Author: Emilia Milcheva
"They think we're gnomes because we're gypsies!" This is what Dimitrinka Kirilova says, pointing to the tent in which she and her husband Metodi and three other people are trying to live among the ruins. The tent is pitched next to the remains of a brick wall from their home. Until nine days ago, there was a house there with a new kitchen and a bedroom for 2,600 leva. Everything was destroyed in the largest demolition of illegal Roma homes in the recent history of Bulgaria - an entire neighborhood with at least fifty buildings in the capital's "Zaharna Fabrika" district was wiped out.
Dimitrinka is a sanitation worker, her husband is a driver for a garbage collection company, her father-in-law works in municipal landscaping. "Most of us here work. We want a solution - not tents, but a roof. Now we are collecting money - in boxes, in bills. We want to buy municipal land, but they won't give it to us," she says bitterly.
The place now - tons of garbage, wandering dogs, a single chemical toilet and people sleeping on mattresses or directly on the ground. More than a week after the demolition, nothing has been cleaned. It is also unclear where the 300,000 leva for the cleanup will come from - Sofia's budget for 2025 has not yet been adopted, and companies for garbage collection for the next 4 years are yet to be selected.
A scandal erupted when it became clear that ten tents donated by the Bulgarian Red Cross were locked in the office of the mayor of the "Ilinden" district, Emil Branchevski. He is the man who signed the decision to demolish them based on an old order from 2016. The homemade shacks are dangerous for people's lives, he says. We don't want to live like bums, people say.
Bulgarian authorities vs. ΕEuropean Court of Human Rights
Four days before the excavators entered, the ΕEuropean Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ordered that the homes of 14 vulnerable people in the neighborhood not be demolished until they were provided with alternative accommodation. The ECHR's interim measures are pending a ruling on a case filed by the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee (BHK), which represents these 14 people - the application "Ilieva and Others v. Bulgaria" (No. 11201/25).
But on April 15, the excavators entered with police, gendarmerie and water cannon, and the Bulgarian authorities overstepped the law. Along with the gross violation, the action fueled ethnic tension and hatred that had not been manifested for years. These consequences raise doubts as to whether these were the goals, after on the eve of Easter - and despite an order from the ECHR, the mayor of "Ilinden" decided to carry out an order from 9 years ago.
"Ignoring a decision and lack of respect for a European institution that can control the imposition of certain norms. The dimensions, I think, are extremely clear" - this is how long-time researcher of Roma communities, Professor Elena Marusiakova, commented on what was happening for Deutsche Welle. She defines the demolition of Roma buildings as "careless and criminal act". "This is an outrage. There should be no illegal buildings - it is the duty of a civilized state to ensure that they do not arise. If for some reason it happened - to take measures to remove them, but to be as sparing as possible", says Prof. Marushiakova.
"The irony is cruel: the very infrastructure of Sofia - the blocks, the roads, the bridges - was built by Roma and other minorities through Construction Troops, without payment. But their contribution is systematically erased from the national memory", commented for DV Ognyan Isaev from the "Trust for Social Alternative". "The ECHR issued a temporary injunction in protection of these families - a legal obligation that takes precedence over national laws. But the mayor of "Ilinden", the mayor of Sofia and the Bulgarian state chose to ignore it," he added.
No institution - Sofia Municipality, Ministry of Justice, Prime Minister, President, Church leaders, nor any political force - from the opposition or the ruling coalition, reacted to the brutal action. For the first time, Bulgaria violated interim measures imposed by the ECHR, even though the court's provisions have been mandatory since 1992, when the country ratified the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.
When asked by Deutsche Welle why he did not comply with the ECHR, the mayor of "Ilinden" explained that three of the 14 are not from the "Sugar Factory", and the interim measures do not cancel orders to remove buildings that are dangerous to life and health, such as the ones that were demolished.
The European Court has given Bulgaria until May 9 to provide additional information on what accommodation options have been offered to the applicants, it became clear from a response from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) to a query by the State Gazette.
At the last minute - Botunec
The information requested by the ECHR is despite Branchevski's explanation that the individuals had refused the accommodation offered to them, "and the regional administration cannot offer other alternatives, since all municipal housing is occupied by other vulnerable individuals".
From the explanations given by the mayor of "Ilinden" to the ECHR and summarized by the Ministry of Justice, a picture emerges of some formal actions that were carried out in the two days before the excavators entered the ghetto on April 15. On April 13, the regional administration checked 3 Suhodol Street and found that 64 individuals lived there, 28 of whom had a work address in the "Zaharna Fabrika" district, block 51a, entrance B, and the rest had other addresses. On April 14, a commission was appointed to determine which of the affected individuals could be treated as vulnerable and to offer them alternative accommodation.
"The commission offers alternative accommodation to 17 individuals, adults and children, including all the complainants. It concerns temporary residential accommodation centers, as well as apartments from the reserve fund of the municipality in Botunec. The individuals have not accepted the proposals and refuse to sign the protocols that were signed by the officials present", the Ministry of Justice wrote in its response, referring to data from the "Ilinden" district.
That is, on April 15, when the excavators enter and it rains, the officials have no idea where they will accommodate mothers, children and all the others who will be left without a roof after hours. The information from the Ministry of Justice refutes the assurances of the "Ilinden" district and the Sofia Municipality to Deutsche Welle that they had a preliminary plan for accommodation. According to the SO's response, they have provided "enough free places for everyone who has an address registration at ul. "Suhodol" 3" (this is the official address of the neighborhood, deleted in 2020, b.a.). Why then were only about twenty people accommodated and a working group was created at "Moskovska" 33?
"We were on the ground weeks before the removal itself, in order to establish the individual needs of the people and to offer appropriate solutions", say the "Ilinden" district. It seems that they were invisible, because none of the people from the destroyed ghetto confirmed their presence.
In its response to the State Gazette, the Ministry of Justice informed that on April 15 the mayor of "Ilinden" and the mayor of Sofia have been "reinformed with an official letter that a state party to the Convention cannot replace the judgment of the ECHR" and additional questions have been asked of them. But this does not stop the demolition.
A Deutsche Welle check showed that in the proposals for accommodation in block 16 in the Botunets district it is not possible to live without investing funds for major repairs, cleaning the empty apartments, installing windows and doors, etc. There are four or five apartments in the block and it is inexplicable how the mayor of "Ilinden" proposes to send sick people and children to unsuitable housing.
The mayor of "Kremikovtzi", in whose district Botunets is also located - Liliya Donkova, publicly announced that she does not want the Roma from "Zaharna Fabrika". The mayor of the "Lyulin" district did the same. Georgi Todorov: “I will categorically not accept accommodation of persons from the ghetto in "Zaharna Fabrika" in our region and in the temporary accommodation center". Since 2019, Roma from houses demolished six years ago in "Zaharna Fabrika" have been living in the Lyulin center.
Homeless
How many were left homeless after the demolition of their homes? According to the Roma - about 180 people, a total of 64 families, and only four families have been accommodated.
The "Ilinden" region did not answer how many were not accommodated, but reported that there are 14 people in the Temporary Accommodation Center - 8 adults and 6 children. The regional administration did not answer the State Duma how many women, children and people with disabilities from the demolished ghetto are, although it claims that a social assessment of the residents has been made. However, no one has seen her.
DV also asked the Sofia Municipality (SO) about the number of those admitted and received the following answer: "One person has been admitted to the First City Hospital, another - to the "Prof. Dr. N. Shipkovenski" psychiatric hospital. One family has been admitted to the "Emergency Admission" social service in the "Nadezhda" district, and 11 people have been accommodated in the "St. Sofia" Temporary Accommodation Center. Additionally, a father with two minor children has been accommodated, and two more families have been accommodated yesterday and today. The situation is dynamic".
From "Moskovska" 33 say they are responding promptly and mobilizing "teams, resources and overall support for the victims", "psychological and medical assistance".
The Roma agree that no one from the "Ilinden" or the Sofia Municipality came to them during the Easter holidays, municipal officials were not detected during the three visits of the Bulgarian Red Cross to the field. The Bulgarian Red Cross did not send volunteers either. Instead, there were activists from the Bulgarian Red Cross, Roma organizations, and the non-governmental organization ATD Fourth World - Together for a Decent Life, which also runs a psychologist for children stressed by the destruction.
Some of the Roma are sheltered in the Bulgarian House of God church, a small two-story house, crammed with furniture from collapsed homes and full of mothers with coughing children. It is reached via a metal bridge without railings, spanning the Perlovska River, on the other side of the destroyed ghetto.
Children run into the hall on the first floor, where a wooden cross stands with the inscription: "And call on Me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you; and you will glorify Me" (Psalm 50:15). A washing machine saved from the excavators spins everyone's clothes nonstop, and two trays shine among the hastily collected luggage. "They are from my grandmother. When I was taking them out, one of the policemen laughed: You're preparing for the Easter lamb, huh!", says one of the women, who previously lived in Germany. The children are sick, they were standing in the rain, she explains and opens a refrigerator, where among the chutneys, dairy products and other foods are also bottles of medicine.
Private interests or something more
When asked by Deutsche Welle whose land the ghetto is built on, the Sofia Municipality replied that it covers four properties: state public property, private property and two municipal properties - with private and public ownership, respectively. A detailed development plan (DDP) has not been prepared. One of the municipal properties is designated for a street, and the other - for landscaping and construction of sports infrastructure. According to information from the "Ilinden" district most of the terrain is municipal and no new construction is planned after the clearance.
According to Rositsa Kratunkova from ATD, however, there is an investment interest in this property, which is evident from the data in the cadastre - the construction of commercial facilities is planned, probably of the type of a hall with shops. And the Roma houses prevent access to the street.
Did this motivate the quick actions of Branchevski, who rushed to demolish despite warnings not to do so? Or is it the beginning of a series of "punitive" actions in the country? Because of rumors that the next one could hit Stara Zagora, DV turned to the local authorities with a question whether demolition of Roma homes was being prepared. Municipal Secretary Nikolay Dikov responded with a standard formulation: if the construction is illegal, it is removed; if it is not done voluntarily - forcibly.
Branchevski himself underwent a significant transformation. After being removed from the mayor's post last summer for his involvement in a company abroad, the Supreme Administrative Court reinstated him in December. Immediately afterwards, he announced that he was leaving "Save Sofia" and would now be an independent mayor. The intervention of the Supreme Administrative Court raised suspicions that Branchevski was benefiting from Delyan Peevski's patronage due to his influence in the Supreme Court.
The action in the ghetto also heightened tensions due to protests organized by the "Sugar Factory" Initiative Committee, from which they raised slogans for equality before the law for all citizens. It unites residents of the neighborhood who claim that the Roma are claiming municipal housing and are exaggerating their claims. The committee is also considering a general Sofia protest in May, for which they had support from 15 neighborhoods in the capital. But everyone is aware that there are no municipal housing units - there are less than a hundred, and those waiting are ten times more.
Nothing has yet been offered to the people sleeping in tents. When asked by the State Duma why they were not notified earlier, "Ilinden" replied that since February 13, talks have been held daily and on the spot. "In addition to the fact that the order was publicly announced, personal contact was sought with each family, and individual solutions and assistance were offered, but they refused accommodation and the offered assistance". On March 25, on the Bulgarian National Radio, Branchevsky said that "the municipality is in the process of accommodating these people".
On April 7, unsigned and unstamped notes were posted on several doors. And on April 15, while the excavator was demolishing, a van with croissants and coffee for the police officers was brought in, says Dimitrinka.