“The Path of Change and Democratization Bulgaria has Followed Cannot be reversed.” Interview with the Honorable Lawrence eagleburger, Formr Secretary of State and Honorary Chairman of the Bulgarian- American Society Q: In a speech at a conference in 1992 you refrred to bulgaria as the “best kept secret” and the “unsung success story” in the Balkans. Did the progress of reform in Bulgaria justify your expectations? A: Reforms everywhere in Eastern Europe have proved to be more difficult and painful than we all originally thought. Reforms in the peaceful part of the Balkans, Bulgaia included, have been particularly slow and uneven, due in part to the five-year civil war raging next door in the former Yugoslavia. I am confident, however, that the path of change and democatization that Bulgaria has followed for the last six years cannot be revesred and I am sure the overwhelming majority of Bulgarians do not wish to reverse it. Much has been done in the course of those six years. Bulgaria now has a multi-party system, freely-elected government, and free press among its achievements. Nonetheless, those reforsm peratining particulaly to the dismatling of the commad economy and its replacement with a free market economy have been sluggish and often halfhearted. Bulgaria’s post-communist governments have all lacked a strong enough mandate to introduce decisive measures, and the result is that Bulgaria’s economic development continues to lag behind Bulgaria’s former fellow eastern Bloc members poland, Hungary, and the Chech Republic. Bulgaria should unequivocally establish itself as a free-market economy. Q: Bulgaria has remained “an island of stability” in the Balkans. Governments have changed, economic reform has lagged behind other Eastern European countries, but Bulgaria has remained peaceful in avolatile region and has promoted ethnic and religious tolerance. Why is Bularia different from its neighbours? A: Bulgaria’s ability to achieve religious and ethnic stability, and subject its minority- related problems to a peaceful and democratic dialogue is no doubt one of its greatest achievements. Bulgaria’s Turkish minority may still have numerous grievances with the government, but in a clear reversal of Balkan tradition, they are able to express them in parliament, receive redress, and establish their rights by vote rather than by war. This is a particularly remarkable achievement given Bulgaria’s own very recent history of minority civil rights abuses in the 1908’s and the bitterness and hostility that the forceful renaming and relocation og Turkish bularians created in Bulgarian Scoiety. The fact that Bulgarians of all descent were able to rise above the past and work together on keeping Bulgharia a peaceful counrty should serve as a lesson and model for ethnic relations to those Balkan countries now faced with the daunting task of building multi-nationality societies after tens of thousands of their citizens have died and millions have been displaced because of their ethnicor religious origins. Bulgaria has managed to maintain good relations with all of its neighbours and to remain not only “an island of stability” but a factor in the Balkans. The Bulgarian initiative to host a meeting fo the foreign ministers of the Balkan countries is yer another example of Bulgaria’s balanced and eefctive foreign policy in the region. Q: Bulgaria is undergoing a serious financial and economic crisis. What, in your view, are the causes of this crisis and what are the solutions? A: As I mentioned earlier, Bulgaria has been too slow to implement major economic reforms. these seems to be ambivalence not only in the government but in society at alrge about the benefits a privately owned, free enterprise economy. Although highky wasteful and unproductive as a system, socialsm was know for its “cradle to grave” benefits, which, paltry as they were, seem to be missed by many Bulgarians, aspecially the elderly. Bulgarians must understand, however, that the root of their present economic woes, including their large foreign debt, lies in the former regimes’ spending - on social, military, and other matters - much more money that it was able to take in. The government-owned enterprises could not make any money for Bulgaria because the products they made were infearior to world market standards. In order to overcome economic difficulties, the government now must privatize and ecnourage foreign investment. If Bulgaria is to be a prosperous country where its industrious epople can be fairly rewarded for their efforts, and wehere the rest of the world is eager to invest its moey, there must be a national agreement and strong political will to impplement reforms which will balance Bulgaria’s biiks and establish level economicplaying field, wehere success and failure are determined by free competition. Q: Given the absence of large Bulgarian ethnic communities in the U.S. and other Western countries, what can Bulgarians do to “place Bulgaria on the map” and to make the public opinion in the West more sympatheic to Bulgaria’s problems and difficulties/ A: It is true that Bulgaria has failed to attract the attention given fast-track reformes such as the Visegrad group (but it also has not attracted the kind of attention that the former Yugoslavia has received in the West, which should be a cause of great relief to Bulgarians.) Stll, in recent years, when poeple in the West mention the Balkans, they think primarily of war. Thus, Bulgaris’ struggle to implement deep-reaching and often painful retsurcturing in a peaceful manner has not received the appreciation it deserves. There also have been mixed messages from Sofia about exactly what type of partnership Bulgaria wants with the West in both the political and economic spheres. These are issues that must be resolved internally, though one of the arguments I have heard - that the West does not want Bulgaria, and does not care about it - is not true. The West welcomes Bulgaria as long as Bulgaria is sure that the West is where it wants to be.