Solomon Isaac Passy (Bulgarian: Соломон Исак Паси; born 22 December 1956) is a Bulgarian scientist and politician. According to Alpha Research, he is the most recognized Bulgarian of Jewish descent.[1]
Currently, he is Chief Governance & Compliance Officer in EPIX.AI,[2] a company working on improving human health and extending people’s healthspan through epigenetics and artificial intelligence, and Chairman of the Advisory board of M3 Communications,[3] a professional public relations and marketing company headed by Maxim Behar.
Career and politics
The Berlin Wall era
In the 1980s Passy was an activist of various opposition, underground and ecological movements opposing communism, including in defense of the oppressed Turkish minority in Bulgaria; in solidarity with them he assumed the Turkish pseudonym Syuleyman Tehlikeli when publishing mathematical papers and graphics art in the 1980s.[4]
He attended the Solidarity Trade Union Congress in Gdansk in the fall of 1981. In May 1987 Passy was the co-host-organizer of the first public opposition happening in Sofia University.[5] After his efforts in communist Bulgaria, in 1990-1991, as MP in the Grand National Assembly, he co-authored the first democratic Constitution of the Republic of Bulgaria and tabled the bill for abolishment of the death penalty in Bulgaria.
Atlantic and European integration
In August 1990 Passy, as a Member of Parliament, appealed to the Grand National Assembly and drafted the Parliamentary Bill for the withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact and Bulgaria's accession to NATO.
Passy and others founded the ACB, which was succeeded by dozens of other Atlantic NGOs in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), Asia, and Africa. The logo of the Atlantic Club – the NATO compass rose encircled by the 12 EU stars – became the symbol of unity of the Euro-Atlantic area adopted by number of the emerging Atlantic NGOs.
In November 1990 the ACB founders led by Passy made the first visit of an East European delegation to NATO HQ by invitation of NATO SG Manfred Wörner and the US Permanent Representative to NATO Ambassador William Taft IV, who supported the Bulgarian idea to establish ACB on a Warsaw Pact territory.[6] Subsequently, the Bulgarian know-how was replicated in a joint statement by US Secretary of State James Baker and the Foreign Minister of Germany Hans-Dietrich Genscher in May 1991 who advocated the creation of Atlantic councils in other Warsaw Pact countries.[7]
In June 1991 NATO SG Manfred Wörner agreed to be "kidnapped" in Sofia by Solomon Passy in his East German car Trabant.[8][9] Manfred Wörner became a supporter of ACB and personally endorsed in 1992 ACB's accession as first CEE member of ATA. ACB erected a monument in Sofia of him in 1996, which was inaugurated by his successor Javier Solana.[10]
For 14 years Solomon Passy worked on Bulgaria's membership of NATO, which was finalized on 2 April 2004 when Minister Passy raised the Bulgarian flag over NATO HQ in Brussels.[11]
Passy co-authored the bill concerning Bulgaria’s membership in the EU, adopted by the Grand National Assembly in December 1990. He negotiated as Foreign Minister the EU Accession Treaty of Bulgaria and signed it on 25 April 2005.[12] The Bulgarian Cyrillic alphabet was adopted as the third official EU alphabet.[13]
In September 1990 Passy became co-author of the draft of the Parliamentary Bill for Bulgaria's participation in the US-led coalition that liberated Kuwait from Saddam Hussein's occupation.[14]
Passy proposed in 2003 the creation of joint US-Bulgarian defense facilities in Bulgaria - a project he ratified in 2006 as Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Parliamentary Committee.
Globalization of Bulgaria
ACB is the first non-NATO NGO invited to join the Atlantic Treaty Association, in 1992. Passy is the first non-NATO Vice-President of ATA (1996-1999). Bulgaria is the first non-NATO member state to host an ATA General Assembly (1997).
Passy and ACB in November 1994, invited Pope John Paul II to Bulgaria.[15] The visit, the first papal visit to Bulgaria, took place in 2002 when Passy was Foreign Minister; the Pope announced in Sofia that Bulgaria – contrary to widespread allegations — had not been involved in the 1981 attempt to assassinate the Pope.[16]
Passy co-chaired the host committee of the ACB-Tibetan Friendship Society for the visit to Bulgaria of the XIV Dalai Lama of Tibet in October 1991.[17][18][19]
Passy's ACB hosted Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in 1993,[20] subsequent dialogue between the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and the Vatican eventually made the Bulgarian visit of Pope John Paul II possible.
In 1993 Passy and ACB were involved in establishing the Bulgarian Antarctic Institute and the annual Antarctic Expedition as part of the national Antarctic Program. Bulgaria became the 28th Consultative Party to the Antarctic Treaty in 1998.
In 1999 Passy became co-chair of the Host Committee for the first US presidential visit to Bulgaria, by President Bill Clinton.[21][22][23]
Scientific
Solomon Passy holds a PhD (1985) and MSc (1979) in Mathematical Logic and Computer Sciences from Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski.
He has published dozens of academic papers on mathematical logic and computer sciences. The Combinatory Dynamic Logic (Modal Logic with Nominals) was developed in Bulgaria by Solomon Passy and Professors Tinko Tinchev, George Gargov, Valentin Goranko, and Dimitar Vakarelov.[24] Solomon’s scientific publications from 1980-1990s are widely cited.[25]
Mr. Passy is the initiator of the STEAM and Space festival “HELLO SPACE | Bulgaria Calling!”. Its first edition was in 2021, and since then, it has become an annual event. The initiative is organized by the STEAM & Space Cluster and coordinated by the Atlantic Club of Bulgaria.[26]
In the first edition of the festival, a live chat with two astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) – Mark Vande Hei (NASA) and Thomas Pesquet (ESA) took place, while in 2022 there was a live connection with the first astronaut mother from NASA - Anna Lee Fisher. In 2023 Bulgarian students and children had the opportunity to watch a live presentation from Dr. Swati Mohan, an aerospace engineer who also served as the Guidance and Controls Operations Lead for the NASA Mars 2020 mission.
The festival includes diverse activities, such as a visual flight by Nikolay Kalaydzhiey, a world record holder, a virtual tour of CERN, demonstrations by the Special Operations Forces and inspirational lectures by scientists and experts, workshops, interactive exhibits, and scientific experiments on open air.[27]
The project's primary goal is to inspire young minds, fostering their curiosity in STEM fields and space exploration, while also nurturing their artistic talents by hosting a range of competitions with prizes.[28]
Views
Arab-Israeli conflict
Solomon Passy is Jewish and expresses pride in his personal relations with four Israeli presidents.[29] In 2003, Passy canceled a scheduled meeting with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat at Israel's request.[30]
In 2012, Passy proposed Israel join both NATO and EU.[29] In 2013, Passy urged the West to conduct military strikes against Syria "even in the absence of agreement at the UN Security Council."[31]
Personal life
Solomon and Gergana Passy have four children from their three marriages. The Passys run a consulting business.
