site.btaFebruary 24, 2016: Ten Years since Passing of Ex-Parliament Head and Former Interior Minister Yordan Sokolov

Prominent Bulgarian lawyer and politician Yordan Sokolov (1933-2016) passed away ten years ago on Tuesday, on February 24, 2016.

Born in Sofia on January 18, 1933, he graduated in law from Sofia University in 1956. He entered the Bar in 1958 and joined the Union of Jurists in Bulgaria and entered its Legislation Commission. He was secretary at the State Arbitration (1956 - 1958). In the course of ten years he delivered lectures at courses for junior lawyers. Later on, he was member of the Council on Legislation at the State Council of the People's Republic of Bulgaria.

In the spring of 1990, he initiated the establishment of a Lawyers Club for Democracy. He was an expert in the election campaign of the Union of Democratic Forces (UDF) for the Seventh Grand National Assembly, and in 1990 was elected to the Central Election Commission. He was member (February 1995 - March 2002) and deputy chairman (February 1997- March 2002) of the UDF National Executive Board. In 2004, he was among the founders of the Democrats for Strong Bulgaria (DSB) Party and headed the DSB National Intra-Party Arbitration Board (May 2004 - November 2011). In 2005 he declined to stand for Parliament yet again and resumed his lawyer's practice. In 2011 he left DSB in protest against the party's collaboration in the legislature with the Socialists.

Sokolov chaired the 38th National Assembly (April 1997 - April 2001), becoming the first head of Parliament after the advent of democracy in 1989 to serve a full four-year term. As part of the 36th, 37th, 38th and 39th National Assembly (1991-2005), he served as UDF floor leader. In 1991-1992, he was interior minister in Filip Dimitrov's UDF government.

Sokolov held Bulgaria's Order of Sts Cyril and Methodius (2012), Denmark's Order of the Elephant, and Sweden's Royal Order of the Seraphim. In 2000, Patriarch Diodoros of Jerusalem conferred on hims the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre.

Following is the original English-language profile by which the BTA External Service covered Sokolov's election as National Assembly Chairman in 1997:

"Yordan Sokolov: Chairman of Bulgaria's New Parliament

Sofia, May 7, 1997 (BTA) - At its first sitting on Wednesday the 240-seat Parliament elected lawyer Yordan Sokolov Chairman with an overwhelming majority of 218 with 14 abstentions and no votes against. He was elected by an open ballot. Only the Socialist Party called for a secret ballot.

For the first time since the beginning of transition the Bulgarian Parliament will be chaired by an experienced jurist. Sokolov was elected on the ticket of the United Democratic Forces, the coalition which won the elections on April 19, 1997.

Analysts say that Sokolov is soft-spoken but hard-headed. He is a Capricorn, born in Sofia in 1933. Under Zhivkov's regime he had a good reputation as a divorce lawyer. His wife, Eva Lazarova, is a professor of physical chemistry. He has two [step] daughters: one is a chemist and the other is a lawyer who helps him in his work.

'Every cloud has a silver lining' is his motto. 'I am not hard to deal with,' Sokolov says about himself. 'If I am not convinced that a case can and must be won, I do not take it up,' says he.

Sokolov made a comparatively late entry into politics, in 1990, as a legal expert of the opposition Union of Democratic Forces (UDF) which dominates Parliament now. He was a member of the Central Electoral Commission in the first free elections in 1990. Then he was a legal adviser for a short period to the first democratically elected president, Zhelyu Zhelev.

Sokolov won popularity as minister of the interior of the UDF government in 1991-92. In his first statement in this capacity he declared war on criminals and black marketeers - a step described as a nationwide attack on crime. While he was interior minister, the UDF launched an initiative to issue clean-record documents to politicians, showing that they were not linked to the political police under the communist regime. Sokolov has always held that police records must be declassified. 'This issue must be resolved sooner or later. This is a disease one must go through. People must be cleared of suspicion. In some cases it may be unfounded, while in other cases we will find out that people were discredited, not by the simple fact that they were informers, but by their actions,' he says.

As UDF floor leader in the previous parliament Yordan Sokolov is said to have worked well with UDF leader Ivan Kostov. Both Kostov and Sokolov were elected to these positions after the Union's crushing defeat in the 1994 elections. They played an important role in improving the UDF's image and making it the principal force of change in the last few months when the Socialists were forced from power.

'People not only placed their confidence in us, they made us believe that the government that brought the country to ruin can be ousted,' Sokolov says, referring to the events in January when massive protests forced the Socialists from power, leading to the early parliamentary elections won by the opposition.

'We have already proved we can run the country,' he says, referring to the UDF government of 1991-92.

Analysts believe Sokolov's election as parliamentary chairman is logical. He says he did not aspire to this position, but all members of the party in office should share the responsibility and make efforts to overcome the present grave situation. He says the new Parliament stands a 100 per cent chance to live its full four-year term. IT/DD/ 14:02:10 07-05-1997 -0-"