Society
NSA’s educational and sports facilities near Nessebar are being unlawfully destroyed
Municipal lands, donated to the academy by Ferdinand, misappropriated through administrative machinations
08.02.2010
Photo: Michel Geron
Lily Mircheva
“We want the Prosecutor’s Office and the Chief Directorate for Combating Organised Crime (CDCOC) to check the entire scheme of documents presented to the court and the decisions issued so far by the land commission and the court in the town of Nessebar. This would be a good sign that there is rule of law in Bulgaria,” said Professor Lachezar Dimitrov, Rector of the National Sports Academy (NSA) yesterday morning on BNT (Bulgarian National Television) regarding the 10-year-long legal war fought between the academy and the municipal councilors in Nessebar over the ownership of a 180-dca plot of land, used as NSA’s educational and sports facilities since 1974. The Mayor of Nessebar, Nikolay Dimitrov, joined the argument on the air, accusing the Rector of lying. According to Dimitrov, “NSA does not own a single square meter of land there”. He explained he was just protecting the interests of the local owners. In this way, the regional scandal grew into a nation-wide one.
It was preceded by battle scenes between the police and students from the NSA when, on February 1, students and lecturers from the academy formed a live chain to defend their sports camp in Ravda. Police officers had to use force to disperse the protesters, and the sports camp’s fence and gate were subsequently destroyed. “Regretfully, we have lost a battle but the war is not over yet, and if the laws in our country are honoured and upheld we will be the final winners,” NSA’s Deputy Rector, Professor Kiril Andonov, said then.
However, Nessebar’s mayoral administration was not at all touched by protesters’ demands and even applied a last ‘dead hand’ in the long war over the disputed land near the sea. The Mayor restituted 6 dca of land, including the only path to the beach and the pier built for sports and military purposes. According to NSA’s Rector, this means that “nobody will be able to go down to the beach and conduct educational or training activities”. He said the disputed real estate on the territory of NSA’s educational and sports facilities in Nessebar were plots unlawfully registered by the Mayor as municipal in 2002 and later on ‘acquired’ by the heirs.
NSA’s management has initiated some 50-60 lawsuits against restitution deeds of real estate heirs and companies which have acquired in various ways terrains on the territory of NSA’s sports camp, and against decisions of the municipal administration. It was not until January 9 that NSA at last obtained an order, issued by the Supreme Cassation Court, and on September 17 received from the Governor Grebenarov a deed for public state ownership over 17 buildings, 8 playgrounds, a network of alleys, and infrastructure. The order reads that nobody can carry out any activities on this territory until the disputes are settled. Nevertheless, Mayor Dimitrov sent the police against the protesting students and destroyed the sports camps’ entrance. Now, it is the turn of the Chief Prosecutor to become familiar with the case.
