Being situated close to Bulgaria, the conflict in Ukraine does thrill this country’s society. It directly concerns the largest in the world Bulgarian ethnic minority abroad, coming up to several hundred thousand people. The mass feeling of compassion towards our compatriots in distress is true and spontaneous, but that is the reason why it is not always rational.

Indeed, the average Bulgarian tends to reproach the state in an emotional manner, for not paying enough attention to those people of Bulgarian origin in Ukraine. The trend is often used by political factors in a dishonest, populist manner. For instance, a nationalist party has introduced to parliament this week a draft bill for amendments to the Bulgarian Citizenship Act, aiming at the adoption of an eased procedure for its granting. The idea of the nationalists mainly tries to achieve a quick procedure for granting citizenship to people of Bulgarian origin in Ukraine, who are to be recruited in the army. At the same time no data exists on a raised level of interest to Bulgarian citizenship shown by these people. According to the Association of Bulgarians in Ukraine, only around 6,000 have looked for some basic info on the subject so far. At the same time this country finds it hard to cope with the not so big immigration flow from the Middle East due to financial reasons.

The government faces certain inconvenience because of the public pressure for accelerated citizenship obtaining procedures, regarding recruitment-threatened Bulgarians in Ukraine. The issue has already been raised at different levels, including at a session of the Council of the EU and the Ukrainian side is to be involved officially in the dialogue as well. However, it is known in advance that Ukraine does not recognize dual citizenship and this means ethnic Bulgarians are Ukrainian citizens.

Sofia had its claims on the special treatment of ethnic Bulgarians during the last Yugoslavian war too, but there were no results. The repeating of such claims now shows that this country hasn’t learnt its lesson even in its latest history. On the other hand there are no claims on the special attitude towards ethnic Bulgarians by the pro-Russian separatists, which raises the question does Bulgaria treat our compatriots in Ukraine equally?

After all, the government has currently taken all possible and rational measures, supporting the people of Bulgarian origin in Ukraine. The embassy in Kiev and the general consulate in Odessa have received instructions for the accelerated and eased issuing of visas to such people. Due to the complicated military and political situation there, the cabinet has replaced the Odessa consul with a more experienced and politically sophisticated general consul. In the meantime the Bulgarian Red Cross has organized the sending of humanitarian aid to the people within the military zones. However, the greatest Bulgarian contribution would be the active and constructive support of the state for the peace and stabilization initiatives, concerning Ukraine. The just ended Minsk negotiations give some timid hope for that.

English version: Zhivko Stanchev