Bulgaria's President, Georgi Parvanov, welcomed Friday in Sofia the newly-elected Bulgarian Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova.

“Today you are the symbol of the Bulgarian success,” the President told Bokova, who is not just the first woman and first Eastern European to chair UNESCO but also the highest ranking Bulgarian in a major international organization in all time.

Parvanov stressed the fact that Bokova’s election to the top UNESCO job in a tough contest in September 2009 was the result of her personal professional qualities, her abilities to be convincing and victorious, as well as of the authority of the Bulgarian diplomacy and the appreciation of Bulgarian culture around the world.

The President expressed the readiness of the Bulgarian state to support all new ideas and projects of the Bulgarian Director-General of UNESCO.

Bokova in turn has reiterated her gratitude for the powerful backing that she received from the Bulgarian authorities and society during her campaign and after her election.

In an exclusive interview for Novinite.com, Bulgarian Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, stated that rhetoric about the “clash of civilizations” during her recent election was now a “closed page”.

“For me this is a success of Bulgaria, of the Bulgarian diplomacy, of a country which has ancient culture, and has always been a bridge between the East and the West, the North and the South, a dynamic developing EU member state,” the UNESCO Director-General declared.

She has vowed to work for the dialogue among cultures, tolerance, and cultural diversity, which is the foundation of UNESCO, and which, in her words, is deeply ingrained in the Bulgarian national spirit.

“I think that we Bulgarians most of all epitomize the things that UNESCO would like to achieve,” Irina Bokova declared.