Vezhdi Rashidov

Vezhdi Letif Raschidow (also Vesdi Letif Rashidov written, Bulgarian Вежди Летиф Рашидов; born December 14, 1951 in Dimitrovgrad, Bulgaria) is a Turkish-born sculptor and politician of the GERB party in Bulgaria. He is considered one of the most famous critics of the Turkish-born Ahmed Dogan also, the chairman of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms. Raschidow is a member of the Salon d' Automne in Paris and the European Academy of Arts, also in Paris.

Life

Vezhdi Raschidow was born in 1951 in Dimitrovgrad, in southwestern Bulgaria. His mother was a well known folk singer for Bulgarian and Turkish folk songs, and his father was a mining engineer. In 1953 his family moved to Haskovo. There Raschidow attended primary school. When he was in the fourth grade, his mother died in a car accident. The following years until the seventh grade, he spent at the orphanage in Studen Kaldenez.

After completing the seventh grade, he applied to the School of Fine Arts in Sofia, but failed in the entrance exams. His father then sent him to training at the vocational school for electrical engineering in mining Madan. After a year he applied again at the Art School in Sofia and was this time the entrance exams. In 1978 he graduated from the Art Academy in Sofia.

2002 Raschidow was awarded the highest Bulgarian Order of Merit medal " Stara Planina ".

Vezhdi Raschidow had over 40 individual exhibitions in Bulgaria and abroad. Some of his works awards were presented, among which are the price of the Bulgarian National Radio, the price of the Festival of the Bulgarian film.

In 2010 he was made an honorary citizen of Dimitrovgrad.

Policy

Although Vezhdi Raschidow is a Turk, he is one of the most famous critics of the dominant of the Turkish minority in Bulgaria party Movement for Rights and Freedoms ( BRF ) and its chairman Ahmed Dogan. Raschidow particularly critical of the concentration of political and economic power in the hands of its chairman and the widespread corruption in the upper level of the party leadership. He also criticized the discrepancy between the wealth of the party leadership and the poverty of their party base.

In the parliamentary elections of 2009 it led the list for proportional representation and majority vote of the party GERB in the BRF stronghold of Kardzhali against Ahmed Dogan and his party Movement for Rights and Freedoms. He lost the direct duel with Ahmed Dogan in the majority choice list, was nevertheless elected to parliament from the proportional representation list.

After the Bulgarian parliamentary elections in 2009, which was won by the party GERB, Vezhdi Raschidow was sworn in on 27 July as Minister of Culture in the government of Boyko Borisov.