Protest in response to a serious incident involving Bulgarian citizens at the Bulgarian – Greek border
12 January 2012
The Foreign Ministry is to lodge a protest about the fact that Bulgarian citizens who had no aggressive intentions were not allowed to attend a volleyball match in Thessaloniki and were expelled from Greek territory, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Vessela Tcherneva said.
“It is not acceptable that a second bus, on which there were about 80 of our citizens – who are EU citizens and have all the rights of stay in Greece – was prevented from crossing the border,” Tcherneva said.
“We also have information that, at the Promahonas border checkpoint, gross violence was committed against Bulgarians in their removal from Greece. We expect full details and an investigation of the incident by the Greek authorities,” she said. “We insist on full clarification of all circumstances and actions surrounding the incident.”
On January 11 2012 at 7.30pm, the consular officer on duty in Thessaloniki received a report that two buses on which Bulgarian sports fans were travelling had been stopped 10km before Thessaloniki.
The Bulgarian citizens were travelling to watch the volleyball match between CSKA and Iraklis, which had an 8pm starting time.
According to the Greek authorities, most of the Bulgarian group was made up of sports hooligans who were a threat to public order. Police restricted the entry of Bulgarian fans to avoid any excesses around the sports event.
About 9pm the buses headed back to Bulgaria, escorted by the Greek police special forces.
See more messages from: