçe, as well as the deputy mayor of the capital region “Triaditsa“ Jani Antova and the third on the list of Kardzhali Gulchin Durmush, talked about the rapid changes in Bulgaria in recent years.
“Our admission to Schengen and the eurozone has made Bulgaria even more attractive for business and for our compatriots, who are very interested in the European development of the country“, said Denkov. Our compatriots in Bursa shared with concern that 35 years after the changes, there are still many backward settlements and poverty, due to corruption addictions in the vicious “Peevski-Borisov“ model, which relies on pressure on people in mixed areas.
Acad. Denkov and the delegation from the PP visited the “Gökçeler“ enterprise in Bursa – one of the world's leading manufacturers of refrigeration compressors and spare parts for them, in which the workers are almost entirely emigrants from the regions of Kardzhali and Ludogorie. They also visited the Association of Turkish Companies Founded by Bulgarian Emigrants – “Kardzhali SIAD”. With its chairman Osman Guler and his colleagues they discussed investment opportunities in Bulgaria, with a focus on the regions that are in greatest need.