The Movement for Rights and Freedoms (Bulgarian: Движение за права и свободи; Turkish: Hak ve Özgürlükler Hareketi) is a centrist political party in Bulgaria, based in the Turkish minority. The MRF is a member of the Liberal International and considers itself a liberal party, probably like the Swedish People's Party, the party of the Swedish-speaking minority of Finland. This page will list the various republican heads of state of Bulgaria, as well as leaders of Bulgarias communist party during the time when it played the leading role in the Bulgarian state. ... Georgi Sedefchov Parvanov (Bulgarian: ) (born 28 June 1957) has been president of Bulgaria since 22 January 2002. ... The Bulgarian Socialist Party (Bulgarian: Bălgarska Socialističeska Partija or Българска социалистическа партия) (BSP or БСП) is a political party in Bulgaria and successor to the Bulgarian Communist Party. ... Chairmen of the Council of Ministers, 1879-1991 Prime Ministers, 1991-present See also History of Bulgaria Politics of Bulgaria List of Bulgarian monarchs List of Presidents of Bulgaria Categories: Lists of office-holders | Prime Ministers of Bulgaria ... Sergey Dmitrievich Stanishev (Bulgarian: Сергей Станишев) (born May 5, 1966), Bulgarian politician, is Chairman of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP). ... The Bulgarian Socialist Party (Bulgarian: Bălgarska Socialističeska Partija or Българска социалистическа партия) (BSP or БСП) is a political party in Bulgaria and successor to the Bulgarian Communist Party. ... The Council of Ministers building in central Sofia The Council of Ministers (Bulgarian: , Ministerski savet) is the main authority of the executive power in the Republic of Bulgaria. ... The National Assembly of Bulgaria (Bulgarian: Народното събрание, transliterated: Narodno Sabranie) is the unicameral parliament and body of the legislative of the Republic of Bulgaria. ... Georgi Pirinski Georgi Pirinski (Георги Пирински) is a Bulgarian politician of the Bulgarian Communist Party and after 1990 of the Bulgarian Socialist Party. ... The Bulgarian Socialist Party (Bulgarian: Bălgarska Socialističeska Partija or Българска социалистическа партия) (BSP or БСП) is a political party in Bulgaria and successor to the Bulgarian Communist Party. ... This article lists political parties in Bulgaria. ... Elections in Bulgaria gives information on election and election results in Bulgaria. ... Since 1999 Bulgaria is divided into 28 oblasts (provinces or regions) that correspond aproximatly to the 28 okrugs that existet before 1987. ... Municipalities of Bulgaria The provinces of Bulgaria are divided into municipalities (община, obshtina). ... In the early 2000s, human rights in Bulgaria generally had been rated highly. ... Bulgaria has generally good relations with its neighbors and has proved to be a constructive force in the region under socialist and democratic governments alike. ... Meglena Kuneva Meglena Kuneva (Bulgarian: ) is a Bulgarian and European politician. ... The National Movement Simeon II (Bulgarian: Национално движение Симеон Втори or Nacionalno Dviženie Simeon Vtori) is a political party in Bulgaria, the vehicle of Simeon Borisov Sakskoburggotski, the deposed Tsar of Bulgaria and former Prime Minister. ... Information on politics by country is available for every country, including both de jure and de facto independent states, inhabited dependent territories, as well as areas of special sovereignty. ... Political parties Part of the Politics series Politics Portal This box:      A political party is a political organization that seeks to attain political power within a government, usually by participating in electoral campaigns. ... Liberal International is a political international for international liberal parties. ... This is a list about liberalism and political parties around the world. ... The Swedish Peoples Party (Swedish: ; Finnish: ) is a Swedish speaking minority and mainly liberal party in Finland. ... Swedish in Finland: white = officially monolingual Finnish-speaking municipalities (Sami bilingual municipalities not shown), light blue = bilingual municipalities with Finnish as majority language, darker blue = bilingual municipalities with Swedish as majority language, darkest blue = monolingual Swedish-speaking municipalities and province. ...

History

1985-1989

Started out as an underground organization in the 1980s under the name of Turkish National Freedom Movement (Türk Millî Kurtuluş Hareketi, Турското национално освободително движение) as a response to Todor Zhivkov's policy of Bulgarization of the Turkish minority in the country. On March 9th, 1985 TNFM was responsible for planting an explosive device on the Sofia-Bourgass train. The bomb exploded on Bunarovo station in a vagon that was speciffically desegnated for mothers with children, killed seven (two children) and wounded nine^{http://www.netinfo.bg/?tid=40&oid=1011656}. Another contraversial act took place in the summer of 1987 when two boys were kidnapped near Balchik by three men associated with TNFM who demanded to be granted a safe passage to Turkey^{http://more.info.bg/article.asp?topicID=239&issueID=219}. Bulgarian authorities refused and intercepted the terrorist's car, killing two of the men and seriously injuring the boys and the remaining terrorist. In recent speeches high MRF officials have acknowledged the movement's involvement in terrorist activities claiming that at the time there was little else that could be done to attract international attention^{http://www.dps.bg/cgi-bin/e-cms/vis/vis.pl?s=001&p=0055&n=000002&g=}.

post 1989

Since 1990, an officially recognized political party.

Leaders

It has been chaired by Ahmed Doğan since its official establishment in 1990. Ahmed DoÄŸan Ahmed Demir DoÄŸan (Bulgarian: ) (born 29 March 1954) is an ethnic Turk human rights activist and politician in Bulgaria. ...

Electoral results

October, 1991 local elections

16 October, 1999 local elections

17 June, 2001 legislative elections

The Movement for Rights and Freedoms won in the 2001 elections 7.5% of the popular vote and 21 out of 240 seats. It subsequently joined the government led by former Bulgarian king Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha of the National Movement Simeon II. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Simeon is one of the last living heads of state from the pre-World War II-era and he is also the only monarch in history who became head of the state through democratic nation-wide elections, after 55 years of exile imposed on his family by the communists. ...

26 October, 2003 local elections

25 June, 2005 legislative elections

At the last legislative elections, 25 June 2005, it increased to 13.7% of the popular vote and 33 out of 240 seats. See also Bulgarian parliamentary election, 2005 A legislature is a governmental deliberative body with the power to adopt laws. ... Elections in Bulgaria gives information on election and election results in Bulgaria. ... Bulgarian parliamentary election, 2005 - Elections were held on June 25, 2005, for the 240 members of the National Assembly. ...

29 October, 2005 partial mayoral elections

20 May, 2007 European Parliament elections

The party won 20.26% of the popular vote and 4 MEPs out of 18. Two of the MEPs are ethnic Bulgarians.

Government participation

Controversies

As a party representing the main ethnic minority in the parliament and in the government, just like the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania, its Hungarian counterpart in Romania, the MRF is the favorite target of Bulgarian nationalists and of the tabloids and other sensationalist TV channels that sometimes try letting people think it, and the whole Turkish minority, is some sort of a finger of Al-Qaeda in the Balkans (see e.g. Albena Shkodrova and Iva Roudnikova, Bulgarian Muslim Infighting Fuels Fundamentalist Fears, Balkan Crisis Report, No 519, 07-Oct-04). The Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania, (also Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania; Hungarian: Romániai Magyar Demokrata Szövetség, RMDSZ; Romanian: Uniunea Democrată Maghiară din România, UDMR) is a Romanian political alliance, effectively (though not officially) a party, representing ethnic Hungarians in Romania. ...

Ethnic nature

The MRF has been legally a part of Bulgarian political life since 1990, it is still considered by Bulgarian ultra-nationalists, such as the the far-right National Union Attack, to be anti-constitutional since according to them it contradicts a clause in the constitution, stipulating that no ethnic parties can exist. Opponents, however argue, that such a clause is in volation of European law and see banning parties on the basis of their ethnic composition as an instance of ethnic discrimination. Furthermore, despite a similar constitutional ban, religious parties, such as the 'Bulgarian Christian Coalition' have competed for parliamentary elections since 1997, and again in 2005, without any political upheaval (it usually gets less than 1% of the votes). The National Union Attack (Национален съюз Атака, Nacionalen Sayuz Ataka; also[citation needed] translated as the Attack Coalition) is a nationalist political party in Bulgaria. ...

The question of the legality of the MRF has been de jure settled by the Bulgarian Constitutional Court in 1992, which issued a legal decision favorable to the MRF constitutionality following a complaint filed by the rightist United Democratic Forces party. Another ethnic party, OMO "Ilinden" - PIRIN, which aimed at representing ethnic Macedonians (which do not even exist according to Bulgarian nationalists), was banned in 2000 by the same court (International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights, Declaring a Macedonian-based Party Unconstitutional, Bulgarian Constitutional Court Violates Basic Political Rights, 01 March 2000). The Euroroma list was however allowed to take part in the 2005 elections, even if 'Roma' clearly indicates that this is an ethnic Roma ('Gypsy') party. Euroroma (official website) is the biggest political party, engaged with the problems of gypsies in Bulgaria. ... Languages Romani, languages of native region Religions Christianity, Islam Related ethnic groups South Asians (Desi) The Roma (singular Rom; sometimes Rroma, Rrom) or Romanies are an ethnic group living in many communities all over the world. ...

More recently, Antonina Zheliazkova, head of the Centre for Interethnic Relations in Sofia, said about Ahmed Dogan that He has been working hard to open up the party to all citizens and has encouraged the MRF's supporters to be free to vote for non-ethnic parties (Milena Borden, Bulgaria: Turkish Party Urged to Rethink Policies, Sofia News Agency, 17 May 2005).

Other Turkish political factions

At present there are three other tiny Turkish political factions that oppose the MRF’s politics. These groups - which united to form the Balkan Democratic League - are the Movement of the Democratic Wing (DDK), led by Osman Oktay; the Party for Democracy and Justice (PDS), led by Nedim Gencev; and the Union of the Bulgarian Turks (SBT), led by Seyhan Türkkan (Milena Borden, op. cit.).

However, these movements, as well as the National Movement for Rights and Freedoms, member of a Social-Democratic coalition ('Rose coalition') failed to secure any elected representative, including through coalitions with non-ethnic parties, whereas the MRF became the third main Bulgarian party at the June 2005 parliamentary elections and entered a three-parties coalition in August with the Bulgarian Socialist Party and the National Movement Simeon II. The Bulgarian Socialist Party (Bulgarian: Bălgarska Socialističeska Partija or Българска социалистическа партия) (BSP or БСП) is a political party in Bulgaria and successor to the Bulgarian Communist Party. ... Simeon is one of the last living heads of state from the pre-World War II-era and he is also the only monarch in history who became head of the state through democratic nation-wide elections, after 55 years of exile imposed on his family by the communists. ...

Manipulating the votes

The MRF was severely criticized by Bulgarian nationalist party Attack as well as mainstream rightwing parties such as Democrats for a Strong Bulgaria and the Union of Democratic Forces and even by MRF coalition partners of the National Movement Simeon II to have manipulated the vote in the June 2005 elections at places. Allegedly buses were organized to come from Turkey with people having double citizenship who would vote. It should be noted that the practice of directly sponsoring electoral activity is considered a crime in many democratic countries. The Democrats for a Strong Bulgaria (Demokrati za Silna Balgarija) is a political party in Bulgaria established by former Bulgarian Prime Minister Ivan Kostov (1997-2001). ... The Union of Democratic Forces (Bulgarian: Съюз на демократичните сили, Saiuz na demokratichnite sili) is a political party in Bulgaria, founded in December 1989 as a union of eleven political ogranizations in opposition to the Communist government. ... Simeon is one of the last living heads of state from the pre-World War II-era and he is also the only monarch in history who became head of the state through democratic nation-wide elections, after 55 years of exile imposed on his family by the communists. ...

Liberal party opposing privatization

In February 2005, the MRF opposed the privatisation of Bulgaria's largest tobacco company, Bulgartabak, which was backed by the government and the European Union, as on the grounds that the industry traditionally employs ethnic Turks. The resulting crisis led to the resignation of vice premier Lidia Shuleva (Milena Borden, op. cit.).

See also

• Liberalism
• Contributions to liberal theory
• Liberalism worldwide
• List of liberal parties
• Liberal democracy
• Political parties of minorities
• Liberalism and radicalism in Bulgaria

Liberalism is an ideology, philosophical view, and political tradition which holds that liberty is the primary political value. ... Contributions to liberal theory is a partial list of individual contributions on a worldwide scale. ... This article discusses liberalism as a major political current in specific regions and countries. ... This is an overview of parties that adhere more or less (explicitly) to the ideas of political liberalism and is therefore a list of liberal parties around the world. ... Liberal democracy is a form of government. ... Ethnic parties aim to represent an ethnic group in a political system, be it a sovereign state or a subnational entity. ... This article is part of or related to the Liberalism series Categories: Politics stubs | Liberal related stubs | Liberalism by country | Bulgarian political parties ...

External link

• Movement for Rights and Freedoms official site