The assassination of Stefan Stambolov was an assassination attempt carried out on July 15 (July 3, old style) 1895 in Sofia. A few days later, one of the key figures of the Kingdom of Bulgaria died.
The attack was carried out with the tacit support of the People's Party government and Prince Ferdinand I by a group of pro-Russian oriented Bulgarians, led by Naum Tyufekchiev, who had committed several terrorist acts in previous years.
The assassination itself was carried out on the evening of July 15. At 7:50 p.m., Stambolov left the Union Club and got into a carriage, together with his friend and political associate Dimitar Petkov and his personal bodyguard Guncho. The cab driver Mircho Atsov is involved in the plot and specifically waits in front of the club. Shortly after the carriage leaves, Bone Georgiev and Halyu appear in front of the carriage, and shortly after that Talyu, with Georgiev shooting at the carriage, and Halyu pulling out a scimitar and quickly heading towards it. The cab driver stops the carriage, and the police officers stationed in front of the Union Club quickly move away from the scene. Stambolov jumps out of the carriage, after which Mircho Atsov sets off, taking Dimitar Petkov and the bodyguard to the neighboring street “Stefan Karadzha“.
Stambolov runs along “Rakovska“ back to the Union Club, but Halyu catches up with him. When he tried to shoot his attacker, he cut off his hand, then knocked him to the ground and, together with the other attackers, began to hit him on the head, as they knew that Stambolov usually went out with a protective coat of mail under his clothes. When Guncho and Dimitar Petkov returned to “Rakovska“ the attackers fled. Guncho began to chase Halyu, wounding him in the neck with his pistol, but was detained by two police officers who helped the assassin escape. Halyu and Talyu fled through the streets to the southeast and disappeared in Perlovets, while Bone Georgiev retreated in Mircho Atsov's carriage.
Meanwhile, Dimitar Petkov drove Stambolov to his home in a carriage. Stambolov's entire face was slashed, both of his arms were almost completely cut off, and his right eye was gouged out. However, he was conscious and blamed the assassination attempt on Halyu, Naum Tyufekchiev and Prince Ferdinand. The wounds were severe, and his condition was further worsened by diabetes. After a slight improvement on July 16, Stefan Stambolov died at 3:35 a.m. on July 18, 1895.
In the period 1887-1894, Stefan Stambolov was the Prime Minister of Bulgaria, leading the country out of a severe constitutional crisis, establishing the new Prince Ferdinand. His rule was accompanied by numerous attempts at a violent change of power, organized by various groups associated with Russia, which refused to recognize the legitimacy of the government and the prince.
After Stambolov's removal from the government, Prince Ferdinand and the new government of Konstantin Stoilov continued to fear his influence and seek ways to compromise him, recalls Dani Ivanov in his blog. On 24 August 1894, he was briefly arrested for criticizing the prince in an interview with a German newspaper, and after his release, he was stoned in the street by supporters of the government. The Minister of War, Racho Petrov, organized an investigation, trying to prove that Stambolov had organized the assassination attempt on himself in 1891, in which the Minister of Finance, Hristo Belchev, was killed.
After the investigation found no evidence of this, it was terminated at the end of the year. A little later, a parliamentary inquiry commission was formed, headed by Dimitar Mollov and including other prominent opponents of Stambolov, which tried to prove criminal activity by members of the previous government, but also failed.
The assassination attempt on Stefan Stambolov shocked the foreign press, especially in German-speaking countries, where comments appeared linking the murder to the prince and the government. At the same time, the very day after the attack, the Bulgarian delegation, located in St. Petersburg and aiming to have the prince recognized by Russia, received an invitation for the long-delayed audience with Emperor Nicholas II.