Bulgaria’s vigilante migrant ‘hunter’
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2 hours ago
- From the section Magazine
Image copyrightHristo RusevA Bulgarian trader in spare parts for buses has become a national celebrity after starting to patrol the Turkish border “hunting” for migrants. Many Bulgarians applaud his vigilante initiative, though others are deeply troubled.
“Bulgaria needs people like me, dignified Bulgarians, willing to defend their homeland,” says Dinko Valev, sipping a fresh-squeezed orange juice in a flashy cafe in his hometown, Yambol, 50km (30 miles) from Bulgaria’s border with Turkey.
Valev, 29, is a beefy semi-professional wrestler with a shaved head and a brusque manner. His left pectoral is tattooed with a cross the size of a T-bone steak.
He became famous overnight last month when national television news carried a report labelling him a “superhero” and detailing a violent encounter with a group of Syrians near the border as he was out riding on his quad bike.
Image copyright Facebook / Dinko ValevThe presenter praised Valev for subduing the group of 12 Syrian men, three women and a child “with his bare hands”.
They can be seen on mobile phone footage filmed by one of Valev’s companions, lying on the ground waiting for police to arrive. Valev can be heard insulting the refugees and saying that they came from Syria “to kill us like dogs”.
“These are disgusting and bad people and they should stay where they are,” Valev tells me in the cafe. He estimates that 95% of Bulgarians support him, describing the migrants as dangerous “terrorists, jihadists and Taliban”. Continue reading
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