In a speech in Jerusalem before the Israel Council on Foreign Relations (ICFR), which operates under the auspices of the World Jewish Congress (WJC), Bulgaria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Daniel Mitov said Israel was characterized by "internal stability", had "a principled foreign policy" and was seen by many as an "extension of Europe in the Middle East."
Mitov’s speech was attended a large number of foreign ambassadors and the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nikolay Mladenov, the former foreign minister of Bulgaria.
In his introduction of the 38-year-old minister, ICFR board member Sharon Pardo of Ben-Gurion University said that he would not be alive today were it not for the Bulgarians, who had saved his father and the other Jews of Bulgaria from certain death at Auschwitz, as the Bulgarians had refused to acquiesce to the German demands to deport Bulgarian Jews.
In his address, Mitov, who was on an official visit to Israel together with Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borissov, stressed that state failures had led to tectonic changes in the Middle East, which resonated in Europe. “European policy, however, is not always pointed in the right direction. It is treating the symptoms and not the root of the problem,” he said, adding: “European citizens want politicians to regain control. Europe needs to stay whole, free, and solid.”
Speaking on the tension wracking the Middle East, Mitov said it had deep roots and was a historical and ideological conflict, which “will continue until countries engage in an elaboration of power that understands religion differently.”
In delivering closing remarks, the Bulgarian-born retired Israeli diplomat Mordechai Arbell, who is a founding member of the ICFR, declared: “When we speak about Bulgarians, we are speaking about brotherhood.”
Photo: Andres Lacko
