    [Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 47 (Monday, November 29, 1999)]
    [Pages 2438-2440]
    [Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    <R04>
    Remarks to the People of Bulgaria in Sofia

    November 22, 1999

        Dober den.
        President Stoyanov, Prime Minister Kostov, Mayor Sofianski, the
    people of Bulgaria, I thank you for this wonderful, wonderful welcome. I
    also want to thank this young student, who must have been so nervous,
    Boryana Savova. If she is a representative of the young people of
    Bulgaria, your future is in very good hands.
        I am honored tonight to be here with my daughter, three Members of
    the United States Congress, and a distinguished group of Americans. We
    thank you for this welcome. We thank all the musicians who performed,
    all the people who worked so hard to put this wonderful crowd together.
        And I would like to say a special word of thanks to the young woman
    who sang so magnificently both the national anthems of Bulgaria and the
    United States.
        I am very proud to be the first American President to visit
    Bulgaria--a free Bulgaria. I am proud to stand in this place where
    voices were silenced for too long. Here are these tens of thousands of
    people, exercising your freedom with dignity and pride.
        We are here tonight because of what you did 10 years ago this month,
    when change swept through Nevsky Square. Students, never before allowed
    to express their opinions, demanded free elections now. Writers,
    imprisoned just a few weeks before, led chants of demokratsiya.
    Grandparents, never allowed to worship with their children, said prayers
    in public, in the shadow of this great cathedral. What a wonderful
    moment that was. What a wonderful thing it said to the rest of the world
    about the heart of Bulgaria.
        Even before 1989, communist rulers tried to keep you down with
    violence, but you struggled peacefully. They fed you lies, yet you
    sought the truth. They tried to smother your spirit, yet you were able
    to come together here and demand to be citizens, with rights and
    responsibilities of your own.
        When the cold war ended, it took much longer for the ground here to
    thaw. You endured one false spring after another. Now that democracy is
    beginning to truly take root, some here must feel left behind, while
    others race ahead. I ask you to remember what you left behind: a police
    state, with no room for disappointment, because there was no hope for
    improvement; when nobody felt left behind because no one was allowed to
    get ahead; when there were no dreams and some Bulgarians were even
    robbed of their very identities, forced to change their names. The
    struggle for your constitutional democracy was waged not for paradise
    but for possibility, not for a perfect world but for the chance to build
    a better world.
        In my own country, we have struggled now for more than 200 years to
    build what our Founders called ``a more perfect Union,'' never
    completely perfect but always advancing the cause of freedom and
    responsibility, of individual opportunity and a stronger national
    community. In those 223 years, we have had to overcome slavery and civil
    war, depressions and World Wars, discrimination

    [[Page 2439]]

    against women and ethnic and religious minorities. We have overcome
    these things through the free choices of free people. I came here to say
    to you, the people of Bulgaria, that through freedom you, too, shall
    overcome, and you will not have to wait 200 years to do it.
        In just the last 10 years, from Poland to Hungary to the Baltics,
    those who have chosen open societies and open markets started out with
    sacrifice but ended up with success. The only difference between them
    and Bulgaria is that they had a head start. Now you, too, are on your
    way.
        Today America and Bulgaria have reached agreements that will
    encourage more American companies to do business here, to create jobs
    for both our countries. We are taking steps to help you crack down on
    corruption once and for all. And let me say to people in the United
    States, Europe, and all over the world who will see this tonight on
    television: This is a wonderful country. Come here and help Bulgaria
    help build the future.
        And let me add this: The cold war was fought and won by free people
    who did not accept that there could be two Europes in the 20th century.
    Now we must not--we will not accept that there could be two Europes,
    separate and unequal, in the 21st century. If you stay the course,
    Bulgaria will be a place where young people can make their dreams come
    true, and Americans and Bulgarians together will help to build a Europe
    that is undivided, democratic, and at peace for the first time in all
    human history.
        When that vision of the future was threatened by President
    Milosevic's brutal campaign in Kosovo, you stood with NATO. I know it
    was very hard for you to do. But I ask you to think about what would
    have happened if we had not stood up. This entire region would have been
    overwhelmed by refugees. And a message would have been sent to the rest
    of the world: Stay away from southeastern Europe, for here dictators
    still hold power by exploiting human differences and destroying human
    lives. I thank you for standing your ground with us against that evil
    and sending a very different message to the rest of the world.
        And I also want to thank you for setting a very different example
    here in Bulgaria. You have preserved a multiethnic society. As President
    Stoyanov has said, you chose to stand with and for civilization 2 years
    ago. But you also made that choice 50 years ago when you helped
    Bulgaria's Jewish community to survive World War II and the Holocaust.
    On behalf of American Jews and Jewish people everywhere, I thank you for
    that. All of you know the famous line from the monk Paissii Hilendarski:
    ``You, Bulgarians, do not hesitate to be proud.'' When you saved
    Bulgaria's Jews, it was one of the proudest moments in your history. And
    tonight, as you stand for freedom, it is one of the proudest moments in
    your history.
        But now we have work to do. We must help all of southeastern Europe
    choose freedom and tolerance and community. We must give all the people
    in this region a unifying magnet that is stronger than the pull of old
    hatreds that has threatened to tear them apart over and over again. Your
    neighbor Serbia should be part of that bright and different future.
        I am told that during the recent war you could actually hear some of
    the bombs falling in Serbia from this square. Tonight I hope the people
    of Serbia can hear our voices when we say, ``If you choose as Bulgaria
    has chosen, you will regain the rightful place in Europe Mr. Milosevic
    has stolen from you, and America will support you, too.''
        Already, we are aiding the forces of democracy in Serbia. And for
    all the people of this region, we strongly support the Stability Pact
    for southeast Europe. We encourage the expansion of the European Union
    to this region. And we must and will keep NATO's door open to those
    democratic nations here who are able to meet their obligations.
        During the conflict in Kosovo, we learned something very important
    about Bulgaria and its democratic neighbors: Because you know how it
    feels to be insecure, you know what it means to sacrifice for common
    security; because you know how it feels to lose your freedom, you know
    what it takes to defend freedom. And so, even though you paid a great
    price and you are not yet in the heart of Europe, you have Europe and
    its values in your heart.
        Earlier today, I had the opportunity to meet some of Borana's
    classmates at the

    [[Page 2440]]

    American University in Bulgaria. They were from Bulgaria and from other
    countries throughout this region. And they were profoundly impressive to
    me in their intelligence, in their compassion, in their determination to
    build a brighter future.
        So I would like to close my remarks tonight with a word to the young
    people here. In America, Thomas Jefferson was only 32 years old when he
    wrote the Declaration of Independence, and Martin Luther King was only
    26 years old when he led our crusade for civil rights for African-
    Americans. As I look out among you, I see a generation of Bulgarians who
    have come of age knowing not the unchanging conformity of communism but
    the constantly changing challenges of a democratic society.
        I know that it may seem hard now. But some day you will look back on
    this time and say, ``When we were young, we brought Bulgaria back to
    freedom. We brought Bulgaria forward to prosperity, security, and unity
    in Europe.'' And I am determined that you will also be able to say,
    ``When we marched into the new millennium, America stood with us, and we
    changed the world.''
        Thank you, and God bless you.

    Note: The President spoke at approximately 5:50 p.m. in Nevsky Square.
    In his remarks he referred to President Petar Stoyanov and Prime
    Minister Ivan Kostov of Bulgaria; Mayor Stefan Sofianski of Sofia; and
    President Slobodan Milosevic of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
    (Serbia and Montenegro). The transcript released by the Office of the
    Press Secretary also included the remarks of President Stoyanov.