Bulgaria: Leaders of Evangelical Churches Condemn the Wave of
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Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2002 09:48:49 +0200 (EET)
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Subject: Bulgaria: Leaders of Evangelical Churches Condemn the Wave of
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Original sender: Emil Cohen <[email protected]>
Bulgaria: Leaders of Evangelical Churches Condemn the Wave of
anti-Semitism in the country
TOLERANCE FOUNDATION*
An associated member of the 'Human Rights Without Frontiers
International'
PRESS RELEASE
Sofia, February 20, 2002
BULGARIA: Leaders of Evangelical Churches Condemn the Wave of
anti-Semitism in the country
On February 16, 2002 the leaders of five Evangelical Churches in
Bulgaria [1] made a press conference, entitled �Bulgarian pastors
against xenophobia and anti-Semitism�. They expressed their anxiety
for the rising, by their opinion, of wave of anti-Semitism in
Bulgaria. The occasion for the event was a recently published book
�The boomerang of the evil�, written by Mr. Volen Siderov, a deputy
editor-in-chief of the one of the main Bulgarian newspapers �
�Monitor�, as well as the threat of groups of skinheads targeted
against the beggars, Roma people and minorities in general. That book
has sharply expressed anti-Semitic character and present by itself a
collection of old and many times repeated libels against the Jews.
According the book the Jews are authors of all bad events during the
all history of the world. It has been preceded by lot of anti-Semitic
and openly fascist (for example � "The lie for the Holocaust",
"Political speeches" by Goebbles, a lot of titles of Mussolini and, of
course, the notorious work "Mein Kampf" by Hitler etc.) books.
The religious leaders stated that similar books that have been sold
out very well, cast a blur on the name of Bulgaria. They declared that
most important historical merit of Bulgarian people is the saving of
the Bulgarian Jews from the Nazi's camps during the time of the
Holocaust. They sharply condemned the way of the anti-Semitic
propaganda and said it has been an extremely malefic influence on the
souls of the young generations. At the end of the event they said: 'If
there are now in Bulgaria people who desire death of all Jews, our
answer as Bulgarians can be only one � We are Jews as well!' After
this they postured in front of the TV cameras with labels 'Jew'.
After the event they told to the President of Tolerance Foundation
they will undertake new actions in order to attract the attention of
the public opinion, media and politicians on the growing anti-Semitic
propaganda in Bulgaria as well as on all acts of xenophobia and
discrimination toward the minorities and especially towards Roma [2].
Tolerance Foundation greets the action of some leaders of Protestant
churches and supports it. There is not a tradition in Bulgaria leaders
of religious communities to express their opinions on important public
issues and the action of the heads of some Protestant churches should
be thought as a step in right direction. We hope that this first step
will transform itself into systematic campaign against the
anti-Semitism, xenophobia and ethnic discrimination. Tolerance
Foundation will take support and will take part in all future steps of
that campaign.
Notes:
[1] Bishop Vassil Elenkov from the National Alliance of the United
Church of God, Pastor Pavel Ignatov from Bulgarian Church of God,
Pastor Ludmil Yatanski from �Good News� Church, Pastor Angel Pilev
from �Zion� Church and Pastor Ivan Hazarbasanov from Christian center
� Sofia
[2] As it is well known the situation of the Roma minority in Bulgaria
is extremely bad. For example, there are now great riots of several
thousands Roma in Plovdiv (the second by population town in Bulgaria)
against the state company that provide them electricity because it is
unable to them to pay their bills.
On behalf of Tolerance Foundation:
Emil Cohen,
President
______________________________
*The TOLERANCE FOUNDATION is a human rights group monitoring the
freedom of conscience and the religious freedom practices in Bulgaria,
providing legal assistance to victims of discrimination based on
religion, as well as propagating the idea of tolerance towards
religious and other convictions.
The group was founded in 1994. Mr. Emil Cohen is President of the
Tolerance Foundation. Atanas Krasteff, Krassimir Kanev, Mikhail
Sergeev and Tzanko Mitev are members of the Board of the foundation.
Since April 2001 the organization has been an associate member of
Human Rights without Frontiers International..
Address: 1000 Sofia, 163A Rakovski St.
Phone/fax: (+359 2) 981 23 57; Phone: (+359 2) 988 31 36
E-mail: [email protected]
--
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