Bulgaria Opens Centralized Archive for Communist-Era Files

Domestic | February 8, 2011, Tuesday // 14:54|  views

The centralized archive for Communist-era files was officially opened on Tuesday. Photo by BGNES

The new centralized archive of Bulgaria's Files Commission has been officially opened in the town of Bankya, near Sofia.

Bulgaria's PM Boyko Borisov and Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov attended the official opening on Tuesday.

"I want to thank the Files Commission for the work they did in order to finally, after 22 year, make the archives accessible and at one place," Borisov said.

He made a tour of the buildings, which store all the Communist-era secret services files.

"As you can see, these are large buildings and they store the files of all agents, who worked for the former Communist State Security (DS). You can see what Bulgaria's transition period was," Borisov said.

Both he and the Head of the Files Commission, Evtim Kostadinov, have once again denied accusations by the Bulgarian Socialist Party that Tsvetanov has been a secret agent.

Kostadinov has confirmed that the interior minister worked at the Central Informational and Organizational Directorate on a labor contract, but dismissed accusations of Tsvetanov's affiliation with DS as non-sense.

"Everybody can come and check their file – journalists, citizens, government officials. We started four years ago without one state employee or one square meter of area. We accomplished a lot. Now, we have this extraordinary facility, which turned from two old barracks to modern archives," Kostadinov said.

He added that the facility is one of the best in EU member states, which keep archives of former DS structures that date back to 1944.

Kostadinov stated that the new centralized archive cost about BGN 15 M. He noted that the repair of the two main buildings and a third smaller building cost about BGN 10,5 M. Nearly BGN 4,5 M was the cost of the interior design and equipment.

Fire safety has also been insured in the buildings. One of the small buildings will accommodate the guards from the National Guards Service.

The main facilities also include a big reading room and premises with special temperature and conditions for storing the documents.

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Tags: Boyko Borisov, Evtim Konstantinov, Tsvetan Tsvetanov, Files Commission, DS, communist, State Security, agents, archives

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