Somewhat unexpectedly, amid the political summer recess, the extradition of a Turkish national from Bulgaria has created tensions between institutions. Turkish authorities presume that the extradited Abdullah Buyuk is an associate of Fethullah Gulen who lives in USA. Ankara has fingered Gulen as one of the organizers of the coup attempt on 15 July. The Turkish side demanded the extradition of Buyuk before the coup attempt on grounds that he was being investigated for terrorism and money-laundering, but Bulgaria did not respond to the demand and the Sofia Court of Appeal rejected it back in March.

In the meantime, at the end of February, Buyuk submitted an application for political asylum to the Bulgarian Presidency. The application though was turned down on 27 July, 12 days after the coup attempt. While Abdullah Buyuk was waiting for an answer to his asylum application, the three-month term of his legal stay in Bulgaria without any status whatsoever expired and he was detained for problems with his ID papers during a “routine check” carried out by the Ministry of Interior. At that point he was immediately handed over to the Turkish authorities at Kapikule border crossing, without any chance given to him to appeal the measure. For such an omission Bulgaria has already been condemned by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

The case now is that a demand from Turkey turned down by a court ruling has been satisfied by means of an administrative measure of the Executive. Lawyers argue that given there is an effective court ruling motivated with the risk of Buyuk being treated in Turkey in violation of basic human rights, his handover by the Bulgarian side is illegal. Human rights lawyer Mihail Ekimdzhiev has even likened the handover procedure to mafia abduction. National Ombudsman Maya Manolova in turn commented that with the immediate handover of the Turkish national without giving him the chance to appeal the measure, the Bulgarian Interior Ministry had violated international law, the Bulgarian Constitution and the Refugee Act. So she urged the Ministry to start referring to the Ombudsman and to human rights organizations its plans to carry out such administrative measures.

The circumstances under which the extradition proceeded have prompted suspicion that the Turkish national had been handed over in exchange for Ankara vows not to let refugees enter Bulgaria or  in exchange for the handover of a Turkish national accused of a road accident in which killed two Bulgarian motorcyclists. The Interior Ministry denied both allegations and vowed the extradition had been coordinated with Interpol and was linked to national security motives. In an attempt to dwarf the case an official from the Ministry pointed out that since the beginning of the year 31 Turkish nationals had been handed over to Turkey under the same procedure, and the total of 500 foreigners had been taken away from Bulgaria. The Interior Ministry official however did not specify whether they like Abdullah Buyuk had been the target of political accusations in their country that actually prompted the court ruling to reject extradition.

The case has already been politicized as well. The potential for politicizing comes from the fact that shortly before the extradition Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that the handover would take place despite the official refusal of the court of justice. Also, there are certain groups who would benefit from a change in Bulgaria's relations with Turkey and besides, the presidential race will soon open and will be very close.

In the meantime the „Buyuk” case has become known internationally. At a crowded rally, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pointed to Bulgaria as an example of a country satisfying Turkish demands by handing over a suspect linked to the coup attempt: an example that Greece has been reluctant to follow in connection with a demand for the extradition of Turkish military officers who applied for asylum in Greece in the wake of the coup attempt. The United States too has been reluctant to hand over Fethullah Gulen.

Even without referring to the „Buyuk” case the High Commissioner for Human Rights at the United Nations Zeid Ra'ad has accused Sofia of systematic violations of human rights by criminalizing migrants and has remarked that Bulgaria's policy "raises serious concerns about the State's compliance with international law.”

Similarly, without any reference to the case, Bulgarian PM Boyko Borissov said that his major goal was to do so that Turkey would treat Bulgaria differently from all other countries in Europe, because once Turkey stopped being perceived as a country safe for migrants Bulgaria would become the closest such country. In such a case by virtue of international agreements 400,000 to 500,000 migrants will be returned to it from West Europe. Well, it has become obvious that Bulgaria lacks the resources to accept such a large number of newcomers.

English Daniela Konstantinova