Kiril Petkov’s father turns 64 today
Prime minister Kiril Petkov’s father – Petko Petkov happens to be an astral twin to one of his son’s greatest enemies – GERB leader Boyko Borissov. They were both born on 13th of June but with a year difference. Kiril Petkov’s father was born in 1958 while former prime minister Boyko Borissov was born a year later – in 1959.
They both have another thing in common – martial arts. It is a well known fact that Petkov-senior has been among the emblematic persons in the Aikido area in Bulgaria for almost four decades. Besides he is involved in seminars and trainings in order to teach the new talents.
Herpetology sent Petko Petkov to Canada 30 years ago, and his consultations on the Struma route got him into today's political mess.
More than three decades ago, biologist Petko Petkov made his first parachute jump.
These days, the man with silver hair, who has not yet given up extreme sports, has landed in ... Bulgarian politics. Firmly.
"During discussions about the route of Struma highway, Kiril Petkov said: “My father said that the route should not pass here - he is an ecologist.”
This was announced by Toshko Yordanov, who is closest to Slavi Trifonov and head of the MPs from "There is such a people" in the series "Stories about the secrets of the coalition's" bedroom ", which runs after the noisy divorce between There is such a people and" The Change ".
The resigned Minister of Regional Development Grozdan Karadzhov also has added details to the whole picture.
"I had a reasonable dialogue with him for more than an hour, I do not say it with irony. The proposal for stages came from his father - now to use the procedure (note - so as not to lose EU funds), then to add another canvas, "said Karadzhov, adding twice how "reasonable and dedicated ecologist" Petkov-senior is.
Indeed, Petko Petkov is a dedicated zoologist and a former professor, at that time his circles ignited many young people in eco-causes.
One of them is the alpinist Boyan Petrov, who lost his life under Shisha Pangma 3 years ago.
Among his other outspoken alumni from the clubs is the founder of the largest and most modern veterinary clinic in Bulgaria, who still remembers how after a trip with Boyan and Petko he returned home with a bag of snakes and to the horror of his parents dropped them under the couch.
The Prime Minister's father has been a fierce environmentalist for years with causes for the protection of Pirin, Coral Beach and endangered species in our country.
Exactly at the time of the disappearance of Boyan Petrov in the Himalayas, most people in our country heard about father and son Petkovi for the first time. Then Kiril and Petko hoisted a helicopter in Nepal in an unprecedented rescue operation - for the first time China and Nepal cooperated in such an operation, and for the first time a helicopter flew so high for more than an hour.
Petkov Sr. immediately left for Nepal, learning of Boyan's disappearance. "My father said he was getting different information. He had withdrawn $ 30,000 and left for China. I decided to accompany him. The Chinese ambassador helped a lot,", Kiril Petkov said at the time.
They reached up to 7400 m by helicopter without acclimatization - the level of Camp 3, but, unfortunately, to this day there is no trace of the body of the only Bulgarian who conquered 10 eight thousand peaks.
By the way, when Boyan Petrov, who was also a biologist, survived the brutal car crash in the Kresna Gorge in 2016, after which he managed to walk again and continue to climb peaks, he studied the route of "Struma" and how it will affect the ecosystem . He struggled to displace it. Again on the same route of Struma, the Prime Minister's father has now entered the political intrigue.
Snakes are the ones to send him to Canada. He managed to become a Canadian citizen thanks to his specialty herpetology - he won a project of the United States and Canada to combat snakes. These are islands where certain species of snake inhabits unknown routes, and since other animal species in this area do not know it and it has no natural enemies, it begins to eat birds and smaller mammals and thus change the local fauna.
The Bulgarian herpetologist is applying with a concept for dealing with the alien snake.
Within 7 years, he managed to freeze the population and thus moved his family to Vancouver in 1994.
“He has told me how he used to work in wild places in Canada where Indians live. His projects were connected to nature protection. He was an enthusiast.”, prof. Nikolay Spasov from National Museum of History and Science remembers.
People close to Petkov say that he used to work on another island over the years. The site was close to an area where nuclear tests had once taken place, and an international team of biologists had to determine whether there were any consequences for the environment. There were few applicants due to the fear of radiation, and the payment covered the risk. In the end, it turned out that nature had not suffered.
According to old comrades of the biologist, it was there that he discovered surfing, which is still his great passion. He has also been kitesurfing for years.
He has made his son Kiril fond of his two great passions - biology and surfing. He studied biology at the University of British Columbia, but in his third year he realized it was not his thing and chose economics. He worked as a currency dealer in Brussels, then in Russia.
Then he studies a master degree of business administration in Harvard Business School (HBS). After all, business acumen and biology come together in one thing - patent probiotics, which makes him rich. Today, his father is said to be actively helping in this international family business and continues to be dedicated to extreme sports at sea and in the mountains, although today, June 13, 2022, he becomes 63 years old.
“Canada is a wonderful country. I was a poor emigrant, I fought for this Canadian citizenship. What was valuable to me about it is that I managed to prove that I could be equal in a free country. I climbed up the social lаdder. As a Canadian citizen I had a moment of freedom that made me a world citizen.
When Kiril came to Canada he was 14 years old. 20 days after his arrival I signed for a Canadian citizenship that I had worked for. Kiril being a child could not understand what it was about he just tool his Canadian citizenship. And I thought to myself that I might have not given him anything, but at least I made him a man of the world ", the father said, when the scandal with the citizenship of the future prime minister at that time broke out.
He confesses: “I felt very upset when my son went to the notary to claim he did not want to be a Canadian citizen anymore. I asked him if he has carefully considered his decision and he said that there are moment in life when you have to make a choice”.
A that time he fervently defended his son, behind whom he apparently continues to stand today in his vicissitudes as prime minister - around and far beyond the Struma highway.
Prime Minister Petkov's father can boast of great influence in the Ministry of Ecology, people familiar with the organizations in the environmental organizations told 24 Chasa.
"Those who run the Ministry of Environment and Water - Sandov, his adviser Andrei Kovachev, and Petko Petkov are one group. "Those who were heads of NGOs are now being promoted to advisers," they said.
Toma Belev, who has been a part of a couple of eco organizations nowadays is a vice minister. According to information Kiril Petkov and Borislav Sandov know each other from the association “Save Coral” that has been acting for about ten years.
People from “Save Coral" are in Parliament and in the executive branch. These words of Toshko Yordanov and Grozdan Karadzhov - that the Prime Minister said that the route of "Struma" should be changed because his father does not agree, are true. Those of us who work in the sector knew it a month and a half ago, and now they have said it publicly,” source familiar with the environment says.
Grozdan Karadjov himself told reporters on Thursday that he had been summoned about a month and a half ago to the office of the prime minister, who introduced him to his father. The man made a pleasant impression on the resigned Deputy Prime Minister because he offered him a workable solution that satisfies environmentalists and at the same time does not cut European funding for the completion of the Struma Highway through the Kresna Gorge.
It is laying of an additional lane on the new part of the highway in its essence, which will run east of the gorge, thus avoiding the construction of a 22-kilometer tunnel, as environmentalists want, which is very expensive.
However, according to our sources the change of the road is not an acceptable decision because of the trace specifications, financial reasons and dead ends.
Leave a comment