The deadly beating of Georgi Kuzev in Plovdiv has renewed attention on groups of young people who organize online and carry out aggressive attacks against others in Bulgaria. Journalists Eduard Papazyan and Nikolay Hristov say such groups are not a new phenomenon in Bulgaria and have been operating for years in cities across the country.
Papazyan, a journalist with 24 Chasa, said the groups should not be viewed as a large, centralized network, but they are far from insignificant. “It is not such a wide network, such a large organization. They just unite, but they are still not that few,” he said on NOVA NEWS.
According to him, individual groups can include between 10 and 20 people, who may gather to confront one or two individuals. Most of the participants are young men, although women are also involved. Papazyan said they believe they have the right to punish people they consider different or unacceptable.
Crime journalist Nikolay Hristov stressed that similar groups have existed for years, with cases reported in Sofia, Varna and other large and medium-sized Bulgarian cities. The Plovdiv murder, however, has brought the phenomenon into much sharper public focus.
“Such groups do not exist now. They have existed for years in Bulgaria and are found in almost every large, not to mention medium-sized city,” Hristov said, adding that the country has a long record of beatings and attacks involving such groups.
