Bulgaria had landed in a situation where provocation to stir up ethnic tension was already a fact, Ahmed Dogan, leader of the junior partner in the ruling coalition, the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF), told Bulgarian-language daily Trud on October 29 2008.

Dogan talked at length about the recent death of one of his closest assistants, Ahmed Emin, who shot himself with his legally owned weapon on October 17 2008 in a room only metres away from where Dogan was at that moment.

Emin's death and the letter he left became the reason for Sofia mayor Boiko Borissov to say that the MRF was betting on the "ethnic stability" card when defending its presence in power. The party that traditionally represents Muslim Bulgarians has been part of the executive since 2001.

On October 23, Borissov said that the only chance the MRF had to stay in power after next year's general elections was by provoking ethnic conflict.

According to Dogan, the anti-MRF rhetoric, the anti-Turkish campaign and the mafia who had started to organise themselves against the MRF showed that the process of stirring up ethnic tension had already started.

"I cannot leave the party right now in this conditions," Dogan told Trud, "for it is not to be blamed for what Emin did. ... The party and I, personally, have an interest for the whole case surrounding Emin's death to be brought to light. His death happened in the building where I live and I have no interest what so ever in hiding anything."

He also said that the MRF was no longer going to be the same.

"If Emin aimed to portray Dogan in a different light, then he has achieved that," Dogan said. "We are talking about a personal blow against me. What if I were left alone with Emin when he decided to take his life."
Emin killed himself while alone in a small room in front of a bathroom area of Dogan's house.

"I don't want to make assumptions, but what if he thought of killing himself in front of me or even doing something else," Dogan said.

Commenting on his famous words from 2005, when Dogan said that each party had a circle of companies serving each other's interest, Dogan now said: "I said something that applies to all parties, but people turned against me."