Sun, Nov 22 2009

Bulgarian ambassadors to the US and Turkey could be recalled, Foreign Minister says

Tue, Oct 20 2009 13:29 CET byPetar Kostadinov 890 Views 3 Comments
Bulgarian ambassadors to the US and Turkey could be recalled, Foreign Minister says

Foreign Minister Roumyana Zheleva

Photo: Nadezhda Chipeva

Bulgaria could recall its ambassadors to Turkey and the US ahead of the completion of their terms, Foreign Minister Roumyana Zheleva told Bulgarian-language 24 Chassa daily on October 20 2009.

The reason was a number of violations recorded during an ongoing Ministry probe into the work of Bulgaria's ambassador to the US,  Lachezar Petkov, and Bulgaria's ambassador to Turkey, Branimir Mladenov.

The check in Turkey was at a more advanced level than the one in the US, she said.

In Petkov's case the violations relate to lost documents in connection with Bulgaria's parliamentary elections on July 5 2009.
"I can only say that there are big discrepancies and conspicuous matters related to election papers," Zheleva told 24 Chassa.

"We found out about these violations on the seventh day I came to office and we launched an internal probe into all Bulgarian embassies abroad. We have sent what we have found to the Prosecutor-General's Office," she said.

Petkov told 24 Chassa that it was true that elections papers got lost but this was because the cleaning lady threw them out by mistake. "We have all presented our written explanations on the issue to the Foreign Ministry but you can't blame the ambassador for what the cleaning lady did," Petkov said. Mladenov, on the other hand, refused to comment.

Comments

Anonymous Me Tue, Oct 20 2009 23:06 CET
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Ridiculous excuse about how the election papers got lost! The embassador can't be that smart. He would've come up with a slightly more believable story!

Anonymous Peter Tue, Oct 20 2009 16:40 CET
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Just for clarification. 99% percent of the graduates of IMEMO (Institute for International Relations in Moscow) have been recruited by KGB. Most of them worked in Bulgarian foreign department under the supervision of general Liuben Gotzev, who was the official representative of Bulgarian secret service DS in the diplomatic office.

Anonymous Stephen Hobday Tue, Oct 20 2009 16:22 CET
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The dog ate my homework.

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