Group	БългариBulgarians
Caption	Krum John of Rila Ivan Alexander Vasil Levski Hristo Botev Stefan Stambolov Christo Elena Yoncheva Ludmilla Diakovska Matey Kaziyski
Poptime	> 9 million.
Region1
Pop1	6,655,210
Ref1

|region2 = |pop2 = 300,000 |region3 = |pop3 = 270,000 (Pomaks) |ref3 = |region4 = |pop4 = 92,841 - 250,000 |ref4 = |region5 = |pop5 = 204,600 |ref4 |ref5 = |region6 = |pop6 = 65,662 - 90,000 |ref6 = |region7 = |pop7 = 70,000 - 80,000 |ref7 = |region8 = |pop8 = 70,000 |ref8 = |region9 = |pop9 = 70,000 |ref9 = |region10 = |pop10 = 62,000 |ref10 = |region11 = |pop11 = 52,000 |ref11 = |region12 = |pop12 = 27,260 - 50,000 |ref12 = |region13 = |pop13 = 43,981 (without Pomaks) |ref13 = |region14 = |pop14 = 31,965 (2002 census) |ref14 = |region15 = |pop15 = 20,497 (census 2002) |ref15 = |region16 = |pop16 = 15,000 - 20,000 |ref16 = |region17 = |pop17 = 15,000 - 20,000 |ref17 = |region19 = |pop19 = 8,092 (census 2002) |ref19 = |region20 = |pop20 = 7,020 |ref20 = |region21 = |pop21 = 6,915 - 7,000 |ref21 = |region22 = |pop22 = 5,000 |ref22 = |region23 = |pop23 = 4,902 - 12,000 |ref23 = |region24 = |pop24 = 4,100 |ref24 = |region25 = |pop25 = 4,000 |ref25 = |region26 = |pop26 = 138 |ref26 =
|region27 = |pop27 = 3,000 |ref27 = |region28 = |pop28 = 2,700 |ref28 = |region29 = |pop29 = 2650 |ref29 =
|region30 = |pop30 = 2,316 - 5,000 |ref30 = |region31 = |pop31 = 2,022 - 10,190 |ref31 = |region32 = |pop32 = 628 - 4,000 |ref32 = |region33 = |pop33 = 2,000 |ref33 = |region34 = |pop34 = 1,500 |ref34 = |region35 = |pop35 = 1,417 |ref35 = |region36 = |pop36 = 1,200 |ref36 = |region37 = |pop37 = 980 |ref37 =
|related=Other South Slavic populations (especially the Macedonians |langs=Bulgarian |rels=Predominatly Bulgarian Orthodoxwith minorities Muslim, Roman Catholic and Protestant }}

The Bulgarians (, ) are a South Slavic people, generally associated with the Republic of Bulgaria and the Bulgarian language. Emigration has resulted in Bulgarian minorities or immigrant communities in a number of other countries.

Ethnogenesis

The modern Bulgarians have descended from several main groups, which mixed in the Balkans during the 6th–10th century: Thraco-Byzantyne and Traco-Roman local population; Slavic invaders, who gave their language to the modern Bulgarians; and the Bulgars, from whom the ethnonym and the early statehood were inherited.

The ethnic contribution of the indigenous Thracian and Daco-Getic population was determined by some recent genetic studies. The ancient languages of the local people had already gone extinct before the arrival of the Antes (Eastern Slavs), mostly due to Hellenization since the antiquity and to a lesser degree to Romanisation during Roman rule. Their cultural influence was highly reduced due to the repeated barbaric invasions on the Balkans during the early Middle Ages by Goths, Celts, Huns, and Sarmatians, accompanied by Byzantine influence and later slavicisation. The Celts had also expanded down the Danube river and its tributaries in 3rd century BC. They had established a state on part of the territory of modern Bulgaria with capital Tylis, which they ruled for over a century.

The Slavs emerged from their original homeland (most commonly thought to have been in Eastern Europe) in the early 6th century, and spread to most of the eastern Central Europe, Eastern Europe and the Balkans, thus forming three main branches – the West Slavs, the East Slavs and the South Slavs. The Antes (eastern Slavs) became part of the ancestors of the modern Bulgarians. Like the rest of their South Slavic neighbours,the Bulgarians are clearly separated from the tight DNA cluster typical for Western and Eastern Slavs. This phenomenon is explained by “the genetic contribution of the people who lived in the region before the Slavic expansion”.

The Bulgars originally descended from Central Asia during the 2nd century, migrating into the North Caucasian steppe. Between 377 and 453 they took part in the Hunnic raids on Central and Western Europe. After Attila's death in 453, and the subsequent disintegration of the Hunnic Empire, the Bulgar tribes dispersed mostly to the eastern and southeastern parts of Europe. In the late 7th century, some Bulgar tribes, led by Asparukh and others, led by Kouber, permanently settled in the Balkans, and formed the ruling class of the First Bulgarian Empire in 680–681.

Genetic origin

According to some 20th century researchers as William Z. Ripley, Carleton S. Coon and Bertil Lundman the Bulgarians are predominantly Mediterranean people, with unexplained Pre-Pontic, East-Baltic, and Nordic strains, whose roots go back to the Neolithic. As per 21st century studies of their DNA data, the genetic background of the Bulgarians has Eastern Mediterranean composition. Genetically, modern Bulgarians are more closely related to other neighbouring Balkan populations (Macedonians, Serbs, Romanians and Greeks) than to the rest of the Europeans. The Bulgarians also have similarities with other Mediterranean populations such as Sardinians and Cretans.

Population

near the town of Kazanlak in Bulgaria, 1870s', engraving by Felix Kanitz]] Most Bulgarians live in the Republic of Bulgaria. There are significant Bulgarian minorities in Moldova and Ukraine (Bessarabian Bulgarians), as well as in Romania (Banat Bulgarians), Serbia (the Western Outlands), Greece, the Republic of Macedonia, Albania, and Hungary. Many Bulgarians also live in the diaspora, which is formed by representatives and descendants of the old (before 1989) and new (after 1989) emigration. The old emigration was made up of some 2,470,000 economic and several tens of thousands of political emigrants, and was directed for the most part to the U.S., Canada, Argentina, Brazil and Germany. The new emigration is estimated at some 970,000 people and can be divided into two major subcategories: permanent emigration at the beginning of the 1990s, directed mostly to the U.S., Canada, Austria, and Germany and labour emigration at the end of the 1990s, directed for the most part to Greece, Italy, the UK and Spain. Migrations to the West have been quite steady even in the late 1990s and early 21st century, as people continue moving to countries like the US, Canada and Australia. Most Bulgarians living in the US can be found in Chicago, Illinois. However, according to the 2000 US census most Bulgarians live in the cities of New York and Los Angeles, and the state with most Bulgarians in the US is California. Most Bulgarians living in Canada can be found in Toronto, Ontario, and the provinces with most Bulgarians in Canada are Ontario and Quebec. The largest urban populations of Bulgarians are to be found in Sofia (1,241,000), Plovdiv (378,000), and Varna (352,000). The total number of Bulgarians thus ranges anywhere from 8 to 9 million, depending solely on the estimation used for the diaspora. ]]

Related ethnic groups

Bulgarians are considered most closely related to the neighboring Macedonians, indeed it is sometimes said there is no discernible ethnic difference between them. The Slavic-speakers of Greek Macedonia and most among the Torlaks in Serbia have also had a history of identifying as Bulgarians and many were members of the Bulgarian Exarchate, which included most of the territory regarded as Torlak. Greater part of these people were also considered Bulgarians by most of the ethnographers until the early 20th century and beyond.

Culture

Cyrillic alphabet

Medieval Bulgaria was the most important cultural centre of the Slavic people at the end of the 9th and throughout the 10th century. The two literary schools of Preslav and Ohrid developed a rich literary and cultural activity with authors of the rank of Constantine of Preslav, John Exarch, Chernorizets Hrabar, Clement and Naum of Ohrid. In the first half of the 10th century, the Cyrillic alphabet was devised in the Preslav Literary School based on the Glagolitic and the Greek alphabets. Modern versions of the alphabet are now used to write five more Slavic languages such as Belarusian, Macedonian, Russian, Serbian and Ukrainian as well as Mongolian and some other 60 languages spoken in the former Soviet Union.

Bulgaria exerted similar influence on her neighbouring countries in the mid to late 14th century, at the time of the Turnovo Literary School, with the work of Patriarch Evtimiy, Gregory Tsamblak, Constantine of Kostenets (Konstantin Kostenechki). Bulgarian cultural influence was especially strong in Wallachia and Moldova where the Cyrillic alphabet was used until 1860, while Slavonic was the official language of the princely chancellery and of the church until the end of 17th century.

Art and science

Boris Christoff, Nicolai Ghiaurov, Raina Kabaivanska and Ghena Dimitrova made a precious contribution to opera singing with Ghiaurov and Christoff being two of the greatest bassos in the post-war period. The name of the harpist-Anna-Maria Ravnopolska-Dean is one of the best-known harpists today. Bulgarians have made valuable contributions to world culture in modern times as well. Julia Kristeva and Tzvetan Todorov were among the most influential European philosophers in the second half of the 20th century. The artist Christo is among the most famous representatives of environmental art with projects such as the Wrapped Reichstag.

Bulgarians in the diaspora have also been active. American scientists and inventors of Bulgarian descent include John Atanasoff, Peter Petroff, and Assen Jordanoff. Bulgarian-American Stephane Groueff wrote the celebrated book "Manhattan Project", about the making of the first atomic bomb and also penned "Crown of Thorns", a biography of Tsar Boris III of Bulgaria.

Sport

In the beginning of the 20th century Bulgaria was famous for two of the best wrestlers in the world – Dan Kolov and Nikola Petroff. High-jumper Stefka Kostadinova was one of the top ten female athletes of the last century and holds one of the oldest unbroken world records in athletics. Hristo Stoichkov was one of the best football (soccer) players in the second half of the 20th century, having played with the national team and FC Barcelona. He received a number of awards and was the joint top scorer at the 1994 World Cup. Veselin Topalov won the 2005 Chess Oscar.He was ranked #1 in the world from April 2006 to January 2007, and had the second highest Elo rating of all time (2813). He regained the world #1 ranking again in October 2008.

Language

found in the Bulgarian Zograf Monastery on Mount Athos]]

Bulgarians speak a Southern Slavic language which is mutually intelligible with Macedonian and to some extent with Serbo-Croatian. The Bulgarian language is also, to some degree, mutually intelligible with Russian on account of the influence which Russia has had on the development of Modern Bulgaria since 1878, as well as the earlier effect of Old Bulgarian on the development of Old Russian. Although related, Bulgarian and the Western and Eastern Slavic languages are not mutually intelligible.

Bulgarian demonstrates several linguistic developments that set it apart from other Slavic languages. These are shared with Romanian, Albanian and Greek (see Balkan linguistic union). Until 1878 Bulgarian was influenced lexically by medieval and modern Greek, and to a much lesser extent, by Turkish. More recently, the language has borrowed many words from Russian, German, French and English.

Some members of the diaspora do not speak the Bulgarian language (mostly representatives of the old emigration in the U.S., Canada and Argentina) but are still considered Bulgarians by ethnic origin or descent.

The majority of Bulgarian linguists consider the officialized Macedonian language (since 1944) a local variation of Bulgarian. The Bulgarian language is written in the Cyrillic alphabet.

Name system

There are several different layers of Bulgarian names. The vast majority of them have either Christian (names like Lazar, Ivan, Anna, Maria, Ekaterina) or Slavic origin (Vladimir, Svetoslav, Velislava). After the Liberation in 1878, the names of historical Bulgar rulers like Asparuh, Krum, Kubrat and Tervel were resurrected. The old Bulgar name Boris has spread from Bulgaria to a number of countries in the world with Russian tsar Boris Godunov, British politician Boris Johnson, and German tennis player Boris Becker being two of the examples of its use.

Most Bulgarian male surnames have an -ov surname suffix (Cyrillic: -ов). This is sometimes transcribed as -off (John Atanasov—John Atanasoff, but more often as -ov e.g. Boris Hristov). The -ov suffix is the Slavic gender-agreeing suffix, thus Ivanov () literally means "Ivan's". Bulgarian middle names are patronymic and use the gender-agreeing suffix as well, thus the middle name of Nikola's son becomes Nikolov, and the middle name of Ivan's son becomes Ivanov. Since names in Bulgarian are gender-based, Bulgarian women have the -ova surname suffix (Cyrillic: -овa), for example, Maria Ivanova. The plural form of Bulgarian names ends in -ovi (Cyrillic: -ови), for example the Ivanovi family ().

Other common Bulgarian male surnames have the -ev surname suffix (Cyrillic: -ев), for example Stoev, Ganchev, Peev, and so on. The female surname in this case would have the -eva surname suffix (Cyrillic: -ева), for example: Galina Stoeva. The last name of the entire family then would have the plural form of -evi (Cyrillic: -еви), for example: the Stoevi family ().

Another typical Bulgarian surname suffix, though much less common, is -ski. This surname ending also gets an –a when the bearer of the name is female (Smirnenski becomes Smirnenska). The plural form of the surname suffix -ski is still -ski, e.g. the Smirnenski family ().

The surname suffix -ich can be found sometimes, primarily among Catholic Bulgarians. The ending –in (female -ina) also appears sometimes, though rather seldom. It used to be given to the child of an unmarried woman (for example the son of Kuna will get the surname Kunin and the son of Gana – Ganin). The surname ending –ich does not get an additional –a if the bearer of the name is female.

Religion

masquerade in a village near Karlovo]]

Most Bulgarians are at least nominally members of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church founded in 870 AD (autocephalous since 927 AD). The Bulgarian Orthodox Church is the independent national church of Bulgaria like the other national branches of Eastern Orthodoxy and is considered an inseparable element of Bulgarian national consciousness. The church has been abolished twice during the periods of Byzantine (1018—1185) and Ottoman (1396—1878) domination but was revived every time as a symbol of Bulgarian statehood. In 2001, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church had a total of 6,552,000 members in Bulgaria (82.6% of the population) and between one and two million members in the diaspora. The Orthodox Bulgarian minorities in Serbia, Romania, Moldova and Ukraine still hold allegiance to the respective national Orthodox churches.

Despite the position of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church as a unifying symbol for all Bulgarians, smaller or larger groups of Bulgarians have converted to other faiths or denominations through the course of time. In the 16th and the 17th century Roman Catholic missionaries converted the Bulgarian Paulicians in the districts of Plovdiv and Svishtov to Roman Catholicism. Nowadays there are some 40,000 Catholic Bulgarians in Bulgaria and additional 10,000 in the Banat in Romania. The Catholic Bulgarians of the Banat are also descendants of Paulicians who fled there at the end of the 17th century after an unsuccessful uprising against the Ottomans.

Protestantism was introduced in Bulgaria by missionaries from the United States in 1857. Missionary work continued throughout the second half of the 19th and the first half of the 20th century. In 2001, there were some 25,000 Protestant Bulgarians in Bulgaria.

Between the 15th and the 20th century, during the Ottoman rule, a large number of Orthodox Bulgarians converted to Islam. Their descendants now form the second largest religious congregation in Bulgaria. In 2001, there were 131,000 Muslim Bulgarians or Pomaks in Bulgaria in the Rhodope region, as well as some villages in the Teteven region in Central North Bulgaria. Their origins are obscure, but they are generally believed to be Bulgarians who converted to Islam during the period of Ottoman rule in the Balkans.

Symbols

The national symbols of the Bulgarians are the Flag of Bulgaria and the Coat of Arms of Bulgaria.

The national flag of Bulgaria is a rectangle with three colors: white, green, and red, positioned horizontally top to bottom. The color fields are of same form and equal size. It is generally known that the white represents - the sky, the green - the forest and nature and the red - the blood of the people, referencing the strong bond of the nation through all the wars and revolutions that have shaken the country in the past.

The Coat of Arms of Bulgaria is a state symbol of the sovereignty and independence of the Bulgarian people and state. It represents a crowned rampant golden lion on a dark red background with the shape of a shield. Above the shield there is a crown modeled after the crowns of the emperors of the Second Bulgarian Empire, with five crosses and an additional cross on top. Two crowned rampant golden lions hold the shield from both sides, facing it. They stand upon two crossed oak branches with acorns, which symbolize the power and the longevity of the Bulgarian state. Under the shield, there is a white band lined with the three national colors. The band is placed across the ends of the branches and the phrase "Unity Makes Strength" is inscribed on it.

Both the Bulgarian flag and the Coat of Arms are also used as symbols of various Bulgarian organisations, political parties and institutions.

Bulgarians through history

Image:Ivan Mihailov.jpg|Ivan Mihailov, Bulgarian revolutionary, leader of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization Image:Vladimir Vazov.jpg|Vladimir Vazov, Bulgarian general and war hero Image:Pencho Slaveykov photo.gif|Pencho Slaveykov (1866-1912), modernist poet and literary theoretician Image:Boris3bulgaria1894.jpg|Tsar Boris III of Bulgaria Image:Veselin Topalov Sofia Airport 24.10.2005.pic-01.jpg|Vesselin Topalov, former world chess champion Image:Berbatov.jpg|Dimitar Berbatov, Football Player Image:Nina Dobrev at PaleyFest2010.jpg| Nina Dobrev, Bulgarian-Canadian actress Image:Lucy Diakowska 2.jpg|Ludmilla Diakovska, Bulgarian singer-songwriter

References and notes

See also

List of Bulgarians

Bulgarian diaspora

Bulgarian Americans

Bulgarian Canadians

Bulgarians in South America

Bulgarian Australian

Bulgarians in Serbia

Banat Bulgarians

Bessarabian Bulgarians

Bulgaria

Bulgars

History of Bulgaria

Bulgarian language

Music of Bulgaria

Bulgarian cuisine

Macedonians (ethnic group)

Old Great Bulgaria

Bulgarian months

Category:Ethnic groups in Europe Category:Ethnic groups in Macedonia Category:Ethnic groups in Serbia Category:Ethnic groups in Greece Category:Ethnic groups in Bulgaria Category:Slavic nations Category:Ethnic groups in the Republic of Macedonia Category:Ethnic groups in the United States Category:Ethnic groups in Canada

Title	Ruler of Bulgaria
Caption	Monument in Dobrich, Bulgaria
Reign	668–700
Predecessor	Kubrat
Successor	Tervel
Issue	Tervel Ajjar
Royal house	Dulo

Asparuh (or Isperih) () was ruler of a Bulgar tribe in the second half of the 7th century and is credited with the establishment of the First Bulgarian Empire in 680/681. He is the most famous Bulgar ruler. The accuracy of the Turkic title khan commonly applied to him and his successors is a subject of some dispute.

Early life

The Nominalia of the Bulgarian khans states that Asparuh belonged to the Dulo clan and reigned for 61 years. This long period cannot be accepted as accurate due to chronological constraints, and may indicate the length of Asparuh's life. According to the chronology developed by Moskov, Asparuh would have reigned 668–695. Other chronologies frequently end his reign in 700 or 701 but cannot be reconciled with the testimony of the Namelist. According to the Byzantine sources, Asparuh was a younger son of Kubrat, who had established a spacious state ("Great Bulgaria") in the steppes of modern Ukraine. Asparuh may have gained experience in politics and statesmanship during the long reign of his father, who probably died in 665 (apud Moskov). After his father's death, Asparuh would have acknowledged the rule of his older brother Bat Bayan, but the state disintegrated under Khazar attack in 668, and he and his brothers parted ways, leading their people to seek a more secure home in other lands.

Establishment of the First Bulgarian Empire

Asparukh was followed by 20,000 to 30,000 Bulgars. He reached the Danube and while the Byzantine capital Constantinople was besieged by Muawiyah I, Caliph of the Arabs (674–678), he and his people settled in the Danube delta, probably on the extinct Peuce Island. After the Arab siege of Constantinople ended, the Byzantine Emperor Constantine IV marched against the Bulgars and their Slav allies in 680 and forced his opponents to seek shelter in a fortified encampment. Forced to abandon the leadership of his army in order to seek medical treatment for his ailments, the emperor sabotaged the morale of his troops, who gave in to rumours that their emperor had fled. With segments of the Byzantine army starting to desert, the Bulgars and their allies broke through the blockade and routed the enemy troops at the battle of Ongala in 680. Asparuh then swiftly moved from the Danubian delta down to the Balkan range.

Reign

Asparuh's victory led to the Bulgar conquest of Moesia and the establishment of some sort of alliance between the Bulgars and the local Slavic groups (described as the Severi and Seven Slavic tribes). As Asparuh commenced to raid across the mountains into Byzantine Thrace in 681, Constantine IV decided to cut his losses and conclude a treaty, whereby the Byzantine Empire paid the Bulgars an annual tribute as protection money. These events are seen in retrospect as the establishment of the Bulgarian state and its recognition by the Byzantine Empire. In later tradition Asparuh is credited with building the major centers of Pliska and Drăstăr, as well as at least one of the Bulgarian limes walls from the Danube to the Black Sea. Recent scholarship has questioned whether it was Asparuh that established Pliska as the capital, suggesting that the original capital of Bulgaria was in the vicinity of Varna. While the multi-tribal and hegemonic character of the Bulgarian state in the first century or two after its establishment is readily apparent, Bulgarian historians have stressed the establishment of a capital and of a state tradition that could be viewed retrospectively as national. According to a late tradition, Asparuh died fighting the Khazars on the Danube. According to one theory, advanced by the Bulgarian historian Vaklinov, his grave is located near Voznesenka ("Ascension") on the Dnieper in Ukraine. The 17th century Volga Bulgar compilation Ja'far Tarikh (a work of disputed authenticity) represents Atil'kese (i.e., Asparuh) as the son and successor of Kurbat (i.e., Kubrat), and as the father and predecessor of Tarvil (i.e., Tervel) and Ajjar (otherwise unknown, but possibly the first of two lost names in the Imennik).

Asparuh Peak on Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica is named after Asparuh of Bulgaria.

Sources and references

John V.A. Fine, The Early Medieval Balkans, Ann Arbor, 1983.

Mosko Moskov, Imennik na bălgarskite hanove (novo tălkuvane), Sofia 1988.

Jordan Andreev, Ivan Lazarov, Plamen Pavlov, Koj koj e v srednovekovna Bălgarija, Sofia 1999.

(primary source), Bahši Iman, Džagfar Tarihy, vol. III, Orenburg 1997.

(primary source), Nikephoros Patriarch of Constantinople, Short History, C. Mango, ed., Dumbarton Oaks Texts 10, 1990.

(primary source), The Chronicle of Theophanes Confessor, C. Mango and R. Scott, trans., Oxford University Press, 1997.

Васил Н. Златарски, История на българската държава през средните векове, Част I, II изд., Наука и изкуство, София 1970, pp. 176 – 209.

See also

History of Bulgaria

Bulgars

Asparukh (name)

List of Bulgarian monarchs.

Footnotes

External links

Rulers of Bulgaria - Asparuh

Category:7th-century births Category:700 deaths Category:Monarchs of the Bulgars Category:History of Bulgaria Category:7th-century Bulgarian monarchs Category:Bulgarian people of the Byzantine–Bulgarian Wars

Name	Boyko Metodiev BorisovБойко Методиев Борисов
Office	Prime Minister of Bulgaria
President	Georgi Parvanov
Deputy	Simeon DjankovTsvetan Tsvetanov
Term start	27 July 2009
Predecessor	Sergei Stanishev
Office2	Mayor of Sofia
Term start2	8 November 2005
Term end2	27 July 2009
Predecessor2	Stefan Sofiyanski
Successor2	Yordanka Fandakova
Office3	Chief Secretary of the Ministry of the Interior
Term start3	24 July 2001
Term end3	8 November 2005
Birth date
Birth place	Bankya, Bulgaria
Party	Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (2006–present)
Otherparty	National Movement Simeon II (2001-2005)
Spouse	Stela Borisova (Divorced)
Partner	Tsvetelina Borislavova
Religion	Bulgarian Orthodox

Boyko Metodiev Borisov a.k.a BB (, , ; born 13 June 1959) is a Bulgarian politician who has been Prime Minister of Bulgaria since July 2009. Previously he was Mayor of Sofia from 8 November 2005 until his election as Prime Minister.

After his party, GERB, won the July 2009 parliamentary election, Borisov became Bulgaria's 50th Prime Minister on 27 July 2009.

Biography

Chief Secretary and Mayor of Sofia

Borisov was born in 1959 in Bankya (then a village, today a town part of greater Sofia) to Ministry of Internal Affairs official Metodi Borisov and elementary school teacher Veneta Borisova. Between 1982 and 1990, he assumed different positions in the Ministry of Internal Affairs as a firefighter and later as a professor at the Police Academy in Sofia. As a National Security Office member, Borisov took part in the protection of crops and haylofts during the name-changing campaign towards ethnic Turks in the 1980s. He quit the Ministry in 1990. In 1991 he founded a private security company, Ipon-1, and later guarded personalities like Todor Zhivkov and Simeon II. Borisov has been actively engaged in karate since 1980, serving as the coach of the Bulgarian national team and a referee of international matches.

Borisov is not currently married, but lives with Tsvetelina Borislavova, head of the Economic and Investment Bank. Borisov has a daughter, Veneta, from his former marriage to the physician Stela. Borisov also has a sister, Krasimira Ivanova. Borisov's great-grandfather was executed in the wake of the Bulgarian coup d'état of 1944.

Boyko Borisov was the Chief Secretary of the Bulgarian Ministry of Interior between 2001 and 2005, with the rank of General. In the 2005 parliamentary elections he was candidate for member of Parliament for the National Movement Simeon II, and was elected in two regions but decided to retain his job as Chief Secretary of the Ministry. Later that year he resigned from this post, and instead participated in and won the elections for mayor of Sofia, where he replaced Stefan Sofiyanski.

Borisov founded a new political party, GERB in 2006 (in English Coat of Arms, while also being an acronym for "Grazhdani za evropeisko razvitie na Bulgariya" or "Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria"). GERB won the first Bulgarian European Parliament elections on 20 May 2007, despite a very low poll attendance and turnout of 28.6%, which prompted Borisov to voice his wish for early parliamentary elections. Following a party congress in January 2010, Borisov became the official leader of GERB (of which he had been only an "informal leader"), thus replacing Tsvetan Tsvetanov, who had served under Borisov at the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and later as a vice-mayor of Sofia.

Borisov has been actively participating in Karate championships since 1978. He currently has 7th dan black belt in karate and is the chairman of the Bulgarian Karate Federation. Borisov has also been a coach for the Bulgarian national karate team for many years as well as an international karate referee.

Prime Minister of Bulgaria

Borisov's party GERB also won the parliamentary election on 5 July 2009 by collecting 39.71% of the popular vote and 116 of the 240 seats in parliament. Since 27 July 2009 Borisov has been serving as Prime Minister of Bulgaria in a minority GERB-dominated centre-right government. Vice-president of the Party of European Socialists, Jan Marinus Wiersma, accused Borisov of referring "to the Turks, Roma and pensioners in Bulgaria as "bad human material"", and claimed that GERB "has already crossed the invisible line between right wing populism and extremism."

Borisov has denied these accusations and in turn, he has accused the Bulgarian Socialist Party of attempting to discredit him. Borisov stated in a meeting with NGOs on 5 March 2009 that he intends to include representatives of the Roma ethnicity in all levels of government, including a potential minister, and has reached out to offer inclusivity to Bulgaria’s ethnic Turkish population; although these measures and proposals have been seen as politically empty.

Corruption Scandals and Connections with Organized Crime

In early 90s Boyko Borisov is directly linked to the biggest mobsters in Bulgaria according to the U.S. Congressional Quarterly (CQ). "The most powerful politician in Bulgaria, Washington's newest ally in the global war on terror, is a close associate of known mobsters and linked to almost 30 unsolved murders in the Black Sea republic, CQ reads. On January 14, 2011 Bulgarian journalists from the weekly newspaper "Galeria" distributed audio records of a conversation between PM Boyko Borisov and Customs Agency Head Vanyo Tanov. The tapes reveal that Boyko Borisov instructed customs authorities to immediately stop investigation of "Ledenika" brewery which has been suspected for illegal activities and tax crimes.

Notes

External links

CityMayors profile

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Category:1959 births Category:Living people Category:People from Sofia Category:Bulgarian politicians Category:Bulgarian Orthodox Christians Category:Eastern Orthodox Christians from Bulgaria Category:Current national leaders Category:Mayors of Sofia Category:Prime Ministers of Bulgaria