Dogan’s coalition pulls election ad after objection by Jewish organisations

Movement for Rights and Freedom founder Ahmed Dogan’s Alliance for Rights and Freedoms (ARF) election coalition took down a video after Bulgarian Jewish organisations publicly expressed indignation and bewilderment at its content.

According to a joint statement on October 4 on Facebook by the Organisation of the Jews in Bulgaria Shalom, the Central Israelite Spiritual Council, the Zionist Federation of Bulgaria, the American Jewish Committee and the Negev Organisation of Friends of Israel in Bulgaria, the video – posted on the internet and other media – tried to stir up voters for ARF “by inciting hatred of Israel and Jews, claiming that their former party colleagues from the MRF support ‘the slaughter of their brothers and sisters in Gaza’.”

The episode comes amid faction fighting between the Dogan group, standing in Bulgaria’s October 27 as the ARF coalition, and Delyan Peevski’s MRF-New Beginning election coalition. Traditionally, the electorate of the MRF, founded in 1990, has been Bulgarians of Turkish ethnicity and of the Muslim faith.

“The insinuations are also supported by video footage showing destroyed buildings and ambulances, which further instill hatred and division in society, sending insinuations and direct messages directed against ethnic peace in the country and centuries-old Bulgarian traditions of peace and tolerance,” the Bulgarian Jewish organisations said.

“We believe that the messages in the election clip directly violate ethnic peace, order and law in the Republic of Bulgaria, sympathize with organizations declared by our country and the EU to be terrorist, and promote hatred and division in society,” the organisations said.

False impressions are being created about the situation in Bulgaria, destroying the long-standing good relations between the Republic of Bulgaria and its allies, they said.

Strongly condemning the content of the video, the organisations issued a demand for the laws of Bulgaria to be applied to its authors and the video removed immediately.

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