Bulgaria Ousts 3 Politburo Hard-Liners

The new Bulgarian leader, Petar Mladenov, greatly solidified his political base Thursday by ousting three staunch supporters of former ruler Todor Zhivkov from the country’s main policy-making body, the Politburo of the Communist Party.

The BTA news agency said those dropped from the Politburo were Milko Balev, Grisha Filipov and Dimitar Stoyanov.

In their place, Mladenov installed three of his own supporters, including Andrei Loukonov, one of the men most closely identified with efforts to bring this Balkan country into step with reforms taking place in other Eastern European nations.

Until the changes in the nine-member Politburo were made Thursday at a special session of the party’s Central Committee, some doubt remained about the strength of support for Mladenov, a longtime foreign minister who was a surprise selection for Bulgaria’s top position as general secretary of the Communist Party.

“This was a pretty clean sweep,” a Western diplomat said of the changes announced Thursday night on Bulgarian television. “It shows that Mladenov is really serious about change, particularly in the case of Loukonov.”

Participants in Bulgaria’s emerging opposition movement also welcomed the change.

“These are preliminary purges,” said Deyan Kiuranov, 38, a leader in Eco-Glasnost, one of the main organizations pushing reforms here. “It could have been more, but they show that Mladenov and his people have enough power to start the process of real change.”

The changes also signaled a possible evolution in the Bulgarian government position regarding its minority Turkish population. About 900,000 of Bulgaria’s 9 million people are Turkish-speaking, mostly descendants from the Turkish Ottoman Empire that ruled here for five centuries.

Beginning in 1985, Zhivkov and his supporters began a national campaign against the Turkish Muslims that included a ban on circumcision of male children and a requirement that Turkish Bulgarians exchange their Muslim names for Orthodox Christian names.

In addition to angering the Turks, anti-Turkish efforts alienated many in Bulgaria’s influential intellectual community. Last May, Turks in several Bulgarian villages rioted against the government policies. Dozens were killed by Bulgarian police. As a result, more than 300,000 Bulgarian Turks fled the country to neighboring Turkey last summer.

About 58,000 of those have since returned, complaining that they could not find suitable jobs in Turkey.

In addition to Loukonov, two other men, Mincho Youvchev, secretary of the local Communist Party in the city of Haskovo, and Pantalei Panchev, a leader of the Communist Party in Plovdiv, Bulgaria’s second-largest city, were named as new members of the Politburo. But according to Western analysts, Loukonov is by far the most important. In fact, many here consider Loukonov one of the main instigators of last Friday’s sudden removal of Zhivkov after 35 years in power.

Visiting American delegate Edgar M. Bronfman, president of the World Jewish Conference, said Thursday that Loukonov confided over dinner recently that he had put money aside for his children in case the attempt to remove Zhivkov, 78, Europe’s longest-reigning leader, had failed.

“From the West,” said Bronfman, “it appeared to be just a simple change at the top. But inside Bulgaria it was apparently a very dramatic tense time.”

The retention of another important man on the Politburo, Defense Minister Dobri Dzhurov, indicates that widely circulated reports of his role in the removal of Zhivkov may also be true. Although a longtime supporter of the former Bulgarian leader, Dzhurov was reportedly angered when Zhivkov attempted to install his son, Vladimir Zhivkov, as a member of the Politburo.