Malko Tarnovo, Bulgaria (BulgarianMilitary.com), 18 September 2018, Editor: Stanislava Georgieva, Photo: Boyko Nikolov

On 17 September, Defense Minister Krassimir Karakachanov, visited the area near Malko Tarnovo, near the Bulgarian-Turkish border in order to become familiar with the Special Forces work. There, the Bulgarian Special Forces demonstrated abilities in deterring an influx of illegal immigrants into the territory of the Republic of Bulgaria, in front of media and local authorities’ representatives, learned BulgarianMilitary.com.

Near the town of Malko Tarnovo, Karakachanov said to the media that the attention of the Border Police and the Bulgarian Army was not distracted even for a second from border guards, a mission defined by him as extremely serious. He expressed his pleasure with the good coordination between the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Defense in caring out responsible tasks such as the border guard. He emphasized: “We are obliged to defend our country.”

According to his statement, the army will continue to support the Border Police at the border, till the latter needs assistance and while the Bulgarian society requires to be defended. Defense Minister also revealed the fact that, if there is a large influx of immigrants, the Border Police will be strengthen in means of additional 2,700 servicemen and about 500 units of equipment.

Karakachanov pointed out the need of more technical, night vision and personal protection equipment for the servicemen at the border. Talking on the subject, he informed about a future delivery of jeeps (SUVs) for border guards, funded by the European Union, expressing the hope for some of them to become part of the army’s inventory. Till now, the border guard tasks have been fulfilled by the army’s own equipment with the cost not taking into account the depreciation and the estimates not including, e.g. fuel and lubricants.

Minister Karakachanov announced the increasing in the number of the Special Forces and the establishment of a Special Operations Forces Command as well as a new special operations group under that Command that will be based in the region of the capital.

The Commander of the Special Forces, Brigadier General Yavor Mateev said that, there is an increased interest in his unit, lately. He also commented:



“Over the last two years we have signed up a significant number of servicemen. We have announced a competition for the last 28 vacancies that will end in December. People come to us, mostly because of their strong desire for service, for fulfilling their duty and of fatherland love, as well as for the good training.”

In a response to a journalist question concerning the interest in the military job, Minister of Defense Krasimir Karakachanov rejected the concept that young people have no interest in military service. He attributes the matter to the fact that the job of the military is not revealed to people and pointed out as an example that the smallest shortfall is where military units and commanders popularize well what the army does.

Read more: Opticoelectron Equipped the New Automobiles of the Border Police

Follow us everywhere and at any time. BulgarianMilitary.com has responsive design and you can open the page from any computer, mobile devices or web browsers. For more up-to-date news from us, follow our Reddit, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Google+ pages. Do not miss the chance to subscribe to our newsletter.

BulgarianMilitary.com