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Güner Tahir before FACTS: Ahmed Dogan alone is to blame for DPS being a corporate party for a long time

The party as a political force was used to benefit a handful of deribees, says the former deputy chairman and spokesperson of the DPS

Jul 11, 2024 10:58 186

Güner Tahir before FACTS: Ahmed Dogan alone is to blame for DPS being a corporate party for a long time  - 1

Honorary chairman of the DPS Ahmed Dogan has broken his silence and spread his position on what is happening in the party. He asked for the resignation of Delyan Peevski, who replied that he would not give it because the party has a “new beginning”. What to expect… Guner Tahir speaks to FACTS – former vice-chairman of the DPS and chairman of the National Movement for Rights and Freedoms.

- Mr. Tahir, will the DPS disintegrate given the recent circumstances we are witnessing?
- After reading both the statement of the honorary chairman Ahmed Dogan and the answer of Delyan Peevski, we can say that both sides are irreconcilable and the battle will be until the end. The question is whether someone will prevail, but in my opinion, they will rather neutralize each other.

- Will the corporate interest prevail over the emotional in DPS?
- I think that long ago Ahmed Dogan made this party a corporation, where only Phoenician signs and financial interests are in the foreground, and not the problems of the voters of the party itself. At the beginning of January, when Dogan announced that the party should have two co-chairmen - in view of a number of question marks, among which he was, and that there was a danger that DPS would become a corporate party, I think then, figuratively speaking, he became &ldquo ;tweaked miss“. Why? Because only and only Ahmed Dogan is to blame for DPS being a corporate party for a long time. A party that takes people's votes but does nothing for them. DPS as a political force was used to benefit a handful of deribees. Starting with Ahmed Dogan himself, we go through Delyan Peevski, through Ramadan Atalay and all those we know in their parliamentary group and in the regions.

- This address of Ahmed Dogan was not in his typical style, but he specifically asked for the resignation of Delyan Peevski, who replied that he would not eat. The very situation as it is…
- The situation with the requested resignation is not like the previous ones, when Dogan asked for the resignation of the chairman of the party, when he had to relieve Lutvi Mestan and then Mustafa Karadai. These castings went much more painlessly.

- They were a lot more interchangeable, so we understand…
- Not that they were more replaceable, but because their political culture, their intellect, if you will, was different. They have gone through the structures of the DPS, they know what party life is, and maybe it was also a matter of character. But all that made their retreat different. And now things are completely different. I want to open a parenthesis here. You know that in life everything comes back. What Peevski did at the end of December 2015, when in his capacity as nobody, really nobody in the DPS - neither a party functionary nor as part of the party's leadership, he called Lutvi Mestan and ordered him to have 24 time to resign. Naturally, Peevski did this with Dogan's knowledge. But playing the role of tongs in someone's hands, there comes a time when you too fall into the same situation. Life is a cycle and now Peevski feels it.

- Let's go back to the address. What impresses you about it?
- Ahmed Dogan's presentation that we read is really different, because Dogan cannot cut off the head of one co-chairman, convening the Central Council. And this is because it is not known what the disposition of forces is in this Central Council, this governing body of the DPS party. We see that Dogan does not have enough influence in the parliamentary group. Dogan delayed because he had carefully considered his exposure to the structures of the DPS. He was looking for a balance. So far, I have not seen anyone openly commenting on this, but the question arises: “Why is the name of Iskra Mihailova and Yordan Tsonev, who are one of the closest to Peevski, missing from this list of six names?“ I think there could be several reasons. One is that the two - because they are used to doing “plunges”, may have previously gone to Rosenets to present their feelings and their affection to the honorary chairman. And the other explanation is that Ahmed Dogan, as always, is looking for some kind of balance, because in this list of 6 names we see two Bulgarians, two Pomacs and two Turks. No one can say that he has indicated more than one or the other.