After a week of demonstrations against the Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) announcement on June 29 that Strandzha National Park (NP) is not a protected area any more, as previously reported by The Sofia Echo, the Supreme Administrative Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) has taken steps towards reversing the court’s decision on Strandzha. This was said to Focus news agency by SAPO on July 4.

The text sent to the media said: “After careful assessment of all materials that the administrative case contained, SAPO concluded that the decision taken is wrong because of significant violations of the law had been made. With a annulment protest, addressed to SAC’s five members, its cancellation was requested.”

The letter continued, saying that SAPO had ordered a check on allegedly illegal construction in Strandzha NP by the company Crash 2000 . SAPO instructed the  National Building Control Administration (NBCA) to carry out the investigation.

Based on the NBCA findings, SAPO ordered the Bourgas Regional Prosecutor’s Office to “attack with protests” the 10 construction permits issued by the Tsarevo chief architect. The permits were for villas, a panorama bar and hotel that are part of the holiday village Golden Pearl (the Crash 2000 investment project in Varvara village). NBCA Bourgas had respected the NAPO protests and cancelled the permits that were not consistent with the law, NAPO said.

Currently NAPO is awaiting the Bourgas Regional Court’s decision on the Crash 2000 claims against Bourgas NBCA’s newest orders. The Prosecutor’s Office also started an investigation into possible irregularities in the documentation submitted regarding the Golden Pearl construction permits. The checks are still not over but so far they have found that the signature of the letter from October 2005, issued on behalf of the deputy minister of Environment and Water Affairs Jordan Dardov, with which the Golden Pearl construction had been permitted, had been falsified.

Furthermore, on July 6 Focus reported the results of a survey, published on the agency’s website, in which 2473 citizens took part. Ninety four per cent of those polled said that they supported the protests on preserving the Strandzha NP protected area status, four per cent did not support it and two per cent answered that they could not assess the situation. It is probably that most of the people polled are media representatives who receive information from Focus.

Meanwhile, the demonstrators against the SAC’s decision continued to gather to express their opinion about preserving Strandzha NP. In Stara Zagora on July 6, about 20 people gathered spontaneously to show their support for the NP. Peaceful demonstrations were then held at Gubata meeting point in the town every day between July 9 and July 13.

In Varna and in Sofia, on July 10, groups of people also gathered. Sociologist Yassen Bossev spoke to The Sofia Echo about the statement the police drew up against him during the peaceful protest on July 4 in Sofia at Alexander Batenberg square. Bossev said he was standing in front of the Bulgarian National Bank building with his bicycle and a police officer came and told him to move from there, even though pedestrians were freely passing in the area. Bossev requested an explanation as to why he should move when he was not even part of the protest, he was having a meeting at that place. The police officer did not answer but requested Bossev’s ID, took him away with the help of another police officer and drew up the statement against him of “not being willing to follow a police order”.

Speaking on the bTV “Realno” (Real) programme on July 8, Konstantiv Ditchev of the Green Balkans federation further discussed the “Strandzha case”. He said the company Crash 2000 was connected to the Movement for Rights and Freedoms political party in Bulgaria. In addition, its leader Ahmed Dogan is continuously reported by different media sources to own a growing number of hotels in various tourist sites in Bulgaria. He is also accused in standing “in the shadows” in connection with Strandzha NP’s status.

Bulgarian-language Mediapool reported the company Crash 2000 had connections with Nesma Trading OOD in which Anna Doynova, sister of the communistic functionary and Politbyuro member Ognyan Doynov, was involved. This was said to the media by the Ataka deputy Todor Batilov. Doynova’s partner in Nesma Trading was Crash 2000’s Abdel Hamid, Batilov said to the Bulgarian National Radio on July 8.