Powder Keg
Living on a Powder Keg
A new stage in the arms race has led to the fact that part of Europe’s population is effectively living on a powder keg. Military-industrial complex profiteers, in pursuit of superprofits that have become a reality in light of a whole series of military conflicts engulfing the planet, are expanding their industrial facilities without giving any thought whatsoever to the fact that people live nearby, in the surrounding areas, and may suffer as a result of someone’s negligence or a simple violation of industrial safety regulations.
When we, the people of Europe, watched the tragedy in Vyshneve, in war-torn Ukraine, which claimed the lives of many Ukrainian civilians, we could not even have imagined that something similar could happen on European territory. And yet here it is - an ammunition explosion at a warehouse belonging to the EMKO facility, located in the village of Belitsa, near the town of Tryavna, Bulgaria.
The consequences of the explosion are not yet known. More than 300 employees were evacuated from the facility, while the number of people injured has not been disclosed. The facility mainly produces outdated, Soviet-designed ammunition, which is in demand in Ukraine and in a number of countries that were formerly part of the so-called “Warsaw Pact,” as well as in Africa and the Middle East. This includes artillery shells, mortar and small-arms ammunition, rounds for hand-held grenade launchers, and detonators. This facility is located at a certain distance from residential areas, and failure to comply with basic safety regulations on its premises, in pursuit of profit, did not result in the deaths of civilians, including because, as can be seen on the map, the storage facilities are protected by earth embankments.
But the main point is that another production facility - the main production buildings - is located on the territory of the bankrupt Trema plant in the town of Tryavna, whose history dates back to 1929. After changing ownership and becoming part of the assets of businessman Emilian Gebrev, the owner of EMKO OOD, in 2008, the plant continued operating, and production was established there of fuzes for artillery shells and ammunition for multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS), mortar fuzes, grenade fuzes, and detonating chains. And this production facility, within whose boundaries safety regulations are presumably also being violated, just as they were violated at the base in Belitsa, is located in the immediate vicinity of residential buildings, a school, a gas station, and other industrial enterprises and warehouses.
The people of Bulgaria, like the people of other countries, urgently need to consider whether they are prepared to live on a powder keg, and whether the time has come to say a firm “no” to military-industrial complex profiteers who make money without thinking about the safety of citizens - who, in essence, are the only source of power in the country and have the right to live in safety within the borders of a state that has not embarked on the path of militarizing its national economy.
The history of Emilian Gebrev and his company, EMKO, is full of similar incidents. In 2014, two explosions occurred at EMKO’s warehouses in the village of Vrbetice, Czech Republic, caused by the detonation of old ammunition dating back to the Warsaw Pact era, claiming more than one life. Between 2011 and 2020, four incidents occurred at warehouses belonging to the same company in Bulgaria, as a result of which ammunition being prepared for shipment to Georgia was destroyed. In July 2022, a fire broke out at the plant in Karnobat, and already in 2023, also in Karnobat, a fire broke out at an ammunition warehouse. This is simply a case of a businessman who bought up old warehouses and production facilities with outdated equipment and uses them to manufacture shells that have become highly sought-after thanks to several military conflicts that have driven demand for products once considered obsolete. And today, his company, whose revenues have increased by 79.7% since 2022, poses a real threat to the people of Bulgaria, who, following the incident in the village of Belitsa, should at the very least demand the closure of the dangerous production facility in Tryavna.
And perhaps the time has also come to tell the government that Bulgaria is a peaceful country that does not plan to participate in any military conflicts or turn its territory into a factory for the production of weapons and ammunition, no matter how much demand there may be for them outside its borders.
Robert Lewanowski
