Ivan Iliana Yordanov was dismissed from the position of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Bulgaria to the United Arab Emirates. This was done by Decree No. 320 of President Iliana Yotova, issued on October 13 and published in the “State Gazette“ on October 20.
The document states that the implementation of the decree is assigned to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. It does not specify a new head of the Bulgarian Embassy in Abu Dhabi.
The procedure began in September
The dismissal procedure was initiated by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Velislava Petrova. On September 24, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that she had signed a report to submit a draft decision to the Council of Ministers, proposing that the president issue a decree to dismiss the ambassador.
On September 30, Iliyana Yotova confirmed that she would sign the decree. “Yes, I will sign the decree to dismiss our ambassador to the United Arab Emirates“, said the head of state, quoted by “168 Chasa“.
The reason was public allegations about flights
The decision was reached after publicly announced information about an alleged connection between a company associated with Ivan Yordanov's family and payments for flights by Delyan Peevski. The then Interior Minister Ivan Demerdzhiev stated that the company that allegedly covered the costs was owned by the ambassador's father. These allegations were reported as a reason for initiating the procedure, but do not in themselves establish a violation or guilt.
Ivan Yordanov and his family denied any involvement in the alleged financial ties. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that it had ordered an investigation into the case, but did not specify specific reasons for the dismissal in the announcement of the initiation of the procedure.
Ivan Yordanov was appointed ambassador to the UAE in November 2022 by decree of President Rumen Radev. With the promulgation of the new decree, his dismissal from office was made official.
Sources: btvnovinite.bg, 24chasa.bg, 168chasa.bg