[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

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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.