Bulgaria Gives its Sky to Military Operations

AIM Sofia, 29 April, 1999

Sooner or later it was bound to happen - somebody had to shoulder responsibility. NATO requested the airspace of Bulgaria for strikes against Yugoslavia, and somebody in this country had to permit it. This task was assigned to prime minister Ivan Kostov, but this decision and his moves caused confusion that lasted for days.

Bulgaria is giving the North Atlantic Treaty Organization its whole air space, more precisely 70 to 90 miles from its western border. News arrived after Kostov's talks in Brussels and it was more than shocking. Up to that moment Bulgarian position could have been brought down to expression of support to NATO operations and a few parliamentary debates whether and in what way this country could offer more significant assistance to operations against Milosevic's regime. In majority of debates the topic was an air corridor through which airplanes would be permitted to fly after having accomplished their missions over Yugoslavia. News on yielding almost one third of Bulgaria's air space for military operations seemed shocking to ones, to others - it was illegal, and to yet others - too great an adventure.

Developments in connection with this decision-making proceeded quick as lingthning. On Saturday 19 April, NATO sent a note to Bulgarian government in which it requested its air space. This document does not foresee an air corridor, but the entire air space of Bulgaria, something that politicians did not even assume would happen. President Petar Stojanov who was on the same day on his way to the NATO summit in New York organised to mark its jubilee, flew away 28 minutes before the arrival of the note. This imposed his urgent return from Paris in order to clarify the position concerning this issue. "Bulgaria agrees to give its air space for peace operations, but we will demand signing of an agreement with the Treaty Organisation in order to prevent this country from being drawn into ground operations because that would be indirect participation in the conflict", declared Kostov after his urgent meeting with president Stojanov.

Finally Bulgaria demanded more detailed information about the part of Bulgarian air space this referred to and the period of time it was expected to yield it for. The reply arrived from the meeting Kostov had in the seat of NATO in Brussels on Wednesday. Bulgaria would yield a part of its air space. According to diplomatic sources, on the occasion of his visit to Brussels, the prime minister was given the opportunity to choose between four possibilities. The most pessimistic among them was putting the whole air space of Bulgaria at the disposal of NATO until the end of air strikes against Yugoslavia. The second possibility was to approve air corridors, the third to enable use of air space at a certain time during 24 hours, and the last to put a certain zone at the disposal of NATO. The last possibility proved to be the most acceptable for both parties. Exact parametres of the air space which the NATO will use for its operations will be agreed on later on. For the time being it is clear that in it there are such risky facilities as the atomic power plant near Kozloduy and the industry of artificial fertilizers in Vraca. There is also the risk of blocking the operation of the biggest Bulgarian international airport in Sofia which 90 per cent of civilian flights land on and take off from.

The shocking agreement from Brussels raised many questions. The most important among them was who and when has the power to give the air space of this country. Different political forces started giving their own interpretations of this issue ever since October last year when the possibility appeared for the first time that NATO could demand this kind of suppot from Bulgaria. The constitutional court put an end to all sorts of speculations concerning this issue. The constitution of Bulgaria says that the parliament ratifies deployment of foreign troops on the territory of this country or their passage through it. In 1994, however, the constitutional court gave its interpretation what the meaning of the following sentence was: "A special decision shall be made for each military unit and each specific case". In order to evade this interpretation, the government referred to the constitutional court again, this time starting from the presumption that norms of international law have priority over legislature of any individual country.

According to Kostov's team, when a country ratifies a military and political contract with another country by passing a law, it has greater weight than individual decisions of the parliament. This thesis conceals the idea of government lawyers. All things considered, the agreement between prime minister Kostov and NATO will be given the form of a law which will be passed by votes of the majority. Constitutional judges also supported the stand of the cabinet. According to them foreign troops have military objectives when they carry out military operations. In case of Yugoslavia, however, the court accepts the thesis that this NATO operation is a humanitarian operation. In this way it was responded to the attacks of the opposition that the government was evading the constitution and the parliament.

The other serious fear is not less founded. It still is not clear what guarantees of security Bulgaria would be given from NATO. Many lawyers believe that yielding the air space to the Treaty Organization for its operations against Yugoslavia is indirectly drawing the country into the conflict. At the same time it is not clear what it gets in return. There is a broad spectre of wishes: they range from immediate reception in NATO to guarantees that NATO will protect Bulgaria if military operations happened to spread to its territory. The far-reaching goal of current Bulgarian officials is to prove that they have made themselves worthy of becoming a member by offering support to operations of the North Atlantic organization. Their decision, however, is in great contrast with the public opinion in the country. Regardless of the fact that on several occasions the Bulgarian people expressed their will to be received in NATO, at this moment operations of this organization are not widely supported.

Military circles fear that they are not ready for this type of presence of foreign troops in the air space of Bulgaria. The first problem is that radars of Bulgarian anti-aircraft defence system cannot distinguish NATO from Yugoslav airplanes. This means that Yugoslav aircrafts may enter this air space unhindered. Perhaps it will be necessary to turn off the radars in order to avoid shooting down NATO planes by mistake or not to become their targets. At the moment it does not seem probable that Serb anti-aircraft systems will shoot long range missiles they have at their disposal, if Bulgarian counterintelligence is to be believed. Nevertheless, this threat exists.

AIM Sofia

GEORGI FILIPOV