If Ukraine loses the war, we are next. This is what Kiril Petkov, former Prime Minister of Bulgaria, told the Anatolian Agency (AA), BTA reported.
Petkov said that the Russian-Ukrainian war started in the first months of his prime ministership, in a difficult period, recalling that Bulgaria was one of the countries that provided the most aid to Ukraine, sending ammunition that came from Great Britain and USA and also hosting over 300,000 people fleeing the war.
„So many Bulgarians have grown up with the idea that Russia is Bulgaria's big brother,” Petkov noted, saying that his support for Ukraine during his premiership made people in Bulgaria uncomfortable because of traditional ties with Russia.
Emphasizing that he thinks he did the right thing by helping Ukraine, Petkov said: “If Ukraine loses, we are next. So I think we should fight for the freedom of Europe. Now, for me, there is a red line that I would not cross, even support. We would never send troops or manpower to Ukraine. But if we can help them with ammunition, we will be happy to do so, he added.
Regarding the assimilation policy and concentration camps against Turks and Muslims before 1989 by the communist elites who came to power in 1944, Petkov recalled that the then Bulgarian regime changed people's names and deported them from the country, noting : “My grandparents were also in labor camps during communism.”
Regarding the punishment of the guilty, Petkov said: “When we have a normally functioning court, what we have understood is that many governments have changed, we have become part of the EU, we have become part of NATO, but the prosecution system, of our courts is the old one. And this is our struggle”.
Nikolai Denkov, who assumed the prime minister's post for nine months until March 2024 according to an agreement between GERB and the PP-DB coalition, pointed to the situation of the Turks in Bulgaria and said that despite some success stories, in the regions where the Turks live there is not enough investment and that they have tried to fix this during their administration.
„Official data show that inequality in regions, inequality among people has been decreasing over the past few years, which was not the case before," Denkov said.
On the concentration camps where opponents of the system, especially Muslim Turks, were tortured, and the Belene concentration camp, where a commemoration was recently organized for the victims, he said: “What we did in the last parliament, for example, was to support the idea that the procedures, conditions for retirement of the people who suffered from this regime are eased. So this was accepted by all the leading parties in the parliament. We had another such decision before that to compensate as much as possible the people who suffered in those times.