BIO NOTES FOR NEW BULGARIAN UNESCO DIRECTOR GENERAL

UNCLAS SOFIA 000537 SENSITIVE SIPDIS PASS TO EUR/CE TOMIKA KONDITI E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL PGOV BU SUBJECT: BIO NOTES FOR NEW BULGARIAN UNESCO DIRECTOR GENERAL REF: PARIS 1301 ¶1. (SBU) Bulgarian media have responded generally positively to reports of Irina Georgieva Bokova's September 22 election as the Director-General of UNESCO (reftel). A career diplomat and politician, Bokova was born on July 12, ¶1952. She comes from a family with long ties to the former Bulgarian Communist Party and current Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) and the only negative reaction to her election stems from these family connections. Her father, Georgi Bokov, was a high ranking Bulgarian Communist Party official and editor of a party newspaper. Bokova's brother, Philip Bokov, served as chief of staff to Bulgaria's last Prime Minister, Sergei Stanishev, and is now Bulgaria's Ambassador to Slovenia. After graduating from the English LanguQdvQgL-rsQh$ol in Sofia in 1971, Bokova received a Master's Degree in international relations from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations in 1976. A year later she began a diplomatic career, spending the majority of her time in New York and Sofia. She served as a member of parliament in the 7th Grand National Assembly from 1990-1991. In 1996, Bokova was a vice-presidential candidate running with Ivan Marazov of the BSP, who lost the election. That same year, Bokova became Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and later served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs under Zhan Videnov's short-lived Socialist government from 1996 to 1997. ¶2. (SBU) From 2001-2005, Bokova served in the 39th National Assembly as a representative of the Coalition for Bulgaria. She is currently serving as Bulgaria's Ambassador to France and Permanent Delegate to UNESCO. Bokova enjoys good relations with President Georgi Parvanov, who was firmly behind her bid for the UNESCO position. She is married to Kalin Mitriev, EBRD's Director for Bulgaria, Poland, and Albania and has two children from a previous marriage. She speaks excellent English, as well as Russian, French, and Spanish. ORDWAY