Bulgaria is threatening to block Turkey's application to join the European Union unless it pays out billions of euros in compensation for displaced people, in a case dating back to the days of the Ottoman Empire. A Bulgarian cabinet minister without portfolio who runs the country's Agency for Bulgarians Abroad, Bojidar Dimitrov, pressed the claim in remarks to the Bulgarian newspaper, 24 Hours, on Sunday (3 January). "Turkey is surely able to pay this sum, after all, it's the 16th largest economic power in the world," he said, putting a sum of $20 billion (€14 billion) on the settlement. "One of the three conditions of Turkey's full membership of the EU is solving the problem of the real estate of Thracian refugees."
A Bulgarian cabinet minister without portfolio who runs the country's Agency for Bulgarians Abroad, Bojidar Dimitrov, pressed the claim in remarks to the Bulgarian newspaper, 24 Hours, on Sunday (3 January).
"Turkey is surely able to pay this sum, after all, it's the 16th largest economic power in the world," he said, putting a sum of $20 billion (€14 billion) on the settlement. "One of the three conditions of Turkey's full membership of the EU is solving the problem of the real estate of Thracian refugees."
