“Iran Is Not in as Much Challenge as It Was in My Father’s Time,” Says Bulgaria’s Ambassador
A country of Europe’s southeast, Bulgaria gained its NATO membership in 2004 and the EU gave a green light to its membership in 2005, which was finalized later on January 1, 2007. The building blocks of the diplomatic ties between Iran and Bulgaria date back to 115 years ago. In fact, Iran was the first Asian state to recognize Bulgaria’s government and after the Islamic Revolution of Iran, Bulgaria was among the first to recognize the new system. Over the recent years, political and economic ties have stayed dynamic and that definitely happens only under the protection of a seasoned ambassador’s expertise in both embassies. The Polendakovs stand among those diplomats. Once the senior Polendakov chaired the Bulgarian embassy, his son had the chance to witness his father’s experience and after years, returned to Tehran as a full-fledged diplomat to serve as Bulgaria’s ambassador in Iran. A hot day of summer time gave us the luck to hold a detailed diplomatic interview with him.
AVA Diplomatic’s Exclusive Interview with
Mr. Christo Stefanov Polendakov, Bulgaria’s Ambassador in Iran
Well, let’s start off with a little bit of your biography. Where were you born?
Ok, I was born in Sofia, but being part of a family of travelers, I can say that I was made and raised in Libya. My parents were residing in that country and my mom was in for 8 months of pregnancy when she flew back to Sofia. That’s where I was born, and then, prior to becoming 2 months old, I traveled back to Tripoli. So I’m a traveler from the very base of my life. My family stayed there until I was 3 years old returning to Bulgaria, and when I was 6, I was brought with the family to Iran. And this is where I had my primary education. In those days, it happened in the Russian-speaking school with the Soviet embassy here. And with the ups and downs of the uneasy times of the Revolution that was ongoing in those days, I spent up until my 3rd grade here in Iran and then I returned to Bulgaria and studied for another 2 years in a local school, and then again, my father was posted to Tehran, this time as the ambassador where I accompanied him until 1987. He remained for a year and a little bit more as the ambassador here, but I proceeded my life in Moscow where I advanced with my university education.
You mentioned that you studied at a Russian-speaking school. Was that an obligation? Or you had the liberty to study wherever you wished for?
In those days, it was not easy to find educational establishments for travelers, and my brother was studying (7 years senior to me) in Iranzamin Tehran International School. But for primary school, what I needed, there were not so many choices. And the family decided it is good to learn yet another language so I was attending the Russian-speaking school at the Russian Embassy.
It is interesting that back at the time, you came to see a semi-revolutionary Iran where the society is undergoing a surprising turn of events. I wonder to know what memories you recall from those days.
That is a very formative period of my memories. Being a boy open to the world and trying to absorb as much from the country I was residing in, I have very vivid memories of what was happening in those days. Here is the first time I saw the power of the crowd. Going to school and coming back was a great experience to witness the city every day. You were not only being in the traffic of the city, but you would observe the social developments and the social emotions on the streets. I recall many times, esp. during the peak of the revolutionary days when passing through Ferdowsi Sq. or Hafez Avenue, there were thousands of people, or hundreds of thousands of them on the streets openly sharing their emotions and their expectations. This is where I witnessed for the first time the social energy, and ever since, I have an appetite to explore what the root causes were, why this was happening, where it came from. Even more, I developed an appetite for studying the crowd and its features. This is one hobby of mine and if I am to boast with the books in my library, probably the biggest number is dedicated to this element.
How did your father find your probable inclination to take part in rallies against the Shah’s regime? Did he warn you?
Yes, we were free to contact with anyone in the country. Obviously, whenever there was, let’s say, violence on the streets, I was advised not to go closer to that area, but I saw a lot of other sides of the emotion of people. I saw many people in vans waving flags expressing their emotions in the most communicative way they could find out, including by having a lot of slogans, bringing out puppets, and again I was impressed by the wave of emotion. This is, as I said, a very formative memory. I was obviously also exposed to not very pleasant memories in those days. It is in those days that for the first time I saw blood on the street, and being a developed pacifist with my later period of formation, I was provoked to become one after seeing what I saw. To me, social anarchy is one thing, but mixing it with social violence is not interesting. I would hope that with everything I do as a diplomat and as a person who has been working in the field of international relations, I’m contributing to the avoidance of violence and bloodshed.
When meeting President Rouhani, you had a picture of your father on you. Did you ever think that one day you would work as Bulgaria’s Ambassador, just as your father did?
Thank you for asking this question. To me, it was a very emotional thing, and I try whenever I can not to hide my emotions but rather to use them so that I can communicate much better. About the photograph; it is a very symbolic thing. I had it in my folder and I didn’t have it to show it. I had it just to have it with me. And when it ended up being the ceremonial hall, I was about to hand my credential to His Excellency, Dr. Rouhani, the President of the Islamic Republic, I noticed it was absolutely the same place where the situation in the photograph had been, and it was exactly at that second that my brain said, “Ok. This is yet another tool of expression.” And at the end of the conversation, I calmly showed the photograph to the President. To my amusement, immediately as he took it, he said, “This is exactly the same place in the photo” and he went on to speak of the people in the first photograph obviously this is the preceding President who is now the Supreme Leader. In those days, His Excellency, Khamenei, was the President of the Islamic Republic. So it happened. This was the reason why I took it out. But to answer the other part of your question, I had never dreamed of being in this very same office, because it is another reminiscence. My father used to work in this office. I can tell you that for the duration of his ambassadorship, I have entered this place only couple of times. My father was very careful not to mix family with work. He was a dedicated professional, but he was also a very dedicated father. And the work and family life were two separate domains. So to answer your question, No! I never expected that I would follow his steps. The second “no” is even bigger; I would never think that destiny would create a situation that I would step in his shoes. But now that it has happened because of, I don’t know, providence or destiny, I would only try to follow the good things that he has done and try to do even better, if I can.
I would like to more know of his memories of Ayatollah Khamenei and other officials who were then and are now in power.
Let me first start with a point. He was enchanted with Iran. As a person who has been mostly working on the economic track, he gradually developed into a full-fledged ambassador who also had a lot of political weight. He always had a very good demonstration of sentiments, very positive sentiments, towards Iran. It is still so. Before I came this way, obviously we sat down for a while and talked about his memories, and he even gave me a little list of names that he remembered and said, “Listen, here is a list of good friends. If it happens that you have the time, just meet them and say greetings from a good friend.” I can tell you the list was quite long. I didn’t start it immediately, because I first want to phase in and I want to put things in order and I want to adapt myself to the tempo of the embassy and vice versa, and also to have the embassy synchronized with some of my agendas. But hopefully, in the upcoming autumn, I would start to get in touch. He had a great number of friendships here. These friendships are connected, I think, with two distinct reasons. First reason is that he spent quite a long period here. When you spend a long period in a place, inevitably you socialize, meet people who are close to your chemistry and understanding and you establish a lot of people-to-people contacts. He did so in very difficult times for this country. Those were challenging times and I firmly believe that friendships which are established during challenging times and during times of sacrifice are much truer and tested by circumstances than any other friendships. So these contacts in those days remained very strong, very sincere. The second reason — he, after some period of time, also became the dean of the diplomatic corps and that exposed him much more than any other ambassador to the decision making layers of this country. A lot of names resonate in my ears. I would mention them, at least a few, but they are too many, and I don’t want to miss any of those names. But he was exposed indeed to all the decision makers of the country. During those difficult times, he was invited as representative of the diplomatic corps to communicate and to receive back communications on many difficult phases of the war, including when different campaigns were happening, he was there to receive and pass on the message, and I’m very happy that he was doing so, because now, occasionally, I receive a hint from here and there, that it is remembered that he had done a very good job those days. And I’m fortunate to be in the country now which is not in the difficult situation that it was in those days when my father was here. But I’m challenged to create such friendships and some contacts in easier times as he did in difficult times and I hope to succeed in that.
I wonder to figure which year you left Tehran along with your father.
I left here in June, 1987.
Possessing an image of Iran, you return here after some years, but this time as an ambassador. I would like to ask what social and structural developments you bore witness to compared to those times.
Thank you for asking this question. This is a question I ask myself every day, and I give myself answers every day, because I have vivid memories from my early days and I have a lot of good impressions today. Today actually marks the 100 days of my stay as an ambassador here. It is almost symbolic, thank you for choosing it. I think you were checking the calendar. So every day of these days, I’m thinking between what Iran was then and what it is today. It has changed a lot. It has modernized a lot. But let me first speak of the people of Iran, because I believe that this is the most important thing. People have kept their energy. People, in general, have become younger. The population of Iran has doubled over this period of my absence here, which means that at least 50% of the population is new and born after the time that I was here. I see that Iranian people remained as sincere and as curious as they used to be before. I recall my days in my boyhood here; whenever somebody figured that I was a foreigner, they started asking a lot of questions such as “Where are you from?”, “How are you doing in your stay here?”, and “What are your traditions?”. Now, it’s the same, you have a lot of curiosity. This appreciation of the knowledge of the foreigner is very strong in your country. Your people want to learn. They want to know more. This is where the value of worldview comes to notice. That’s why you appreciate the travelers so much. And I see it’s going very strong now. A thing which I saw has changed is that I see much more educated people. The level of education in your country has tremendously risen. In those days of my boyhood, I recall that there were occasionally illiterate people. I recall sometimes when I needed something and I would go to the administration and see people just signing with a fingerprint or asking somebody to read them what was written in the document. I also sometimes tried to help them with a little simple Farsi. Now, I don’t see that anymore. I see a very high level of education in your society. I have not so far been so fortunate to have seen places outside of Tehran, which I would. I promised that during my term, I would go register friendships to a lot of provinces and cities in Iran. But speaking of Tehran, there are 3 or 4 very distinct differences; very distinct. First is there is not as many motorcycles as there used to be. I allude this to the better road situations now; I would allude it to the increase of the average income; more people are using cars. Before, they were using motorbikes, but now they are using cars. And also due to the distances they have to cover with their vehicles, their means of transportation have become greater. So the vehicle is no more the motorbike, but it’s a car. In those days, Karaj was 40 kilometers away. Today Karaj is practically part of Tehran and an element of the metropolis; you are having a metro line there. So this is one very distinct thing. The second very distinct thing is the tall buildings. In those days there were very few tall buildings in Tehran that were above 8 or 10 stories high. It was Hotel Esteghlal, Hotel Azadi and maybe a few others. You could count them on the fingers of both your hands. If you try to count the number of high rising buildings today, I think you would go into the hundreds if not a higher number, which is amazing.
Given the fact that Bulgaria is a strong country in terms of tourism and hotel management, is there any plan for its cooperation with Iran in constructing new hotels?
Yes, I think we have very good experiences in our tourism industry. We are making tremendous progress to particularly shape an area to attract people who would wish to be in 4-, 5-, and even 6-star hotel business. Most of those are concentrated on the Black Sea Coast. This is our exposure to the sea. But we have quite a number also in some of the bigger cities of Bulgaria. And also the winter resorts. I think winter resorts are something that we need to propagate a little bit better. Iranians are developing appetites for “white” sports, for winter sports. And I think eventually we can attract the attention of the Iranians. In addition to that, there is another area we have been developing and that is the spa tourism. Bulgaria is one of the richest countries in the world when it comes to mineral springs and mineral waters. That has been famous ever since the Roman Empire. A lot of people in history were finding the healing powers of the mineral water of Bulgaria. And even in pre-Christian times, there were, let’s put it, five-star hotels very close to mineral springs. There were palaces, baths and special hospitals that would give the opportunity for those who needed the healing power of the mineral springs and waters. Today, we are doing that as well. Partnering with the Iranians in the tourism industry is definitely an interesting area. I’m sure that many entrepreneurs and businessmen in the field of tourism and hotel management would be eager to partner with Iran. Iran has a tremendous potential as a touristic country.
We have not been able to efficiently use these potentials, though.
I don’t think so. I think gradually it is happening. To have tourism, you have to have other elements. You need first to show the world the magnetic places of your country which can be connected with nature, with beauty, with traditions, with history, with festivals, with knowhow, with arts, by virtue of your geographic location and the richness of your culture, you have so many things to show, and I think it is a matter of time. I hope it will be much sooner than later that more tourists would come and mix and mingle with Iran’s tradition, beauty and culture. But for this, you need a few other elements. You need infrastructure; you need hotel bases, because to attract tourists, you need to accommodate them. You need tourism industry in the sense of guides, souvenir makers…you need advertisement. You need to demonstrate that tourists can feel well and free in your country. Tourists today enjoy checking things on the internet before they go. So all this also needs to go ahead of things. When tourists come here, they want to know exactly where they are going, what they are eating. So this element of the industry connected with tourism needs to be a little bit boosted. And I think, over time, it would happen.
You are making every effort to bring the project of the Chamber of Commerce between the two countries to fruition. That being said, I’d like to know what other fields of cooperation there are between the two countries.
I would try to open just every opportunity of the potentials of our two countries. Our two countries are very close. Their geographic proximity offers a lot of potential. In business, transportation often forms the serious share of the final price of a product. We might benefit from the proximity of our two markets. Speaking of the joint chamber of commerce, yes, now that there is a newly elected head of the Chamber of Commerce, I would follow on very soon with the idea of the Iranian-Bulgarian Joint Chamber. I’m confident that the business people from both sides would very quickly realize the usefulness of such an instrument for enhancing the bilateral economic relations. I know already now that there is a lot of interest on the side of entrepreneurs, people who really want to use the economic feasibilities that our two countries offer. I trust that our economies are quite complimentary as well, even if the market of Iran is much bigger than the market of Bulgaria, people might say, “Ok, why do you like to do business with a country like that?”. My answer to that is first, because we are very close, and second, because we understand a lot about how things are here, and third, because via the route to Bulgaria, the Iranian commercial interests and economic potential gain access to the big market of the EU. Bulgaria is amongst the closest borders of the EU to the territory of Iran. This is a major factor and vice versa. The European products go on through the reverse way from Bulgaria to Iran, and the access to the Persian Gulf and beyond. We know the tremendous economic power India and China have demonstrated. There is no doubt this is where the economic weight is and will be in the foreseeable years. So linking the very big European market to the Far East via the routes of Bulgaria and Iran is something that I’m sure cannot escape us.
So your businessmen are awaiting the results of the nuclear talks.
That included. But I trust that we should not focus on such steps, on such times in history. I think we should look broader. Over the past one year, in the current circumstances, the economic exchange between Bulgaria and Iran reached a level of $ 150 million. It is not big. And I’m sure it can go many times higher. But what is important in my analysis if this is possible today, under the current circumstances, then, it is possible tomorrow, no matter what the outcome of the negotiations is. So let’s just continue to work day in and day out, irrespective of circumstances for improving the bilateral economic exchange where both people benefit. In business, it is like this. Nobody sells, if there is no benefit. So if today this is happening, then tomorrow it can happen again and the day after tomorrow again irrespective of the outer circumstances that one believes can be restrictive.
What interests me is that when taking a look at the trade figures of 2014, I see that Iran has mostly exported nutritional items, pottery and chemicals, and imported transformational and cumbersome machineries. Do you think it is open to development?
Yes, I believe we can expand the list of commodities that are being exchanged between our two countries. Currently we are mostly exchanging fertilizers and some other items from Iran and selling again some fertilizers you do not produce here. But we have production capacity. And this is very good. It only demonstrates that we can be complimentary to each other, what you have more, you can give to us and vice versa. When it comes to machine tools and industry, which you mentioned as top positions here, yes, this is true. We are mostly exporting from Bulgaria hoists. These are weight-lifting mechanisms, which Iran appreciates. We were here in this market traditionally with these products, and of course, some hand tools. In return, of course, we try to use more of the traditional pro\ducts of Iran. But also now that I go to different trade fairs, I see how much advancement there is in the production of different items in the domain of cosmetics, food products, machine tools, chemicals. So this is ongoing. We, of course, can cooperate in the field of transportation and not only to use the potential of the automobile industry which is blossoming, but we can also reverse it into the field of production of wagons and locomotives and various parts that deal with the railway system. I think we can cooperate in transportation, in general, which is a very important element of today’s economies, to use the transit capacities of both Bulgaria and Iran, and I’m sure we’ll do this, because it makes economic sense. Hopefully, we can expand to just any other area, and if you ask me personally what the biggest potential is, I’d say probably ship building and ship repair, I would say in agricultural products and food processing, and I would say telecommunications and I’m very confident we have huge potential in high technologies, in the knowhow of the sciences of the future. Both Bulgaria and Iran developed in that direction. I’m looking forward soon to visiting the technological park of Pardis. And I’m also eager to introduce the Sofia Tech Park capacities to the Iranian specialists here.
In this case, trade committees, I believe, should go themselves out there to see things personally, evaluate the market and make the bridge. It surprises me that Bulgaria’s Foreign Ministry appoints someone ambassador to Iran, who has formerly been in charge of the South and South-East Asia Department thereat and at some point, he was the Director for Human Resources of the Ministry meaning many of those who now work there have your confirmation and signature on their backgrounds. In some way, it can be implied that knowing the probable lift-off of sanctions in Iran, the Ministry sent someone who can work things out. Am I right?
Well, I hope this is part of the logic in the decision making on my humble person to serve as ambassador here. But let me tell you something else. For Bulgaria, this post is important, we are having a very well-functioning, stable embassy here. In 2 years’ time, we would be celebrating 120 years of diplomatic relations between Bulgaria and Iran. We are cognizant of the importance of the human contact. And irrespective of the new technologies and new ways of communication, it is very important that an ambassador be in a place where he or she chooses to direct contacts and build bridges to the authorities here. I would go back to why the choice might have been on me. You are right that I was dealing with a lot of people and my signature is on the contracts of many people, not only at Foreign Ministry. Prior to that, I was working in the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe where again I was putting my signature on quite a number of contracts. Luckily, the combination of multilateral experiences that I had combined with humble knowledge of your country and bilateral diplomacy, and a little bit of the economic acumen that I might carry hopefully is a good signal that Bulgaria is anticipating a much broader economic, social, cultural and political relations with your country. So I would never stop learning and adding facets to my professional career. Being here, I will try to learn much better how things can be done efficiently and effectively with the Iranian partners. I would be a very open and communicative ambassador and I would try to use all my previous networks and all my previous experiences and knowledge so that they can be employed to achieve the ultimate goal of very active Bulgarian-Iranian relations in all fields possible.
Do you hope for the lift-off of sanctions?
Of course, I wish they are taken away. Sanctions are not a choice. It is very difficult to go back through history, and dissect it. What is important that today’s energy demonstrates expectation for their lifting. The negotiations are unprecedented, and they are going such a length of time at such a high level. By only analyzing that element, there is the guarantee of the seriousness with which both sides approach the difficult issue of the sanctions. And I’m sure that whenever smart and wise people, good professionals, engage themselves in a process, then that process ultimately gets to a conclusion. Then considering it with this perspective, I would say yes, time is coming when they are lifted.
Some in Iran believe the US cannot be trusted. In spite of their mentality, Bulgaria has firm and extended with it. What do you think? Can they be trusted or not?
Yes, this question is obviously not easy. But I will try to answer it in a very honest way. I believe that trust can only exist when there is exchange of contacts, when there is communication, when there is expression and there is someone to receive that expression, when there is talks, when there is man-to-man or woman-to-woman contact, when there is understanding of the potential. In today’s world of communication, often we send signals, but we never know whether they are received, apprehended and used. And this is the difficulty of today’s days. If we can put it in a way that information is exchanged and immediately it is understood, that the information is received and absorbed and in return, there is reverse information, then confidence grows. To trust somebody, it takes knowing the other side. Over the many years that the relations between European countries and some other countries were strained, it had mostly to do with lack of communication. I don’t say lack of information. I’d say lack of communication. I think the process that we are seeing now is a unique confidence-building process in which communication is taking place. Your country is emitting information and receiving information and sending back information. We see it via the recent volleyball games twice over the last one week, the team of the US was playing with the team of Iran and I congratulate you on the victory, by the way, excellent players, excellent game, excellent tactics, and excellent performers. Again, this is communication. When there is more of these, people understand that even when they lose in a volleyball game, they can communicate. Here they communicate with a ball over the net. In some other negotiations, when you know the rules, you can still do this thing and help the game and help the satisfaction till the end of the game. So I would say this is the approach to be followed. I believe there’ll be more chances of talking to each other, understanding each other, knowing where the other comes from, why the position of one of the parties is as it is and when there are more such circumstances, there’ll be more trust. Without trust, I agree with you, you cannot build anything. You cannot build a family, partnership or a team. Speaking about Bulgaria, yes, we have trusted our allies and our partners. Bulgaria is an EU member, and together with Romania, we are 28 countries who trust each other. And so are we with our NATO allies. Each and every one of them is committed to protect the security of the other. And in this, we cannot function without trust. So to cut it short, with everything that is happening before our eyes and in our days, I’m confident that trust would be increasing, and when there is direct engagement for the profit, for the good of cultures, for the good of education, this trust would be growing more, because there will be more knowledge of the other party, more understanding on where they come from and where you come from. And I think this process is happening before our eyes, and it’s inevitable. Because it is a shame the potentials of such great countries not to be recognized, not to be applied for the common good of the world.
So isn’t that considered to be a concession from Bulgaria to the US or NATO for further economic fulfillment? The reason why I’m saying that is because inflation rate is -2% in Bulgaria which equals recession and apart from the modifications it brought to the country’s economic system, it caused the work force to work longer and increased the retirement age and that was followed by objections, by the police, for instance.
Well, first of all, Bulgaria has been undergoing a period of economic transformation ever since 1989. That is true. Economic processes happen with change of mentality and change of expectation. Many of our citizens were living in different times and different economic systems, and for many years, perhaps for the past 20 years or more, they were hoping that some of the good things of the former system would remain, but some of the bad things would not occur. In this sense, some of them were very quick to adapt to the new economic realities, to undertake and use the opportunities of the free market system. But some of them chose not to do that. They were educated, living and prepared to function in a different way, and naturally, they were less successful in the new environment. You say that there is rising in the pension age, or there is some unemployment level or some unrest. I don’t think this should be considered as an absolute thing. Raising the age of pension is an objective process that is happening in every part of the world. It has two distinct reasons: one is that people who are at an old age today are healthier than they have ever been before. They are capable of working. Second is the life expectancy has been raising. So we have continuously more and more citizens of our country that are able to work but are in a situation that they need to retire. And last but not least, here we should open our eyes. A lot of Bulgarians who are young and have entrepreneurial characteristics have left the country. So a lot of our young people chose to go to operate in other economies. The free market which we joined envisages free movement not only of money and ideas, but also movement of people. A lot of Bulgarians moved out of Bulgaria, but it doesn’t make them less Bulgarians. They are Bulgarians in Germany, Sweden, Finland, Canada, America, and Australia and in many other places now that they are free to travel around the globe. Wherever they go, they can stay, because they are educated; they have language skills; they have capacities, and I’m sure these people still remain Bulgarians irrespective of the fact that they are outside of the borders of our country. But the economic thrive is that those Bulgarians who remain in Bulgaria need to continue function so that the economy performs. The national economy needs to run. So here comes the element that you are saying. Against the fact that one and a half million pairs of hands have left the country, those who remained need to function so that the economy runs. I would not make a tragedy out of it; I would not make a tragedy of some percentage of unemployment. In my country, there is social security network which makes sure that the unemployed get retrained, readapted and supported to find their economic niche. I think that this is normal for any country, and I would not anyhow dramatize it.
Bulgaria, as you mentioned, tries to establish and maintain its own contacts and interactions. But to me, as a journalists, it happens that Bulgaria is more than anything looking for its own economic profit through the military accompaniment with the US. Just before the interview, I read it on the news that the US donated nearly $15 million to Bulgaria to enhance the country’s military infrastructures.
Well, look at this from the perspective of partnerships. First of all, fifteen million is nothing; it is negligible when we come to speak about defense spending, but I do not say that this is huge amount of money. This is good that the freedom of information in my country speaks about even some small amounts of money. But 15 million is not something decisive for the economic or security base in my country. It is just a piece of information that informs the public that something has happened. I would say another thing. I would say with Bulgaria’s membership in the EU and NATO, Bulgaria joins an area of stability and security. By being a member of these two international groups, this alliance and this economic union, Bulgaria is gaining a platform for its economic development. On the track of the EU, Bulgaria is benefiting from cohesive and development funds. A lot of EU programs that support different areas of Bulgaria’s economy so that it quickly raises to the level of the strongest economy of the EU. This is how the EU works. Those who are more advanced and developed and rich are helping those who are part of their own group. So yes, we are a beneficiary of the funds of the EU so that our economy could perform better, and we reform and resolve some economic tendencies which were not as good as we want them to be. When it comes to security, it is the same thing. Bulgaria has been contributing to the joint security of NATO. We have been part of a number of international operations under the auspices of the UN where Bulgarian soldiers were fighting back to back with many other soldiers from the NATO alliance. In return, sometimes we get the same. We are getting trainings from our NATO comrades or from the Alliance. Sometimes we are receiving in-kind contributions or financial assistance, and again, this is only an indication of the homogeneity of these two effective alliances, one in the domain of security and one in the domain of economy.
Another point of interest for me is Bulgaria’s EU interaction. What benefits has this membership had for Bulgaria? And how is Bulgaria’s Schengen status?
Well, I already mentioned the benefits. Benefits are the creation of a space of stability, of economic prospect and development, access to joint market which is much bigger than any other effective market today, exchanging know-how, know-whom, know-when, know-whether, access to culture, access to education, access to industrial base and cooperation, access to financial supports. I just mentioned the economic programs which were targeting Bulgaria’s economic performance. It is before our eyes that we are building more infrastructure in my country; we are having more roads, more bridges, more schools, more theaters, and more academia. We are still on the side of being the beneficiary. So yes, we are catching up with the most developed economies in Europe. It has given us the freedom of movement of ideas, capitals; the banking sector of Bulgaria is quite open. We have a lot of capital presence in my country. It is also reinforcement for the economy. And the other side, of course, is improved security. When we have this, we have investments, we are becoming magnetic for other people to come and visit, to come and live. And we see it is happening. Bulgaria is one of those countries that is worth visiting. People are demonstrating it by the number of tourists annually. We are offering not only relaxed holidays on the beaches, on the hills or slopes during the winter time, but we are offering education opportunities, we are offering contacts that end up with business opportunities. Quite a number of people are choosing Bulgaria as their place to live. So it is only an indication that Bulgaria has been becoming more attractive and more magnetic. Quite a number of our compatriots who chose to go and live abroad are now coming back to my country, not because of the economic problems of the countries, but because they now are more educated, they accumulated some savings and some knowledge which they can now easily apply in Bulgaria. Bulgaria also benefited over the last period with reforming its economic sectors to become very attractive to investment. We are having a 10% flat taxation, no matter what we want to tax, one hundred thousand or one hundred million. We have stability and guarantee for investors. We are having a market which is very agile and very modern and technologically advanced, and we have a labor force that is very communicative and, let’s put it, very agile. I think all this is a result of a number of years of efforts, mistakes, reforms not only in the establishment and the governmental sector, but also in our thinking. I think now we are realizing that more and more. Not only do we realize it, but we also are doing it.
I’m intrigued to know now what changes Bulgaria’s economic indices have undergone in these years.
Well, I can certainly provide you with all the major data that is coming from reliable sources as the Central Bank of Bulgaria, the Eurostat and I’m ready to send it to you. But in general, I would say the overall microeconomic of the country is exceptionally stable. We are an increasing economy. We have not been in deflation. We have not been in a situation of pseudo inflation, neither we were an economy that didn’t have economic growth in the last 15 years. There has not been a single year when we fell below zero, and this is the point at which a great number of people have left the country for various reasons; that is the point of ongoing reforms, and it is at this point that there were situations with neighboring economies, because you know that some of our neighbors were having quite serious economic problems. Against this backdrop, Bulgaria’s performance is of a stable, mid-sized European country which is already felt by Bulgarian citizens, and it is noticeable in the growth of the sectors of construction, road construction and agricultural output. Had it been otherwise, these indicators would have been negative. So we are very happy to actually be on the optimistic side, and would make a lot of efforts not to make any of the mistakes other European countries did.
On a final note, I need to ask about what basis Bulgaria’s foreign policies are prioritized based on. For example, about the Middle East, in his statements, the Bulgarian FM stated that Bulgaria recognizes the government of the Independent State of Palestine. I wonder to inquire whether you are worried or not about the fact that Israel, having a quite influential lobby in Europe, would affect your country’s foreign policies. Is Israel not strong in that area? As offer the 2007 statistics, Bulgaria is home to the highest number of Muslims compared to other European countries. Do you confirm that?
Let me start from the back. It’s not the biggest in Europe. I’m not verifying. There are other countries in Europe that have bigger percentage of Muslims living on their territory, but this is not an important thing. The important thing is that in Bulgaria, traditionally, Muslims and Christians, atheists and Jews are co-existing very harmoniously, and this has never been an issue. And I don’t see any link to the number of Muslims living in Bulgaria and the recognition of Palestine or anything like that. These are two distinct processes. One of them is a political and the other one is geopolitical. I’ll start with the recognition of Palestine. Bulgaria is amongst the countries that has always, no matter under which period of its development, been conducting a foreign policy that was based on decisions of the constitutionally authorized organs of my country, and that is the National Assembly, our Parliament, and this is the government that is the executive part which implements those decisions. And it has not been different also with this matter. I can tell you that since many years, we have been sympathizing and having contacts with the people of Palestine. Quite a number of the Palestinian elite have been trained in Bulgaria. Our educational institutions have been open as for Palestinians and any other country. Many Palestinians chose to be educated in Bulgaria, and I’m very happy to say that a number of them speak brilliant Bulgarian, and they remain friends with my country for life. We are taking our foreign political decisions based on collective wisdom in my country. The collective wisdom in my country in this instance has once again generated a decision which is being implemented and there is nothing strange with that. Yes, people might link and try to connect some dots by relations with some other countries. I don’t see any problem with that. We have a functioning embassy of Israel in my country as well as an Iranian or American embassy or vice versa. We are having embassies in those respective countries as well. I would not make it an absolute or try to extract any analyses out of this. Out of this, I would say, there is understanding that with the people of Palestine, we can interact as peoples that have their own statehood, and we’ll be doing so, especially after the official decision has been taken.
Let’s get back to the Schengen case. At a meeting you had with the Deputy Minister of Industry, you had stated that Bulgaria can be a gate for Iranians to the Schengen area. Are there any measures planned to be taken? Is anything particular about to be eased? Is the visa issuance process bound to go through any change? I noticed that there are some certain parameters placed for merchants and businessmen. Would you elaborate on that a little?
I’ll start first with correcting the quote. I don’t know where it comes from. But the discussions which we had at various levels not only with ministers, deputy ministers, and prior to that, with the President, was that Bulgaria be a door for Iran to Europe, not to Schengen. This is the misquotation. I’ll now speak about Schengen. The reality is that Bulgaria is a country that is on the way to becoming a full participant, contributor and beneficiary to all the instruments of the EU. Schengen is one of those instruments. It is part of the regulation of the common European space, and we have already been for a couple of years meeting all the technical criteria of the Schengen space. We’ll continue to be very careful in implementing those parameters, and as we speak, there are ongoing negotiations on the full accession of Bulgaria to the Schengen space. In the meantime, Bulgaria being a member of the EU, it is issuing EU visas to Iranians who are, in their essence, in full compliance with the parameters for issuing a Schengen visa. Those who have been visiting my country recently know that when they are issued Bulgarian visas, they are being collected biometric data and this is exactly in compliance with Schengen requirements. Even more so, Bulgaria has already liberalized its visa regime by accepting holders of valid Schengen visas to enter Bulgaria; valid Schengen visas. It has also already gotten into an agreement with some neighboring countries that the Bulgarian national visas can be used as visas valid for entry on their territories, like those between Bulgaria and Romania. So all this demonstrates that we are applying most carefully and in full the instruments of the EU, Schengen being one of those. And I’m sure that with this and some other efforts, we would soon hopefully before 2018, when Bulgaria will be taking over the Presidency of the EU, we would have adhered to all the instruments of the EU, which, I’m sure, would happen even earlier.
Given the fact that many Iranians have graduated from Bulgarian universities, do you have any special plan for developing ties in this area?
Well, I’m sure that there are more opportunities for educational exchanges between Iran and Bulgaria, both ways. I can tell you that there are a lot of niches that I noticed during my stay here which we, Bulgarians, should be a bit more active in using. This is in the domain of art, technologies, biochemistry and in some progressive sciences. I’m sure that we can also offer a lot of complimentary fields in my country. We are very good in machine building, medicine, mathematics. I’m sure we can do much more in the years to come in areas like Iranian studies. For many years, we have been having “Iranistics” as a major at our Sofia University. I hope that during my stay here, we can open the major of Bulgarian studies as part of your Slavonic Studies Department at Tehran University or elsewhere. I will try to establish a lot of direct contacts between schools, between primary schools, secondary schools and high schools between Iran and Bulgaria. I believe in today’s world, you do not need to travel too much. You can just use the internet platform and have joint classrooms to have joint math lessons, physics or chemistry lessons, or art lessons. You can exchange knowledge about art, music or handicrafts. So all this we can do. Of course, we try to enhance more higher educational exchanges between Iran and Bulgaria by sending students both ways. We have a cultural agreement which encompasses not only culture but also education, sports and science. In my embassy here, we are having a dedicated diplomat that deals with this area of cooperation. Within here, I’m sure we’ll do much more. We are in the face of signing another three-year plan for cooperation between Iran and Bulgaria in this domain where a lot of very practical exchanges will be foreseen. When we do it in such a plan, the good thing is that they are also budgeted for. So you have the material supplement which is important for the implementation. So I’m confident that I’ll do much more. I know that there are very agile and knowledgeable Iranians looking for enhancing their education by using Bulgaria. And the most important thing is that by getting education in Bulgaria, those who have chosen it are receiving diploma from the EU, which is recognized in the whole European market. And I think this is yet another reason to study in Bulgaria and receive a worldwide recognized education. This is what Bulgaria offers.
Bulgaria is pretty much strong in medical fields and pharmaceuticals.
Yes, in pharmaceutical areas and also lyophilization, which is the specific process of treatment of foods against decay through very natural ways. Bulgaria was boasting of sending such foods to open space. A lot of space programs today are still using the methods of drying and freezing which is in Bulgarian patent.
In closing, as an ambassador who knows the Iranian culture and language, what plans have you thought of to develop the cultural relations between the two countries? However, you didn’t respond to the questions in Farsi.
First of all, I’d try to find those intellectuals that have the traditional Iranian curiosity. I’m ready to search for supporters of the Bulgarian-Iranian cultural exchange, each in their own field. I would try to assemble a group of friends of Bulgaria — some in the field of cinema, puppet theater, animation, expressive arts, music, or any other cultural field you might think of. I would try to group the most prominent Iranian intellectuals as friends with this embassy and together with the similar friends of the Iranian embassy in Sofia which would be from the Bulgarian intellectual elite, I hope we can form a friendship cultural group, which would not only provide ideas but would be the actual implementers of the cultural exchange between our two countries. They would not only be visiting each other; they’d not only be sending their products, but I’m sure they’ll be engaged in joint projects. They’ll be doing films and music together. This is amongst my ideas and I will be day and night working for implementing it.
You should first lay the foundation for it. Otherwise, it is not happening.
But it is happening. I think when one has an idea, the only thing that remains is its implementation. If there is no idea, there is nothing. So here we are on the idea. And I already have had positive responses from the intellectual circles of Tehran. I hope it will be not only of Tehran but of the whole of Iran. And I’m sure that next time that we have an interview, I will be giving you many practical examples of cooperation.
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