TOLERANCE FOUNDATION*
An associated member of Human Rights Without Frontiers International

PRESS RELEASE
Sofia, 20 February 2002

BULGARIA: Leaders of Evangelical Churches condemn the wave of anti-Semitism in the country

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On February 16, 2002 the leaders of five Evangelical Churches in Bulgaria1 organised a press conference, entitled ‘Bulgarian pastors against xenophobia and anti-Semitism’. They expressed their concern about the rising, in their opinion, wave of anti-Semitism in Bulgaria. The occasion for the event was a recently published book The Boomerang of Evil, written by Mr. Volen Siderov, deputy editor-in-chief of the one of the mainstream Bulgarian dailies Monitor, as well as skinhead threats targeted against beggars, Roma and minorities in general. The book has a sharply expressed anti-Semitic character and presents 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 entire history of mankind. 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 by Mussolini and, of course, the notorious work Mein Kampf by Hitler etc.) books.

The religious leaders stated that similar books, which have been sold very well, cast a blur on Bulgaria's name. They declared that the most important historical merit of Bulgarian people is the saving of the Bulgarian Jews from the Nazi camps during the Holocaust. They sharply condemned the anti-Semitic propaganda and said it has been an extremely malefic influence on the souls of the young generation. 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 stood 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, the 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 Roma2.

Tolerance Foundation greats 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 the right direction. We hope that this first step will transform itself into a systematic campaign against anti-Semitism, xenophobia and ethnic discrimination. Tolerance Foundation will support and take part in all future activities of the 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 back

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. back

On behalf of Tolerance Foundation:

Emil Cohen,
President

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*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 Krastev, 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
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