By Simona Dimitrova, 24 hours Daily, Sofia, Bulgaria

 

"It was my second or third meeting with King Simeon II in Madrid, with whom we became close friends after first meeting him in 1992, and since then, I have interviewed him several times before. I was telling him what was going on in our country what are the news, how is doing what and also – how impatient people are waiting for him. He was listening very carefully while we were walking down Gran Via Boulevard in Madrid, and I couldn't believe how it was possible to walk peacefully with such a famous man in the center of the city and no one, absolutely no one, paid special attention to him.

We reached the five-star Le Meridien Hotel, where an important delegation of tour operators from Bulgaria was waiting for us for lunch. The King asked me to invite them for this particular lunch and all they were participating in the famous touristic Futur Show, happening every January in the Spanish capital for years.  

And since a lot of people were coming in and out in front of the main entrance, I did not even pay attention to a young man who somehow naturally joined us, and somewhere in the middle of huge lobby, King Simeon turned to me and almost whispered in a quite typical for him style:

"Behar, this is my son, the eldest son, Kardam."

Smiling and friendly, Kardam gave me a hand and started straight in Spanish, and when he realized that it was not my language, he immediately turned to English."

This acquaintance of journalist, diplomat, and PR expert Maxim Behar with the Bulgarian Crown Prince Kardam marks the beginning of their great friendship, from which the businessman keeps cherished memories.

Some of them shared with "24 Hours" on the occasion of the transfer of the remains of the late son of HRM King Simeon II from Spain to Bulgaria, who was buried in the royal family tomb in the crypt of the Orthodox chapel in the Royal Castle of Vrana, nearby capital Sofia."

The ceremony was held in a close family circle on the eve of the 9th anniversary of the death of Kardam, who was also known as the Prince of Turnovo. He died on April 7, 2015, after seven years in a waking coma. In a crash on August 15, 2008, Kardam and his wife, Princess Miriam de Ungria, were seriously injured after their car flew off the road and crashed into a tree. Both were hospitalized, but Kardam suffered a severe brain injury that failed to heal.

At the lunch in Le Meridien, Maxim Behar and Crown Prince Kardam sat beside each other and had a more than interesting conversation.

"Kardam was very positive, very open-minded, and quite knowledgeable, and

 

I easily started convincing him to come and visit Bulgaria

as soon as possible, as his father did recently," the PR expert and diplomat, former journalist Behar recalls. "He told me he couldn't wait for that to happen."

Some years later, the Crown Prince kept his promise and decided to visit Bulgaria for the first time.

"It was at the end of the summer of 1998, sometimes very early in the morning, The King called me and apologizing for the early hour, that it was not yet 7 a.m., kindly invited me for breakfast in his apartment at the then Kempinski Sofia Hotel," Behar said. He had not yet decided to enter politics, and he did not have access to the Royal Palace in Vrana, so he naturally lived in a hotel. During this early morning meeting, The King politely asked me: "Behar, the Prince, Kardam.  was very much impressed by what you were telling  him about Bulgaria and decided to come and join the Rozhen Business Forum organized by the President Peter Stoyanov and meet Bulgarian businessmen. May I ask you to be with him all the time…

You know everyone, and he knows nobody."

The King said.

I immediately agreed and was really delighted. I also agreed with The King’s idea wait for Kardam at the fork for Pamporovo resort in Rhodopi Mountain and together, we would go with him and his wife, Princess Miriam de Ungria, to Rozhen and then on a tour over Bulgaria for a week."

Maxim Behar knew Kardam but not his wife, Miriam. It took only minutes for him to be convinced that she is a great and extremely intelligent and knowledgeable person. And life and the events after made them family friends – as he said -  forever.

"A large big car parked next to mine very modest Toyota, and Boyko Borisov (the future Prime Minister of Bulgaria – editors remark) first got out of it," the journalist points out. - The King had sent his most trusted bodyguard to bring Kardam to Pamporovo and left him in the hands of another trusted guard from Borisov’s security company, "Ipon" – Lubo.

Thus began our journey through Bulgaria with Kardam and Miriam and

also our eternal friendship.

The first evening, we stayed at the most luxurious hotel in Pamporovo at that time, which was owned by Vetko and Marinela Arabadzhiev. They joined us for a late drink in the hotel bar even. Before that, we dined at a traditional and very old-fashioned restaurant, where both Kardam and Miriam melted with pleasure, ordering Shopska salads (traditional Bulgarian tomato, peppers, and cheese salat) and kebabcheta (local meat sausages) to their heart's content and enjoying the Nestinar (on fire) dances. After the late drink in the bar, however, as we were already heading towards our rooms, I gently pulled Kardam aside and told him quite straight:

"Your Highness, this is absolutely unacceptable.

We've been together all day; people on the streets were greeting you, also here in the hotel, and earlier in the restaurant, they stop by you, but you haven't uttered a single word in Bulgarian. Can you really continue like this? At least a 'Good morning' or 'How are you' or 'Nice to meet you' you must tell them in Bulgarian language."

Despite the dimness of the hotel reception, I saw Kardam blush and become flustered when I handed him a sheet of paper with around 50 phrases in English and their Bulgarian meanings. He nodded as I said sternly, "This is your homework for breakfast tomorrow; then we'll examine you if you don’t mind."

Meanwhile, next to us was a friendly family of both The King and myself, whom we coincidentally met on the way to the hotel - the unforgettable Dimi Panitza and his wife, Ivonne. Dimi waited for Kardam and Miriam to leave to their room upstairs and then turned quite sharply to me: "Maxime - that's what he always called me, and in French, with the emphasis on 'i'."

"Hey, be a bit more careful; this is the heir to the Bulgarian throne.

Be careful, indeed! You can't command him like that!" he warned me. I responded sharply as well, explaining that for The Prince is obligatory to know at least a hundred Bulgarian words precisely because he is the heir. If anyone perceives his ignorance as disrespect, it will reflect badly on the King’s reputation."

The American journalist of Bulgarian origin, Dimi Panitza, left slightly offended and upset, but not Prince Kardam.

"In the morning, he surprisingly had learned everything, and with slight errors and a funny accent, he still managed to convey understandable phrases, which he significantly improved over the following days as we met hundreds of people," noted Behar. "His presentation at the business discussion at the Rozhen Forum was brilliant, and he enthusiastically talked about Bulgaria to the world as an excellent investment destination. He already held a high position in the management of the huge corporation 'Telefonica,' and until his last moment, he never stopped praising and talking about our country."

"The next visit of Prince Kardam to Bulgaria was when King Simeon II won the elections and became the Prime Minister of Bulgaria on July 24, 2001.

"I was talking to the King in his room in the Council of Ministers in the evening, exactly on the day he took office. When I turned to him with the usual 'Good evening, Your Majesty' upon entering, he looked at me sternly and said,

'Behar, forget that; while I'm here, you must address me as Mr. Prime Minister,"

not else at any price, recalled the businessman."

"But on winning the elections in 2001, all his children were in the hall at the National Congress Center (NDK). So, I suggested to Kardam and Miriam the next day to take them for a visit to the beautiful village of Brestovitza near Plovdiv, to see the cellar of our good friend Ivan Todorov, to taste his amber wines, and to listen to the wonderful folk songs of his wife, Petya.

We had a wonderful time filled with joy and an incredible mood all day. And as we were in the cellar courtyard, suddenly a group of Spanish tourists burst in, surrounded our table, and began asking Kardam and Miriam for photos and autographs."

"We were quite surprised - in the middle of summer, Spanish people in Bulgaria, and in the village of Brestovitza… Come one! Not even possible! Kardam stood up and posed for photos with everyone, and when the photo session ended, he turned to an elderly Spanish woman, visibly the leader of the tourists, and asked her what they were doing there.

On her turn, she was surprised

and told him, 'Ask your father, The King. He has been appearing on all Spanish television channels for years, talking about how we should come to Bulgaria. And here we are, and we don't regret it at all, so tell your father that,' she said."

A few years later, in the summer of 2005, the Maxim Behar was supposed to go to Madrid for a business meeting, and by chance, Queen Margarita, at the time the wife of the Bulgarian Prime Minister,  was sitting next to him in a regular economy class in the airplane. 'No one was waiting for her at the airport; there was no Bulgarian Embassy staff even to kiss her hand or provide her with a diplomatic Mercedes,' noted Behar. 'I had business partners waiting for me and offered her transportation to their house in Madrid, but she kindly refused with thanks and took a taxi cab.

Minutes later, while I was on my way to my hotel in the center of Madrid,

Kardam called me and gently scolded me

for not informing him in advance of my arrival, and without even hearing explanations, almost ordered me: 'Tomorrow my friend, at 9 a.m. - breakfast at the "Gijon" café. I'm waiting for you, and I don't want you to say no, please."

Naturally, I immediately postponed all my meetings, and when I arrived at the legendary "Grand Café de Gijon," an entire table was occupied by a lively group, with Kardam in the center. 'Here he is, here he is,' he pointed at me and continued loudly in English, 'Now my friend Max will tell you about Bulgaria, the most wonderful place for investments and vacations in the world.'

Shortly after, more of his friends arrived; he had invited them so I could tell them about our country and spark their interest. The conversation in the Café seemed endless, and my flight to Barcelona, my next destination on this trip, was around lunchtime. Nobody at the table even thought about letting me go to pick up my luggage from the hotel. Then I made a decision - I called the reception in my hotel, explained the situation, and told them that someone else would pick up my luggage and bring it to the airport for me. My cousin Josiff Davidov, a legendary journalist who still lives in Spain, luckily did this for me, so I caught the Barcelona flight in the least possible minute

full of energy and trust

after this memorable and unforgettable meeting.

Thus, with Kardam's help, I persuaded another dozen investors to come to Bulgaria and saved my trip. That was truly a lifetime, unforgettable day. Both

Kardam and I almost stepped upon the chairs at the end of a long table in the historical "Gijon," they were persuading about twenty Spaniards how Bulgaria is the most beautiful country in the world while they were making calls on their mobile phones and inviting more and more of their friends to come."

Unfortunately, the next meeting between the journalist and the Crown Prince is their last, during which they spoke freely.

At the end of 2007, just before Christmas, Kardam called me saying they were coming only for Christmas Eve to Tsarska Bistritsa (the Summer Residence of The King) to see the family and he would be thrilled to meet me at the airport the next day before flying back to Madrid," Behar recalled. "So,

our Christmas lunch was with a few sandwiches

 and pieces of banitsa (local pancakes) on December 25th in the VIP lounge of Sofia Airport, together with Kardam, Miriam, and the still small boys, their two sons, Boris and Beltran, running around us.

Just eight months later, Behar walked into his office and read the message just received from friends in Madrid about the cruel accident suffered by Prince Kardam and his wife. Dark thoughts flooded his mind. He remembered their Christmas meeting at the airport, which could have been their last. He might never see the smile of the heir to the throne again.

"Kardam never regained consciousness after that sad day of August 15, 2008," the PR expert shared sorrowfully. "At the end of 2014, I was in Spain and decided to spend New Year's Day with him, Miriam, and the boys at their Summer house. He was in a coma, in a wheelchair. Throughout that January 1st, I talked to him and shared stories about our mutual acquaintances and friends. I brought him many gifts, including an icon from our cathedral, 'Alexander Nevsky,' which was especially blessed for him by the chief most pro of the Cathedral. And to this day, I am 1000% sure he heard and understood absolutely everything. He only reacted with his eyelids, and the only person who later agreed with me when I told this story was his father, the King.

'Behar,' The KInd said, 'I am also certain that he understands us. Many people don't believe it, but I feel it. Thank you for telling me,'" Behar concluded.

 

His death was expected but also very painful.

Throughout all these years in a coma, we all believed that a miracle could happen, and in a way, it did – Kardam's body returned to Bulgaria.

When we honored him in the beautiful chapel at the Royal Palace of Vrana a week ago, I hugged the King and said, 'Now we will be able to come more often and talk to him here, in our native land, which he loved so much.'

Kardam indeed carried Bulgaria in his heart.

Rarely have I seen someone speak so fervently and with such love for our country, and as you know well, I have met tens of thousands of people outside Bulgaria," Behar reflected. I will never forget how, at one of our meetings, many years after we met in the winter resort of Pamporovo, he once pulled out a slightly crumpled piece of paper from his pocket, showed it to me, and said, 'It's always with me when I know I'll be meeting you.' It was that my 'dictionary'  which I gave to him in 1998 with the 50 important phrases, slightly worn but neatly underlined and remembered."

Over the years, after the death of Prince Kardam, Maxim Behar continues to meet with his wife, Princess Miriam de Ungria, and their children, Boris and Beltran, at various places and for different occasions.

"We always talked about Kardam,"

the diplomat Behar pointed out. "Our most exciting meeting was on December 2, 2022, when Kardam was supposed to turn 60. My wife Veneta and I decided to celebrate his birthday in London with Boris and Beltran while Miriam was in Madrid at the same time. We had a wonderful, long, solemn lunch at an exceptionally fine restaurant in Kensington. We talked a lot about their father, and we spoke with Miriam. All the time, I was sure that he, Kardam, somehow from somewhere unknown and through mysterious paths, knew about all of this and was pleased. Just as he is pleased to be back in Bulgaria. And so are we."

Forever, Maxim Behar will carry The Prince in his heart and speak with the same love for him as he does now. He remains one of the closest and deeply committed friends to Kardam’s family and also to the Royal family.

 

In the photo: Maxim Behar with Prince Kardam and Princess Miriam de Ungria in the centre of Smolyan city during their first visit to Bulgaria in the summer of 1998.