/Pogled.info/ The international conference “The Balkans – For peace, security, cooperation and partnership” was held under the patronage of President Radev and with the participation of Vice President Iliana Yotova, who will deliver the opening speech. The organizers are the Strategic Institute for National Policies and Ideas /SINPI/, the Forum for Balkan Transport and Infrastructure /FBTI/ and the National Association for International Relations” /NAMO/.
Not-for-profit non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from Turkey, Greece, Serbia, Romania, the Republic of North Macedonia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Cyprus participated. Famous public figures from the Balkan countries will also be present in a personal capacity. We are talking to Dr. Kaloyan Pargov, chairman of SINPI and keynote speaker at the forum.
– Let’s start our conversation with the purpose of the conference, Mr. Pargov?
– The aim is to create conditions for bilateral and multilateral dialogue between the Balkan peoples and countries in the context of their civil societies, which are invited to participate. Because this is not a political forum. Representatives of NGOs from almost all Balkan countries will be present, from organizations that have a different subject of activity and purpose and people we know in the past in high government positions in these countries.
– Tell us some of them?
– For example, the former Prime Minister of the Republic of Macedonia, Vlado Buckovski. We proceed from the presumption that the Balkans are surrounded by 4 seas – Black, Aegean, Ionian and Adriatic. In the context of the global crises that currently exist and are increasingly intensifying, unfortunately, as well as the war in Ukraine, the main issue that will be addressed is about peace and equal and guaranteed security, as well as bilateral and multilateral cooperation basis in cultural, economic, infrastructural and investment activity. It seems to us that at the moment when there is a global economic crisis, the easiest way for countries to resort to is to increase the production of weapons and new technologies with which to drive their economies. But these weapons are produced for the purpose of being used, since they are only accumulated and do not bring any profit. As a counterbalance to this, we propose the idea of economic, cultural and any other cooperation of our small region – the Balkans, which since ancient times has been key to the world, an important crossroads between East and West.
– However, is the current international situation suitable for holding such a conference?
– It is very timely, we in SINPI have been discussing it for a little more than a year, but the constant early elections shifted the focus of the problems and shifted it only to one pre-election race. At the moment, we have a government that has been holding back for more than three months, and against the background of what is happening in the world – not only the war in Ukraine, but also in a global aspect – the region needs dialogue, understanding and talks. It is in our interest that the Balkan countries find their own way, although the European perspective for the entire region, with few exceptions, displaces the topic of regionalism and regional cooperation. And this is seen more and more significantly in view of global initiatives such as the “Trimory” started by Poland, which is considered an American initiative, its counterpoint is the Berlin process started by Angela Merkel, the regional initiative “Open Balkans”, included Albania, Serbia and North Macedonia, but Albania opted out and only accepted the Berlin Process as an opportunity for cooperation. The whole world is changing, new military alliances are being created, new associations such as BRICS, which has the ambition to be a counterpoint to the Euro-Atlantic civilization, the center of which is the USA, and, accordingly, the European communities. All this cannot help but worry us in view of our geographical position, which is at a crossroads and which has always aroused controversy. In the last century, about 11 wars have been fought in the Balkans, eight of which were caused by ourselves, due to internal regional contradictions. This shows that we must clean up our contradictions and problems and replace them with mutually beneficial cooperation and partnership in all spheres.
– But most Balkan countries are members of NATO, there are members and candidate members of the EU, isn’t their cooperation in these organizations enough? And to one degree or another they support Ukraine in the war against Russia?
– The topic of the conference is not the war in Ukraine, and the topic “peace” is not used in this context, but in the context of the Balkan region, which is several hundred kilometers from the hostilities, and of course, in the context of this drone with a bomb that appeared near Shabla and which put many issues on the agenda, mostly related to security.
– Do you think that non-governmental organizations can play a role in resolving the issues raised by the conference, Mr. Pargov?
– The word “peace” is present in the first place in the conference, because peace is a prerequisite for better partnership and cooperation. There is no way this can be done in turbulent times and you cannot derive mutual benefits when there is antagonism – bilateral or multilateral, as it is now in the world. A strong non-governmental sector, as a direct representative of civil society within the framework of the democratic regimes in which we live in the Balkans after 1990, should be the backbone of society. It aims to suggest, push, pose problems and, together with state institutions, seek a solution both at the national and regional level. At the end of the conference, we will try to create a Partnership Network of NGOs that have set common goals and we will present them to the leaders of the Balkan countries.
– Do you think these executives will pay attention to you?
– Each of the invited NGOs has sufficient weight and influence in their own countries. The Serbian representative, Dragana Trifkovic, is the director of the Geostrategic Center in Belgrade and is quite active on the topics of peace and cooperation. The Association of Industrialists in Turkey has a very strong influence among Turkish business circles and will participate in the opening with its representative Mrs. Naime Kasmer. Also participating will be famous professors and politicians who were in high office and then created civil organizations. These are also people with considerable influence in their own countries. From Greece, we will have representatives who are connected to both SYRIZA and PASOK, as well as to the ruling “New Democracy” of Prime Minister Mitsotakis. We expect his energy advisor to participate, which shows the level. From Albania will come the former head of their National Television and Information Agency, from Turkey there will also be a representative of university circles in Istanbul, there will be guests from Romania, from Bosnia and Herzegovina. Unfortunately, there won’t be any from Montenegro due to their internal problems. Croatia and Slovenia have always been considered outside the political concept of the Western Balkans.
– More than 20 years ago, President Zhelyu Zhelev created the Balkan Political Club, in which the level was very high – former and current presidents and prime ministers from the countries of the region such as Suleiman Demirel, Kiro Gligorov, Emil Constantinescu, Sally Berisha… I did interviews with these people and they were all talking about cooperation, infrastructure. I guess it didn’t get any further than the talks…
– Our ambition is to make this conference an annual event, with each year being held in a member country. We also have a permanent secretariat, but let’s stop dreaming and see how the conference will start and end.
– The u program envisages the adoption of two documents – an Appeal for Peace and Equal Security and a Memorandum for the Creation of the Partnership Network…
– Yes, the appeal for equal security will not be to NATO, nor to the USA, nor to the EU, nor to Russia, but will be to the leaders of the Balkan countries. Although, according to my information, the diplomatic corps in Bulgaria shows quite a lot of interest in this event. Not only because it is under the patronage of the President of Bulgaria and with the direct participation of the Vice President, but also because of the participation of international guests who command respect. There will also be representatives of quite a few embassies, including important embassies…
– Will they be present from the embassy?
– Yes, they will send a representative, which shows the importance of the topic to them. The second document is a Memorandum for the creation of a Partnership Network, in which a communication center will be created to exchange information, experience and ideas. Here is an idea – the search for a common system for all-Balkan protection in case of fires, floods and earthquakes, in which a coordinated response can be played out. This is a common problem and the region can have a common system to help each other when, God forbid, it is necessary. The same applies to energy. We have invited our famous professor Yanko Yanev, who will talk about whether Balkan nuclear cooperation in energy is possible.
– The organization of the conference impresses…
– I want to thank all the members of SINPI who took part in the organization. These are not random people either, we have former ministers, deputy ministers, managers, businessmen, academics and professors. They made efforts with their international and Balkan contacts to bring these representatives.
– What is the role of President Radev in the conference?
– We offered him to be a patron and participate, but at the same time he is in New York for the UN session. Vice President Iliana Yotova will come on his behalf, who has a lot to do with the conference because she was recently in Albania. It is strongly involved wherever there is a Bulgarian diaspora. She also attended our first major event – about demographics being the problem of problems.
– Have you familiarized the state institutions with the documents adopted by the SINPI forum on demography?
– We gave them our research and sent it to international institutions. I see that they are used by quite a few people. The topic of demography is on the agenda of both institutions and political parties, which makes me happy, because it is not only a topic of SINPI, but of the entire country. We are just ringing the bell, the role of NGOs is to ring the bell, to warn, to support the state in making adequate decisions.
– Tomorrow is September 22/today-year-old PI/ – Bulgaria’s independence day. Will you join the debate on whether May 24 should be a national holiday and be written into the constitution?
– In SINPI, in addition to expertise, people also have their political color. We have representatives of BSP, GERB, DPS, “Vazrazhdane”, the Greens, PPDB, “Bulgarian Rise”, as you can see, with different political orientations. But when establishing SINPI, we agreed that we would put politics aside and talk about what is best for the state and statehood. And for more than a year and a half, we have been trying to run away from political disputes that are within the prerogatives of the parties, because we do not want to be politicized and colored, no matter that each of us has our biases. And since the topic of changing March 3 to May 24 is highly politicized, we have not expressed our public opinion. But we have it, SINPI members are overwhelmingly in favor of keeping March 3. As with the topic of Ukraine and Russia, we have not consciously taken a stand, although each of us has our own view.
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