Aleksandar Panayotov Karakachanov (; born September 11, 1960) is a

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

n politician, social activist, dissident and university professor.

Biography

Karakachanov was born in Sofia on September 11, 1960, in the family of Gen. Panayot Karakachanov. He completed his secondary education in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

, then

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, and went on to read philosophy at

Sofia University Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski" () is a public university, public research university in Sofia, Bulgaria. It is the oldest institution of higher education in Bulgaria. Founded on 1 October 1888, the edifice of the university was constr ...

. In 1989 he obtained a PhD within the Programme for Research of the Human Brain (the title of his thesis is "An integrated approach to man as a bio-psycho-social creature : dialectics of the biological, psychological and social") and became an assistant lecturer. In 1993 graduated in Economics from

UNWE The University of National and World Economy () is a public research university in Sofia, Bulgaria. Notable alumni of the university are five Prime Ministers of Bulgaria – Reneta Indzhova, Stefan Sofiyanski, Ivan Kostov, Marin Raykov and ...

. Currently, Karakachanov teaches in

and SULSIT. He is the author of "Man and Consciousness". He is married and has a child.

Political activity

Before the regime change of 1989, Karakachanov was a City Councillor in Sofia. He became a founding member of the Club in Support of Glasnost and Perestroika and a founder and chairman of the

Green Party of Bulgaria The Green Party () is an environmentalist political party in Bulgaria. It was founded in Sofia in 1989 by Aleksandar Karakachanov, who later went on to become the chairperson of the party. History The Green Party was established on December 28 ...

, two of the dissident civil organisations which were active before Nov 10, 1989. A third, Ecoglasnost, was founded in Karakachanov's apartment on Apr 11, 1989. After the 1989 changes, Karakachanov and the Green Party became a founding member of the Union of Democratic Forces, Bulgaria's opposition organisation. Participated in the Round table negotiations between the ruling Communist party and the opposition, whose goal was to prepare the country for the first post-Communist elections. Karakachanov was elected to the Seventh Great National Assembly (July 10, 1990 – Oct 2, 1991), which forged the current Constitution of Bulgaria, and to the Thirty-Eighth National Assembly (May 7, 1997 – Apr 19, 2001). Karakachanov served as Caretaker Mayor of Sofia (first mayor of the UDF) from Oct 17, 1990, to Oct 20, 1991.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Karakachanov, Aleksandar 1960 births Living people Union of Democratic Forces (Bulgaria) politicians Mayors of Sofia Sofia University alumni Candidates for President of Bulgaria