Every year in February, far-right Bulgarian organization and citizens hold a rally called Lukov March. It is allegedly to commemorate General Hristo Lukov (1887 - 1943), but actually more to reflect current events of interest to the participants. This is what I know from the media, because I have never taken part in the rally and do not intend to. I do not like these people and their views and I think they are discrediting Bulgarian nationalism. At the same time, I think that people in a free country have the right to express their views, to associate and to rally peacefully, regardless of whether we like them or not.
The latter opinion, however, is not shared by all. Every single year, self-described human rights activists (!) petition Bulgarian authorities to ban Lukov March. In these efforts, they not only criticize the organizers and participants as neo-Nazis but, by association, smear Hristo Lukov as a rabid Nazi and anti-Semite. This year, the efforts were supported by the World Jewish Congress. Its Executive Vice-President Robert Singer came to Bulgaria and handed a petition to the Prime-Minister Boyko Borissov, "so far signed by 175 000 people from all over the world", against the Lukov March. In an interview with Sega Newspaper (the above link), he stated: "The march is in the name of General Hristo Lukov, who supported the neo-Nazi laws in Bulgaria, and the deportation of Jews."
Unfortunately, human rights groups in Bulgaria are heavily infiltrated by far-left people who have a serious reason to dislike General Lukov: he was assassinated by two communists because their bosses feared that he might return to politics. It is true that Lukov, like many other Bulgarians of that time, was pro-German, but this wasn't necessarily because of any sympathy to Hitler. For Bulgarians, Germany was just the power that was hoped to reverse Versailles and the associated treaties that had torn apart the Bulgarian territory, leading to ethnic cleansing and forced assimilation of hundreds of thousands of ethnic Bulgarians. However, no source known to me from Lukov's lifetime or more than half a century later describes him as an anti-Semite, even the memoirs of communists glorifying his killers. In a 2013 interview (source in Bulgarian), Bulgarian historian Nikolay Poppetrov (otherwise very critical of Hristo Lukov), when asked whether General Lukov had been an anti-Semite after all, answered: "There are no preserved documents [indicating this]. There is another suspicion - he had commercial activity, he might have worked also for some companies with Jewish ownership. His enemies [during his lifetime] had accused him in this..."
General Hristo Lukov was Minister of War between 1935 and early 1938, but after that, he was removed from government by King Boris III until his death. The nationalist organization headed by him, the "Legionnaires", was banned. He was assassinated on Feb. 13, 1943. The agreement to deport more than 11,000 Jews (most of whom died in the Holocaust) from Macedonia and Aegean Thrace was signed in deep secrecy on Feb. 22, 1943. This timeline, easily accessible online even for readers who speak no Bulgarian, proves that Mr. Singer and his organization uncritically broadcasted untruths fed to them by the Bulgarian far-left. As Bulgarian-born Jew Samuil Arditi commented (source in Bulgarian), "Lukov could not even known about the deportation while he was alive, let alont "support" it posthumously". Arditi called the claims of Lukov's support for the deportation "a lie in the name of political interests" that a certain Bulgarian Jewish organization "is selling to international Jewish organizations". My impression, however, is that most of the people smearing Lukov and recruiting international Jewish organizations against him do not even have Jewish background. There are indeed a few Jews among them, but the leftist identity dominates .
Unless and until any evidence is presented and not just baseless assertions, I regard the alleged anti-Semitism of General Hristo Lukov as a recent invention of our communists and other far-left activists who are deliberately and systematically spreading lies, selecting ones that would best stick abroad. Such people have also accused my father in anti-Semitism after his participation in a Brussels conference in 2014, and he has been suing them for libel and slander ever since. Two of his accusers were people I had personally known and regarded as friends. Therefore, the entire story not only burdened me as an aide to my father (a 95-yr-old man with multiple disabilities) but caused the emotional pain we feel when we lose a friend because of his transformation into an unfriend. As a supporter of Jews and Israel, I suffer a similar emotional pain when Jewish organizations work hard against my country, as in this case. However, I do not for a millisecond equate these organizations with the Jews they claim to represent (unelected), I continue to support the Jews and would advise anybody to do the same.
The latter opinion, however, is not shared by all. Every single year, self-described human rights activists (!) petition Bulgarian authorities to ban Lukov March. In these efforts, they not only criticize the organizers and participants as neo-Nazis but, by association, smear Hristo Lukov as a rabid Nazi and anti-Semite. This year, the efforts were supported by the World Jewish Congress. Its Executive Vice-President Robert Singer came to Bulgaria and handed a petition to the Prime-Minister Boyko Borissov, "so far signed by 175 000 people from all over the world", against the Lukov March. In an interview with Sega Newspaper (the above link), he stated: "The march is in the name of General Hristo Lukov, who supported the neo-Nazi laws in Bulgaria, and the deportation of Jews."
Unfortunately, human rights groups in Bulgaria are heavily infiltrated by far-left people who have a serious reason to dislike General Lukov: he was assassinated by two communists because their bosses feared that he might return to politics. It is true that Lukov, like many other Bulgarians of that time, was pro-German, but this wasn't necessarily because of any sympathy to Hitler. For Bulgarians, Germany was just the power that was hoped to reverse Versailles and the associated treaties that had torn apart the Bulgarian territory, leading to ethnic cleansing and forced assimilation of hundreds of thousands of ethnic Bulgarians. However, no source known to me from Lukov's lifetime or more than half a century later describes him as an anti-Semite, even the memoirs of communists glorifying his killers. In a 2013 interview (source in Bulgarian), Bulgarian historian Nikolay Poppetrov (otherwise very critical of Hristo Lukov), when asked whether General Lukov had been an anti-Semite after all, answered: "There are no preserved documents [indicating this]. There is another suspicion - he had commercial activity, he might have worked also for some companies with Jewish ownership. His enemies [during his lifetime] had accused him in this..."
General Hristo Lukov was Minister of War between 1935 and early 1938, but after that, he was removed from government by King Boris III until his death. The nationalist organization headed by him, the "Legionnaires", was banned. He was assassinated on Feb. 13, 1943. The agreement to deport more than 11,000 Jews (most of whom died in the Holocaust) from Macedonia and Aegean Thrace was signed in deep secrecy on Feb. 22, 1943. This timeline, easily accessible online even for readers who speak no Bulgarian, proves that Mr. Singer and his organization uncritically broadcasted untruths fed to them by the Bulgarian far-left. As Bulgarian-born Jew Samuil Arditi commented (source in Bulgarian), "Lukov could not even known about the deportation while he was alive, let alont "support" it posthumously". Arditi called the claims of Lukov's support for the deportation "a lie in the name of political interests" that a certain Bulgarian Jewish organization "is selling to international Jewish organizations". My impression, however, is that most of the people smearing Lukov and recruiting international Jewish organizations against him do not even have Jewish background. There are indeed a few Jews among them, but the leftist identity dominates .
Unless and until any evidence is presented and not just baseless assertions, I regard the alleged anti-Semitism of General Hristo Lukov as a recent invention of our communists and other far-left activists who are deliberately and systematically spreading lies, selecting ones that would best stick abroad. Such people have also accused my father in anti-Semitism after his participation in a Brussels conference in 2014, and he has been suing them for libel and slander ever since. Two of his accusers were people I had personally known and regarded as friends. Therefore, the entire story not only burdened me as an aide to my father (a 95-yr-old man with multiple disabilities) but caused the emotional pain we feel when we lose a friend because of his transformation into an unfriend. As a supporter of Jews and Israel, I suffer a similar emotional pain when Jewish organizations work hard against my country, as in this case. However, I do not for a millisecond equate these organizations with the Jews they claim to represent (unelected), I continue to support the Jews and would advise anybody to do the same.
