PANEL DISCUSSION 2024
Viktor KOSTOV:
WHOEVER DOES NOT SPEAK AGAINST LIES TODAY,
WILL NOT BE ABLE TO THINK THE TRUTH TOMORROW
Dear organizers of this conference, honorable guests,
In this presentation I will suggest my opinion as a human rights and pro-family lawyer, and a student of culture and the Christian faith, as to how Bulgaria is contributing, and will possibly contribute in the future, toward the goal of security, stability and cooperation in Central Europe.
Firstly, these two concepts, security and stability, in the modern world mean law and order without sacrificing individual freedoms.
I will address the two main challenges to geopolitical security in the region. These are 1) the subversion of fundamental human rights by redefining those or flatly violating them, even over benevolent pretexts, and 2) the erosion of the sovereignty of the individual states and their peoples.
Here I suggest several interconnected threats to security and stability.
Number one. We said: undermining human rights by redefining them or completely abrogating them by powerful, non-elected elites, in violation of sovereign democratic constitutions and in violation of international law.
1. Rogue ideologues and ideologies who exhibit disregard for the natural order and show hatred for God and for humanity. One example is Mr. Uval Harari, a University of Jerusalem professor and spokesman of the infamous World Economic Forum. A man with a "husband" and with misanthropic ideas well favored by the legacy media and naive audiences. Harari's ridiculous explanation of human rights nears genocidal overtones. He publicly states, basically, that regular people are "useless eaters" and that "there is no God and no human rights". Harari explains further: "If you cut a man open you will see organs, but you won't see human rights." This level of ludicrous reductionism and deconstruction of humanity is applauded while it surely qualifies, by their own standards, as "hate speech". Theorists of this rank proliferate in the organizations that yield power over our states and nations. They filter down through organizations of rich and powerful do-nothings like WEF whose unconcealed goal is to save the earth first while depriving individuals all over the world of liberty, property and happiness; and while assuring us that slavery is what we have always wanted.
2. Attack on freedom of conscience and speech. It happens by introducing euphemisms like "fighting misinformation and disinformation" and even "malinformation" (whatever that is). The introduction of censorship and control of the flow of information in gross violation of the sovereign constitutional principles of the nation-states in Central Europe and of international law.
3. Warmongering and propaganda. Parallel with limiting unapproved opinions and information on important societal and political issues we see the rise of censorship and propaganda by the very governments and their propaganda outlets, which is the legacy media. And it goes on. First, the disregard for life by the industrial military complex interested in creating and protracting wars for selling weapons and making profits on the back of human lives. Secondly, reckless speeches by high level politicians who have little or no understanding of diplomacy or history. Number three. The irresponsible lack of a determined pursuit of cease fire and peace in the Russo-Ukrainian war, which puts the peoples of Central and Eastern Europe on the verge of being involved in the largest military conflict and tragedy since World War II. I can assure you that the people of Bulgaria have no interest in joining wars stoked by rich and powerful elites who may not even be able to point out the country on a map. I do not doubt that this feeling is shared by many, if not most, other citizens of the Central European nations.
4. Another war. War on the natural family, and the dignity of man and the person, and on personal and family privacy. This is done through sexual education imposed on small children, through LGBT (which means lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) propaganda promoted in schools, through re-definition of human rights to create new rights like, for example, trans-rights, or a right to sexual orientation, or a right to "marriage equality". Meaning that a man can marry a man – that's equality. One notable example is the Istanbul Convention. It is noteworthy that Bulgaria, represented by large segments of parents and churches, and of course by the movement on rights, freedoms and family privacy which we Freedom for All, and ROD International, represent, and also by the Supreme Courts of the country, firmly rejected the redefinition of man and woman as proposed by this international fiasco of a treaty – the Istanbul Convention. However, not to be outdone, the sexual liberation (or shall I say aberrations?) movement, with its firm grip on political power, continued to introduce fragments of the Istanbul Convention, piece by piece in other forms of legislation and policies.
But here is some international history. In the early stages of redefining fundamental human rights and marriage, in 2013, the British Prime Minister, James Cameron, announced that he wanted to export their legislation's same sex marriage to the whole world. Talking about imperialism. That was one of many brazen pronouncements from the so-called elites that they want to socially engineer not only the people in their countries but the whole world. Since then that pronouncement has metastasized in all spheres of life, including by way of pressure from the EU that Central European peoples adopt this new inverted morality where good is evil and evil good, and where truth is treated as a lie and the other way around. Let mi just give you briefly the mechanism of moving toward a totalitarian state, which I think is happening in Europe.
A totalitarian state creates a totalitarian society, the result of which is totalitarian thinking. The method of creating a totalitarian society is not complicated. It contains two main components: (1) violence against dissenters and opponents – whatever form that may have – and (2) manipulation of the masses through mass propaganda. Thus, by instilling fear, totalitarian leaders create the conditions for self-censorship and reformulation of the truth. Through propaganda, tyrants change the terminology and mental categories of the people and mold them to their own ideology.
An example in this regard is the centralization of social life in the hands of the state. Last year, and we can talk about Bulgarian elections later, the neoliberal Bulgarian Ministry of Culture funded with tens of thousands of euro drag-queen shows, something unheard of in Bulgarian history and tradition.
Let's talk about attack on fundamental rights and especially freedom of speech and freedom of conscience.
In order to enslave one has to deprive individuals of their right to think, believe, and speak. Thus, those in power, who want war or gender radicalization or destruction of a traditional family, propagandize for it, by controlling all opinions that are different.
To quote the modern-day political prophet, the US journalist Tucker Carlson, "If they take away your ability to speak, they take away your dignity, and your freedom. Without freedom to speak your mind you become a slave." Carlson did not invent this important truth. However, his restatement only shows how far contemporary "free" societies have sunk into political correctness and self-censorship.
Thus, we can define the biggest threat to security, or rather to freedom and justice, as censorship of expression of people's beliefs and conscience, and thoughts. Yes, even thoughts.
The United Kingdom, the cradle of democracy and human rights, has officially become a police state where people are criminally prosecuted for silent prayer in their thoughts. Several days ago, a man, a veteran, Adam Smith-Connor was convicted as a criminal by a British court for praying silently in front of an abortion clinic, which he did back in November of 2022. This abomination of justice and a violation of any human rights international treaty only shows that the British problem is not solved by their Brexit and the virus is alive and well not only in Brussels.
What is the Bulgarian contribution to the Central European project? Of course it's not an exhaustive list.
The push toward the sexualization and propagation of an inappropriate and twisted sexuality to children is not something that Bulgarians appreciate. A few weeks ago, the Bulgarian parliament passed a law, almost unanimously that homosexual and transgender propaganda, so-called LGBT+, will not be allowed in schools. It will not be immodest to point to the fact that our organization's work has a lot to do with this awakening of the political class to the needs of regular people and to the need to defend children and families from predatory influence. Placed in the context of the conservative and pro-family movements in the region this is a significant marker.
The Bulgarian government is yet to engage in the current Prague conversation on the Central European project. Yet the global issues affect the national state, and the sooner government officials warm up to exploring the opportunities of the current discussion that we have here, the better decisions they will make in leading the country.
What else can Bulgaria offer to stable geopolitics?
A tangible Bulgarian contribution in the light of security, as I defined it above, is from grassroots movements and field defense of the family and human rights and dignity. As a human rights lawyer and a Christian, my organization has worked hard to defend freedom of religion, freedom of conscience, and speech, in the courts and in public debate. We have won cases at ECHR and on a local level. Just weeks ago, we won Dr. Hristo Laftchiev's case, who was criminally prosecuted for his criticism of anti-family policies. For the third time we won the case. Dr. Laftchiev is an outspoken pro-family activist and his publicly shared opinions in defense of the traditional family rattled the big NGO world. We won the case on the merits and even if the appellate court tried to revive it twice on a rather weak legal basis, we finally had the case dismissed in the beginning of October. It took four years.
Also, my colleague lawyer, Vladimir Sheytanov, who is here today, and I myself were also sued together for defamation by the same NGO network for expressing our criticism of the anti-family ideology in a TV program in 2020. Well, we are lawyers, so we successfully defended ourselves and freedom of speech. Moreover, we countersued for defamation and won both cases. The case was closed just a few months ago.
Together with other lawyers and leaders we worked in Bulgaria to have a family oriented-patriotic movement defending the traditional family, personal and family privacy, and fundamental human rights to speak and believe.
This work comes at a price as we are called extremists by the anti-family and anti-freedom gangsters. However, as a Christian, I love my enemies. That love includes the duty to not let them prevail in their lies, deception and tyrannical tendencies. Disciplining your opponent with the truth is a clear exercise of Christian charity.
This forum is of critical importance waking up governments and politicians, as well as the people to the dangers of globalist expansions. A solid international community of peoples is important for a better world; however, it should not come at the expense of national sovereignty, independence and freedom. Participation in a Central European alliance of equally small, non-imperialistic nations may turn out to be a solution for escaping from the "always-bullied-by-the-big-guy" paradigm and provide mutual support for law, for order and for individual freedom. In that international community freedom to believe and speak will remain the best guarantee for informed decisions in public policy and for a just, free, and secure society. Otherwise: Those who do not speak against the lies today will not be allowed to even think the truth tomorrow. Thank you very much.