unesco dg Irina Bokova's Bulgaria

MANILA, Philippines - During the UNESCO Spring Session of 2009, the Executive Board elected Irina Bokova as its new Director General. The following October, during the 135th General Conference, the 192 UNESCO Member States officially accepted her, replacing Koichiro Matsuura, the Japanese diplomat who restructured UNESCO extensively during his two terms of governance.

Madame Bokova, who served as Foreign Minister of Bulgaria and later Ambassador to France, played an active role in Bulgaria’s political transformation and its acceptance into the European Union.

Bulgaria, Bulwark Of Rich Civilizations

Named after Tsarita Irina, the consort of Tsar Constantin Tikh-Assem (1256-1277), she proudly describes her country as the bulwark of rich civilizations of Byzantium, Greece, Russia, Rome and Turkey.

In 2005, Bulgaria celebrated 1,840 years of its statehood in Europe. Ancient Bulgaria of her forefathers stretched from the mountains of Caucasus to the Volga and Danube rivers; from the Black Sea steppes to the Apennines. 

Al-Masudi, a 10th-century Arab historian wrote, “The Burdzhans (Bulgarians) are a numerous warring people, which has overpowered all… One Bulgarian horseman can fight 100 or 200 horsemen of the Byzantine. The neighboring region would not be able to defend themselves… only their fortress and their walls save them.” Thirteen Bulgarian khans reigned from 165 to 765 AD.

Meeting Ambassador Bokova

At the tail end of the 2008 UNESCO Executive Board Spring Session, I had an excellent tour of Bulgaria. I was lucky to meet Ambassador Bokova in Sofia, otherwise she would be elsewhere since her campaign then to be elected as UNESCO Director General included an itinerary of 18 countries. As a matter of fact, I enjoyed meeting her earlier when our Philippine Consul to Bulgaria, Rene Ledesma, and his wife, Fortune, our Consul to Monaco, gave her a dinner in Manila, which she visited after Japan.

Ambassador Bokova took me to a traditional Easter dinner at Boyana (Dragalevtsi, Slav-Cyrillic term) up in the Vitosha mountains. Except for the summer and spring season, most part of the year is extremely cold usually down to zero Centigrade. With snow-covered mountains surrounding the capital Sofia, their favorite health sport was skiing in lieu of mere jogging.

The following day I joined her in the Conservatory of Music where she was the guest of honor in a competition of 40 young virtuosos from preschool to university ages.

In Praise Of Bulgaria

Professor Sante Gracciotti of Italy wrote: “The historic merit of Bulgaria is the fact that it barred the Turks from Europe. It paid for that in blood, paid with its faith, its freedom and with it the decline of its brilliant culture in that time.”

(In 717, Khan Teruel answered the call of Pope Leo III for help to save Constantinople from the Arab siege. With 30,000 horsemen, he struck a fatal blow to the Arabs preventing their mass invasion into Eastern and Central Europe.)

Paisiy Helendarski wrote of Slavic-Bulgarian history: “The Bulgarians have reigned so long and have been glorious and famous across the world and they have collected taxes from the powerful Romans and the wise Greeks many times. Both tsars and kings have given them their royal daughters for wives in order to have peace and love with the Bulgarian tsars.”