site.btaUPDATED Stoyanov: Replacing Interior Ministry Secretary General Was All My Decision

"The decision to replace the Secretary General of the Interior Ministry was all mine," Bulgarian Interior Minister Kalin Stoyanov said on Nova TV Saturday morning . This happened in the first days after Stoyanov took office. He added that Continue the Change Co-leader Kiril Petkov had had a meeting with him, but personnel changes at the Ministry were not discussed then.

The Secretary General of the Interior Ministry is Bulgaria's highest ranking law enforcement professional.

Stoyanov was adamant that, contrary to what former Interior Minister Ivan Demerdzhiev and outgoing Secretary General Petar Todorov claim, the changes at the Interior Ministry are not a political purge. He said that he did not know about a meeting of Petkov, GERB leader Boyko Borissov and Petkov's father - Petko Petkov - with Alexey Petrov, nor about a role of the murdered controversial businessman in the formation of the current cabinet.

"Many leads to Petrov's murder are being followed, such as revenge related to his past or unsettled financial relations. A politically motivated assassination has not been ruled out. There is no direct suspect yet, nor is it clear who contracted the murder," the Interior Minister said.

For his part, Petar Todorov said in a bTV interview Saturday morning that he had worked with Stoyanov for two years while he headed the General Directorate for Combating Organized Crime. "Throughout that period, we had a normal and even good working relationship," the outgoing Secretary General recalled. On the day before Stoyanov was appointed minister, they had a talk in Todorov's office, and the latter asked him how they will handle the new arrangement. Stoyanov told Todorov that he would like to rely on his experience and that they will continue to work as before.

"Literally several days later, after the visit of a party leader, I was summoned and, somewhat ill at ease, the Minister asked me, avoiding eye contact, whether I would resign because tensions had mounted," the outgoing Secretary General told bTV, specifying that the visiting party leader was Kiril Petkov. Todorov then refused to tender his resignation. In his opinion, the arrangement to work together with the Minister was changed without reason and the "talking points" that Stoyanov emphasized were "completely untenable".