If you are into Bulgarian history and politics, you might have heard of the mythical Cold War plans of Bulgaria's communist regime to blow up the dams of large Bulgarian water reservoirs as a defensive measure in the event of a war with Turkey, back then a member of the enemy alliance - NATO.

The rationale of these plans – whose existence and efficiency remain dubious but which still get deluded Bulgarian "patriots" ecstatic on online forums – was that the bursting of the dams all over Southern Bulgaria was supposed to flood European Turkey, and thus block any advance of the Cold War enemy. This was supposed to be achieved not only by the impact of the tidal wave down the river beds of Maritsa and Tundzha, but also by the flooding that was supposed to make all of Thrace "muddy" for at least 2-3 weeks.

Ironically, on February 6, 2012, however, Bulgaria saw this mythical defense Cold War plan partially come to life. The only difference being that it was Bulgaria's own population which suffered from it, rather than some foreign field army! (Not that nowadays anybody would set out on a conquest with a conventional army dragging heavy armored vehicles and heavy artillery so as to get bogged down on a muddy ground...)

A total of nine persons from the village of Biser and Madzharovo near the town of Harmanli in Southeastern Bulgaria perished on Monday in the flooding caused by the cracking of the dam of the Ivanovo water reservoir (which is actually one of the smaller reservoirs in the region). And those who survived and were evacuated are now to be accommodated in trailers – as if the life in their dilapidated, God- and Sofia-forsaken region wasn't wretched enough.

At least now they got the attention of the central Bulgarian government in Sofia for a little while. Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov promised them trailers as well as one-time financial aid amounting to BGN 325 per household (which is how much the Bulgarian legislation provides for in cases like this one).

Even better - the Bulgarian institutions and the civil society (which is just as much to blame for Monday's tragedy) started arguing over who was supposed to manage what reservoirs and who was to fix which dam... Too little, too late.

Now Bulgaria's Prosecutor's Office is going to start an investigation, the courts are going to try a case, and the result will be the same as the result from the investigation of the Sofia-Kardam train fire in 2008, or the trampling to death of the seven kids in the Indigo disco in 2001. That is, there will be no result.

It is weird that nobody holding any position of responsibility in Bulgaria actually happens to be in possession of any responsibility. Of the sort that would prevent a water reservoir dam from bursting.

By the way, last year Turkish media published numerous articles on how areas near the Bulgarian border suffered floods as a result of the negligence of the Bulgarian authorities. Whether those were propaganda pieces or not, the irresponsibility of all kinds of public and private institutions on the Bulgarian side of the border now appears to be a clear-cut fact.

With the flooding in the border villages Bulgaria must now have scared off all sorts of potential conquerors that can spring up from the southeast.

They must have gotten pretty scared not because Bulgaria is to blow up its dams and will destroy them with the ensuing tsunami but because it is already doing all of that on its own territory. Who is really going to want to conquer such a recklessly horrific and horrifically reckless enemy as Bulgaria?

This article in BULGARIAN

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