Today the Ministers of Interior of Bulgaria (Ivan Demerdzhiev) and Türkiye (Mustafa Çiftçi) held an official meeting. The following was disclosed by both of them following the meeting:
- Bulgarian authorities expressed worries over big amounts of financial capital obtained through corruption that is being exported to Türkiye and other countries. (Most probably this was a covert way for Demerdzhiev to say that he talked with his Turkish colleague about the oligarch Delyan Peevski, who appears to be a frequent traveller between the two countries.) According to Demerdzhiev, Türkiye has agreed to assist in identifying assets obtained through corruption and returning them to the Bulgarian citizens.
- The countries will work together against youth violence – a hot topic for Bulgaria since recently a group of teens killed a man in Plovdiv.
- A contract was signed between the police academies in the two countries.
- Both sides discussed measures against terrorism, illegal immigration and drug trafficking.
The relationship between Bulgaria and Türkiye is becoming of higher geopolitical interest since Bulgarian PM Radev suspended the controversial contract with the state-owned Turkish oil and gas company BOTAŞ. This was a weird move, considering Radev claimed for months that the contract was beneficial for Bulgaria.
It has transpired, however, that according to its conditions, the country is obliged to pay approx. €500,000 a day even if no gas is used. The contract is also controversial because BOTAŞ could be used for the transfer of Russian gas mixed with gas from other countries.
The conditions of the suspension are unclear and intentinally kept secret by Radev and his government. Shortly after it was signed Turkiye acquired 33% in Block 1-26 Khan Tervel – Bulgarian offshore zone for natural gas and oil exploration.
Leave a Reply