A Bulgarian policeman, who was patrolling the border with Turkey in a context of strong migratory pressure, was killed Monday evening by gunfire from Turkish territory, the government announced on Tuesday (November 8th).
The 30-year-old man, carrying a flashlight, got out of his vehicle near the village of Golyam Dervent after noticing a damaged area of the barbed wire fence that covers almost the entire 259 km border.
Bulgarian policeman killed in Turkey : “Death on impact”
“Shots were then fired and he died on the spot”, killed by a bullet in the head, declared to the journalists Petar Todorov, general secretary of the ministry for the Interior, after a visit on the spot. A soldier who accompanied the policeman “succeeded in taking cover behind the car”, he specified.
According to the soldier’s account, 10 to 15 shots were fired through the barrier as a group of migrants and smugglers fled. “This is an unprecedented act, the first firearm attack in years” against the police, reacted Interior Minister Ivan Demerdjiev.
“We have received guarantees from the Turkish authorities that (the culprits) will be located and brought to justice,” he said, adding that the police would now be armed with more powerful weapons to defend themselves.
The European Commission, which said it was “shocked and saddened”, said on Tuesday that Europol, the EU agency for police cooperation, was “in contact with the Bulgarian authorities to give full support to the investigation in Turkey”. , according to a spokeswoman for the European executive.
12,700 illegal immigrants detained in the country since the beginning of the year
Bulgaria had already reinforced measures and sent additional troops to the border after the death of two police officers hit by a bus carrying migrants in late August in the city of Burgas on the Black Sea.
The Minister reported increasing migratory pressure. In the first nine months of 2022, around 12,700 illegal immigrants were detained in the country, i.e. 2.5 times more than in the nine months of 2021, according to official figures, with also a sharp increase in the number of refoulements.