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Bulgaria willing to join the fight against Islamic State

Photo: BGNES

During the past week the president of the United States Barack Obama has announced he is ready to lead an anti-terrorist coalition against the Islamic State organization and Bulgarian Foreign Minister Daniel Mitov made statements that have made it clear that Bulgaria shows solidarity with this. The Minister stated that within a few weeks Bulgaria was to send light weapons and ammunition in Kurdistan where there is fighting to support Iraq in coping with the extremists.

Talks for sending human resources in the country were not held, and hardly at this stage there will be such talks, given the fact that President Obama himself excludes the option of sending ground forces. Sofia sees the Islamic State group as very dangerous for Bulgaria and the EU, especially because it involves extremists who have European passports and funding sources from the oil industry. But the Bulgarian side had shown its preparedness to combat extremists even before Obama’s statement. At the end of August, but in connection with a conclusion of the Foreign Affairs Council of the European Union that the crisis in Iraq directly threatens the security of the external borders of the Union, one of which is Bulgaria, the Sofia government instructed the foreign minister to coordinate the provision of military and humanitarian aid with the authorities in Iraq.

The government's position is perfectly logical and understandable. These days the leader of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, announced that it had already decided to establish an Islamic caliphate in Europe and the first country in the Balkans where they would unfurl the great black flag would be Bulgaria. First, because of its excellent strategic position, and secondly because of the thousands of followers and many Muslims who are just waiting for a signal from their leaders to sacrifice their lives in the name of Allah.

But this week has also shown that local Muslims in Bulgaria do not share this idea. In a sharp statement, the Chief Mufti of the Muslim religion in Bulgaria said that the conduct of the pseudo-state formation Islamic State cannot be identified with the dictates of the Holy Islamic religion that are dramatically different.




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