„GERB entered my property illegally, they didn’t even spare my grandchildren’s prams. My whole house is cracked and about to collapse.“
Another victim of the actions of GERB and the Municipality of Burgas shared this with Iskra.bg. Ivanka Sotirova has been fighting illegal construction on her property for years. The woman accuses the entrepreneur Stefan Kolev of continuing to build and trespassing on her property, located on Macedonia Street in the Vazrazhdane district. According to the victim, the businessman was supported all these years by the mayor of the city, Dimitar Nikolov.
It is about 9 sq/m of construction that started in 1995. Ivanka Sotirova filed lawsuits and won them, and the construction was stopped. During that time, the construction company went bankrupt. Kolev bought the property from the bankrupt company „Ivagor“ and decided to continue construction.
„Back in 1995, a construction boom began in the „Vazrazhdane“ complex. Our family was not one of those people who wanted to tear down their house and build a new cooperative. Neighbors began demolishing their houses. It turned out that on one side of our property they took 58 sq/m and on the other side 9 sq/m. When construction began, we saw that they were encroaching on our yard. My father-in-law, who is deceased, told me: „I will not keep my land, they took half of it from me!“ From a 360 sq/m property purchased in 1920 by our family, we currently have 302 sq/m, for which we have a notarial deed,“ Ivanka began her story. She continued:
„During these years, we have been damaged a lot. In 1995, we started the cases and then we won the case for these 9 sq/m in the District and Regional Court. We stopped the construction through the Regional Directorate for National Construction Control so that they could give us our place back and then continue building on the other property. But over the years, the construction company went bankrupt and this building up to the second floor became the city toilet of Burgas, there were even deaths. The building was abandoned until GERB came to power. They decided to finish the unfinished cooperatives in the Vazrazhdane complex, which were many.“
Ivanka Sotirova claims that she was in England when they started building again on her plot. She found out that the builder was Stefan Kolev. The woman found him and met with him, explaining to him about her case and that she had won two cases and because of that the construction had been stopped for so many years.
„Kolev started threatening me that he would also take my plot and build on it. Then I started things over. We won in the first and second instance, which the herbalists didn’t think could happen. Then they appealed and brought a judge from Sofia – Lyubomir Lukanov, with him I already lost the case. So far I have won four cases. Sotirova claims :
“GERB lovers want me to demolish at my expense what they built.”
The woman from Burgas said that during one of Boyko Borisov’s visits to the city in 2013, she showed him photographic and documentary material incriminating the illegal actions committed by the mayor Dimitar Nikolov. According to her, Borisov ordered Nikolov to accept her and solve her problem. Sotirova claims:
“But that didn’t happen, and I’ve been going to court for 10 years now, given that I’ve won four cases in this case. From unofficial information, I understand that the judges hearing this case and the experts are not randomly selected. Judge Novakov from the Municipal Council-Burgas for 6 years unwound the case and gave the opportunity to the representative of the Municipality of Burgas to falsify documents, to build the illegally built building, and they upgraded it with 2 more floors outside the project. Since I had information that the Municipality of Burgas, the judges to whom the case was assigned, were interested in its outcome, I requested an official recusal during the cases. Such was refused to me under the pretext that I had no reason to doubt their principle. Their decisions prove that I was right to insist on this.”
“The actions of the local authority affected my health, my husband died while we were fighting for the property. I am not afraid of Dimitar Nikolov, Krasimir Stoychev and Stefan Kolev. I think that 15 years is enough for us to be trampled, stolen and robbed by the mayor of Burgas”, Ivanka is categorical. She urged:
“If there are other injured citizens, let them not be revolutionaries only in front of the TV at home, but go to the Municipality. People should seek their rights, because as long as there are calves, there will be butchers cutting off their heads, I am not one of them.”
„My appeal to the local government is to give way to people who are honest and honorable to take care of their fellow citizens,“ appealed Ivanka Sotirova.
From Iskra.bg we will continue to monitor the case and remain open for all affected parties in the case to speak.
