NEWS

1 February 2015, St. Alexander Nevsky Patriarchal Cathedral

“I was deeply saddened to learn about the death of the great Bulgarian, politician, statesman and person Dr. Zhelyu Zhelev - a heavy loss for Bulgaria and the World Democratic Community!” This is what the letter of condolence of the Head of State Rosen Plevneliev says, addressed to the relatives of Dr. Zhelyu Zhelev, President of Bulgaria (1990-1997), who suddenly passed away on 30 January 2015. “With his life and his deeds, Dr. Zhelyu Zhelev set the direction, which we continue to follow today – of a state and people that are ever more confidently following the only possible path for Bulgarians – of building a European type of democracy, of human rights and freedoms.

Today, 30 January 2015, at the age of 79, Dr. Zhelyu Zhelev, the first democratically elected President of the Republic of Bulgaria suddenly passed away.

President Rosen Plevneliev attended a commemorative ceremony and a silence march in Oswiencim, the Republic of Poland, which commemorated the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp. The Bulgarian President, as well as many European state and government leaders, paid tribute to and placed a lit candle in front of the Memorial of the Holocaust victims near the former concentration camp.