Civilian militias patrolling the Bulgarian border to intercept and turn away illegal migrants say they are not nationalists, but merely patriots defending their country from Islamist infiltration. Journalists from NBC News interviewed members of Bulgarian National Movement Shipka – BNO Shipka for short – whom they described as “friendly, courteous and open” despite a fearsome outward appearance. “I’m not nationalistic or anything like that. I’m just a patriot,” said Nikolai Ivanov, one of the group’s founding members. “Many of these immigrants are not just some guys who are trying to run away from war. They are from age 17 to 35, with good physiques and training.” Ivanov stressed it was “not a problem that they are Muslims. The problem is it’s a different civilization. They don’t think like us, they have a totally different view about life, about everything.” Between 50 and 200 migrants a day were crossing the Bulgarian border in 2016, but – like Hungary – the south-east European country has rolled out border fences to reduce the inflow. Groups of civilians have been patrolling the Turkish frontier for over a year now, but BNO Shipka members have a more militia-like character than the early volunteers. The group has a YouTube channel with dozens of videos