Bulgaria and Turkey's Ministers of Interior Discuss Management of the Two Countries' Shared Border

Turkey's Minister of the Interior, Mustafa Çiftçi, is visiting Bulgaria and has held talks with his Bulgarian counterpart, Ivan Demerdzhiev. The discussions focused on strengthening co-operation between the two countries in the fight against organised crime, and in particular against “new-generation criminal structures that pose a threat to security in Turkey and the Balkans”.

Ivan Demerdzhiev, Minister of the Interior: “I would like to thank Minister Çiftçi for his visit. His visit is a clear sign of the level of good-neighbourly relations between Bulgaria and Turkey, based on partnership, mutual trust and respect. We had the opportunity to discuss a wide range of issues at both political and professional level. We identified the fight against illegal migration, drug trafficking and drug distribution, human trafficking and smuggling as common priorities.”

Demerdzhiev stressed that they shared the Turkish side's view that crimes committed by young people are a phenomenon that must be tackled.

Ivan Demerdzhiev, Minister of the Interior:“We also discussed in detail the security and management of our common border and identified a number of measures to optimise this process.”

Demerdzhiev said he had, in turn, committed to returning the visit to Turkey and taking part in the next meeting of the trilateral format between Bulgaria, Turkey and Greece on combating illegal migration and protecting the border.

Ivan Demerdzhiev, Minister of the Interior:“The good co-operation between the interior ministries is undoubtedly a solid foundation on which bilateral relations can be further built and developed.”

The Turkish interior minister said that, in addition to the bilateral meeting, talks had also been held between the two delegations.

Photos: BTA

Mustafa Çiftçi, Minister of the Interior of Turkey: “One of the main topics we discussed was cross-border crime. For some time now, the Turkish Ministry of the Interior has been stepping up its fight against what is known as ‘new-generation crime’. Unfortunately, this type of ‘new-generation’ crime is also becoming associated with terrorism. As two neighbouring countries, we believe it is particularly important that we co-operate in this area so that both countries can successfully combat what is known as ‘new-generation crime’.”

He added that another important issue they had discussed was the fight against drug trafficking. He stressed that it was also very important for the two countries to co-operate in combating this type of crime.