2024-07-04 05:19:24
The 13th parliamentary mandate turned out to be fatal for the mining engineer, after the DPS in Plovdiv asked for his resignation, his lobbying political path and prosperous family business began to be highlighted
“You can also ask about my grandmother!” Ramadan Atalay is annoyed by questions from journalists on the sidelines of parliament about his son Revin’s business.
The year is 2001, and shortly before that, in the plenary hall, “Democrats for a Strong Bulgaria”, which are an independent parliamentary group, asked one of the prominent figures of the DPS at the time whether he was not in a conflict of interest as the head of the transport committee, where review and approve changes to the Road Transport Act.
Then the DSB MP Ivan Ivanov, who today leads KEVR – the commission that determines the prices of electricity and gas, gave a detailed explanation of the case with lobbyist changes. The old players in the market, among which is the company “Ivkoni”, in which Revin Ramadan Atalay participates, are allowed to operate with the old buses, and the newly appeared companies will have to operate only with vehicles up to 4 years old.
23 years later, after Atalay was invited by the Plovdiv DPS to resign from the parliament due to poor results in the last elections, media and politicians still reached… the grandmother of the longest-serving MP. Or to the question of how a politician can be a big businessman without participating in any company for the last 30 years.
The 67-year-old mining engineer, who is not among the MPs who are often in the stands, is particularly active when looking at transport business and energy laws. As the chairman of the two portfolio committees in different parliaments, Atalay has information, contacts, levers of influence and, above all, can push through any change. It is
its added value,
highly appreciated by business partners.
At least on first reading as of today, Revin Ramadan Atalay owns or is a partner in over 14 companies.
Osman Oktai announced years ago that the politician is behind one of the largest transport companies – Union Ivkoni, when he was already out of the DPS. It did so after the outbreak of a scandal in 2005, in which Turkish media accused persons from the movement of patronizing the smuggling of goods and people through Bulgarian transport companies.
Without having his own business, Ramadan Atalay is one of the MPs who demonstrate a good standard of living. This is evident from his property declarations – according to them
owns BGN 585,676 in bank accounts
As the origin of the money, he indicated that it came from savings and wages. Allocating such an amount is theoretically possible with a modest lifestyle, given that the MP’s remuneration is currently over BGN 7,000 without allowances for participation in committees and other bonuses.
However, this is far from the case with his son Revin Atalay, who already at the beginning of the century ranked among the major businessmen in the country and developed
impressive business from transport through the real estate market to biofuels, and according to media publications – also in the RES sector
Transport is actually the beginning. In 2002, at only 21 years old, Revin Atalai was already a partner in the company “Ivkoni” of the creators of the mastodon company for the Bulgarian reality “Union Ivkoni” Ivaylo Konstantinov and Svetlozar Lyubenov. At that time, his father Ramadan was a deputy in the 39th National Assembly, vice-chairman of the energy committee and member of the transport committee, and also an introducer of bills related to this branch.
As the main co-sponsor of projects precisely related to road transport, Atalay is regularly attacked for lobbying texts and appointments in the sector. In 2015, his son left Ivkoni.
At more or less the same time, Atalay Sr. – apparently from the archive of the parliament – reduced his interest in transport legislation, emphasizing mainly on energy. In the context of the topic, one cannot help but get the impression that not only Revin, but also people associated with his business ventures have prospered over the years.
This is the case, for example, with the company “Atomtoploproekt”, registered in 2001, focused on “design, analysis and supply of equipment in the field of nuclear energy”.
According to the company registers, Petra Ivanova was a partner in it until 2011, who appears as a person related to Revin Atalay through his company “Prometex 90”. To date, according to the Register of Public Procurement, the company appears in 31 procurements for millions of BGN, with contracting municipalities (among them Sofia), as well as Kozloduy NPP.
The first order won by the company was in 2007 and was for BGN 740,000 for the design of technological plugs specifically for units 5 and 6 of the Kozloduy NPP. At this moment, Ramadan Atalay is the chairman of the energy commission in the 40th National Assembly.
According to the Commercial Register, the son is in and out of different companies depending on the situation in the market and in parliament
For example, he joined “Union Ivkoni” in 2002, and very soon after that the company began to massively win permits for the transport of passengers on the main and most profitable intercity lines in Bulgaria. In just a few years, “Union Ivkoni” became the largest Bulgarian bus carrier and entered the international market. Revin Atalay is no longer a partner in the companies surrounding the bus carrier, but according to the Commercial Register he still has 50% in “Contact Center” OOD – a company established in 2013 to build and operate a call center for the needs of Union Ivkoni’s customers “.
In 2017, together with Blagovest Kodjabashev, he founded the company “Riverside Hotels” OOD, which is the owner of a boutique hotel in Bansko. At the end of last year, however, the company was sold to a Macedonian citizen.
From 2016 onwards, the son’s business was redirected and prospered mainly in the field of energy. Since then, Ramadan Atalay has been first a member, then deputy chairman, and at the same time chairman of the energy committee in various parliaments.
Currently, Revin Atalai has a 50% share in “Prometex – 90” OOD. The company’s activity is focused on the construction of renewable energy capacities and heating and electrical installations.
Owns 20% of “Balkan Gas” OOD. He is also the sole owner of the capital of “Arrat Consulting” EOOD.
He also owns half of “Bas Tex” OOD – a company with diverse activities, established in 2007 in Plovdiv. Her name has appeared in several public contracts in recent years for the supply of specific equipment to scientific institutes and government departments, albeit for relatively small amounts – 20 to 50 thousand BGN.
In other companies, Ramadan Atalay’s son is listed only as a manager or a member of the board of directors. For example, he is a member of the board of the construction company “Stroyproekt Group”, in which the main partner is Todor Slavkov, the son of Ivan Slavkov. But the company has been submitting declarations to the NSI for several years that it does not have any activity.
This brief history of the family’s business prosperity actually describes what Bulgarians hate in our political class – the hypocrisy of standing in parliament and lobbying for businesses in which you have a vested interest.
After all, they started asking about Atalai’s grandmother, after the DPS in Plovdiv demanded his resignation from the parliament on Sunday, apparently not only because of the fewer votes won in the last elections. The 13th parliamentary term will prove to be fatal for one of the long-standing players on the political scene in our country.
According to Yuksel Rasim, the chairman of the DPS in the Plovdiv region, “those who stand” behind Atalay can be counted on the fingers, because “they have not seen his eyes” in the region.
“People want attitude, normality, attention. You can’t surround yourself with two or three people in a certain municipality and wait for a result, there’s no way it’s possible,” adds Rasim. And his comment on the Facebook group “I support Ahmed Dogan”, in which declarations from the municipal structures of the DPS in Asenovgrad, Kuklen, Parvomai and Krichim were shared, that they are against the withdrawal of confidence from Atalay, commented: “These are not the entire organizations, for example, in Asenovgrad, only a few people defend it. As of May Day, there are 4. Among them are the mayor of the village of Voden Muhammed Abet, his deputy and two others,” Rasim points out. He claims that the MP forced his close friend Erdoğan Mehmed to be second in the list, despite the will of the local structure. “And when the leader and the second after him do not draw the leaves, the result cannot be strong. Everywhere the party increased its votes, and in Plovdiv – they fell by half. This is the problem”, states the regional leader of the DPS.
It is expected that this Wednesday the PG of the DPS will pronounce. Atalay himself remains silent three days after the Plovdiv call for his resignation, and it is not clear whether he will leave the parliament or remain as an independent deputy. But the topic of “grandmother”, business and lobbying remains.