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Bozhidar Dimitrov | |
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| Божидар Димитров | |
 Dimitrov in 2009 | |
| Born | (1945-12-03)3 December 1945 |
| Died | 1 July 2018(2018-07-01) (aged 72) |
| Alma mater | Sofia University |
| Occupations |
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| Political party | BSP,GERB |
Bozhidar Dimitrov Stoyanov (Bulgarian:Божидар Димитров Стоянов,[1] 3 December 1945 – 1 July 2018) was aBulgarian historian, politician, and polemicist in the sphere ofMedieval Bulgarian history, theOttoman rule of Bulgaria and theMacedonian Question. He was director of theNational Historical Museum, formerly aBulgarian Socialist Party member, and later became affiliated with theCitizens for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB) political party.
Born inSozopol to a family ofBulgarian refugees fromEastern Thrace (now part ofTurkey).
He was given access to theVatican Secret Archives in the 1980s, regarded as a great achievement considered the political situation of the time. As the director of the National Historical Museum, he had an indirect conflict in 1997–1998 with the PresidentPetar Stoyanov regarding whether to return theIstoriya Slavyanobolgarskaya rough copy to theZograf Monastery or leave it in Bulgaria.
Dimitrov is the author of 30 treatises and over 250 articles and papers in the sphere of his research, as well as several books (includingThe Ten Lies of Macedonism andTwelve Myths in Bulgarian History). He has specialized in palaeography inParis and also hosts the patriotic history-relatedPamet Balgarska (Bulgarian Memory) show onKanal 1.
Being a member of the Supreme Party Council of BSP, he declared himself openly against the party in 2005 by not supporting BSPMayor of Sofia candidateTatyana Doncheva and instead favouring the independentBoyko Borisov. Because of this he was taken down from the post of BSP municipal councillors leader inSofia. Before the2009 Bulgarian parliamentary election, Dimitrov formally left BSP and joined Borisov's GERB. He was the party's candidate for2nd MMC – Burgas in the first-past-the-post vote and won the election with 35.92%. He finished ahead ofVolen Siderov, the leader of the nationalistAttaka.[2]
Dimitrov believes that theBulgars played a more important role in the formation of the contemporaryBulgarians as a people than previously believed.[citation needed]
He wasMinister without portfolio responsible forBulgarians abroad in the GERB government (July 2009 – February 2011).[1]
Although serious researchers maintain that Dimitrov’s views on Bulgarian history are biased and can be partially challenged, they are popular in Bulgaria and he enjoys credibility among nationalist intellectuals.[3][4][5][6][when?] Dimitrov was a collaborator of Bulgaria's communist-era security service.[7][8]
Bozhidar Dimitrov's book,The Ten Lies of Macedonism (2000, 2003 and 2007), is a polemical pamphlet, based on historical documents, and is openly against the ideology of "Macedonism", i.e. the form of ethnicMacedonian nationalism that asserts an "allegedly deep-rooted ethnic and cultural distinction" betweenethnic Macedonians andBulgarians. The book has caused considerable controversy and criticism from ethnic Macedonian sources.[citation needed] Dimitrov claims that it has reached best-seller status in the Republic of Macedonia.[9] The "10 lies" described by Dimitrov are:
Several years later, In 2014, Dimitrov stirred controversy by saying that the Yugoslav Macedonisation policy whereby any Bulgarian national feeling was suppressed, as with theBloody Christmas purges, was acrime against humanity and thatNorth Macedonia should be brought to theEuropean Court of Human Rights andInternational Criminal Court forgenocide charges.[10]
He died on 1 July 2018 in Sofia.
Dimitrov Cove inAntarctica is named after Bozhidar Dimitrov.[11]
First Borisov Cabinet (2009-2013) | ||
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