Survivors of the "Belene" Camp criticized the Municipality for erasing history and demanded that the Council of Ministers protect the original appearance of the Second Site on Persin Island. This happened during the annual pilgrimage in memory of the victims of the communist regime in "Belene", which was attended by both survivors of the camp and heirs of victims and internees who are now deceased.
After honoring those who died in the concentration camp with memorial services by an Orthodox and Catholic priest, pastor and mufti, the deputy mayor of Belene, Petar Angelov, announced that work is underway to build a memorial.
"In addition to the relatively scarce historical documents, written sources and memories of surviving camp inmates, drawings, documentary maps and blueprints, conversations were held with camp inmates and their heirs. The remains of buildings and facilities discovered, photographed with geodetic equipment, were carefully studied," said Petar Angelov.
Hristo Hristov, who is the coordinator of the Initiative Group for the Pilgrimage, however, explained that the Belene Municipality does not have a permit for the construction of new buildings that would imitate buildings from previous stages of the camp.
"You have not worked with any of the organizations of the victims and their heirs. Your construction permit is for reconstruction. You must renovate these buildings and build the monument. "You should do this, not make a sham," said investigative journalist Hristo Hristov, who is also the director of the "Truth and Memory" foundation.
For her part, Safie Yurdakul from the Association for Justice, Rights, Culture and Solidarity in the Balkans pointed out that the Belene Municipality project and the exhibition of the foundation with which the municipality works have ignored the Turks interned in the camp during the Revival Process.
"You said that for ten years you have been working very hard, with many difficulties, to build some kind of memorial. Why have you never contacted us at all?" "Here are the living victims from the last period," said Safiye Yurdakul from the Society of the Last Survivors of the "Belene" Camp.
Among the participants in the pilgrimage were representatives of the last concentration camp inmates in "Belene", whose position against the plans of the Belene Municipality was presented by Saydali Alish.