Foreign ambassadors among those honoured on Day of Sofia
Eric Rubin, former United States ambassador to Bulgaria, was among those named an honorary citizen of Bulgaria’s capital city on September 17, the annual Day of Sofia.
Rubin, a career diplomat, was US ambassador in Sofia from 2016 to mid-2019. Before his departure, Bulgaria conferred on him its highest state honour, the Stara Planina first degree.
The city announced that it had conferred Badges of Honour on Emma Hopkins, the current British ambassador, and on Irit Lilian, the former ambassador of the State of Israel.
In a message on Twitter, Hopkins said: “Happy day of Sofia! Today I had the privilege of receiving the honorary sign of Sofia Municipality from Mayor (Yordanka Fandukova). This signifies the great cooperation between @UKinBulgaria and the municipality. After 4 years in Sofia I feel like it is my second home”.
Others named as honorary citizens of Sofia were civil engineer Delcho Gyorov, actor Iriney Konstantinov, director Bina Haralampieva, composer Stefan Dimitrov, musician Vassil Georgiev (much better known as Vasko the Patch), mountaineer and chief assistant at the Vassil Levski National Sport Academy Doychin Boyanov, Olympic rowing champion Zdravka Yordanova, violinist Vesko Eshkenazi, academic Georgi Minchev and mountaineer Nikolai Petkov.
Badges of honour also went to Sofia City Art Gallery director Adelina Fileva, Sofia Wind Orchestra director Yuli Damyanov, historian Mihail Gruev, historian Georgi Nikolov, artist Hristo Alexiev, historian Nikolai Zhechev, director Nikolai Georgiev and the head of emergency assistance at Sofia municipality, Krassimir Dimitrov.
(Photo of Eric Rubin: US embassy)
