Dimitar Petkov (1858 - 1907)

Dimitar Petkov is a Bulgarian politician, leader of the Popular Party. Born on November 2, 1858 in the village Bashkyoi, Tulchansko, comes from a family of immigrants from the village Voynyagovo, Karlovo. In 1875 he moved to Odessa, where he falls among the Bulgarian emigrants. A year later he participated in the Serbian-Turkish war detachment of Philip Totyu and Panayot Khitov. During the Russian-Turkish War (1877-1878) Petkov loses his left hand. For his bravery he was awarded the George's cross for bravery, personally by Emperor Alexander II. In Stefan Stambolov Petkov's governance he is Sofia's mayor (1888 - 1893), Chairman of the Parliament (1892 - 1893) and member of the Government (1893-1894). From 3 to 17 May 1893 he is chairman of the IV Grand National Assembly. As mayor of Sofia, Dimitar Petkov shows a remarkable energy and vigor. The same model outlines the direction for development of the city and persuades councilors to vote for concluding a huge for its time loan of ten million from the London bank, intended for urban development. With the help of this loan in the coming years began construction of the streets and their sewage. The construction of sewage begins at the end of the century, and by 1910 had already benn over 80% of the streets had piping.With the development of urban infrastructure in the express order 6 medieval churches with frescoeshave been destroyed. After the death of Dimitar Grekov in 1901 he becomes head of the Popular Party and becomes interior minister in the government of Racho Petrov (1903-1906). Much later, in 1910, a parliamentary inquiry found that during his management, in his capacity as interior minister, of the Fund for assistance of refugees from Macedonia and Edirne Thrace, Dimitar Petkov imported money from the fund in a personal interest account in the Bulgarian National Bank . He is head of the 27th Government of Bulgaria (1906-1907). On March 11 (February 26 in old style) 1907 Dimitar Petkov was shot with a gun and died near the house of Sarmadzhiev on "Tsar Liberator" boulevard in Sofia. (Photo: bg.wikipedia.org)