Stoyan Ganev, former Foreign Minister in the Cabinet of the Union of Democratic Forces headed by Prime Minister  Filip Dimitrov (1991- 1992), passed away on July 1 at the age of 57 in a Connecticut-based hospital where he had been treated for cancer.

His death was confirmed by an associate as cited by the Bulgarian Telegraph Agency (BTA).

Ganev died following a three-year battle with cancer.

Stoyan Ganev was born on July 23, 1955 in the Southern Bulgarian town of Pazardzhik.

A jurist by profession, he was one of the founders of the right-wing Union of Democratic Forces (UDF), a MP in the 1990 Grand National Assembly that prepared and adopted the democratic constitution of Bulgaria and a MP in the 36th Parliament.

He was Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister in the government headed by Prime Minister Filip Dimitrov and at the same time he held the office of Chair of the he 47th Session of the United Nations General Assembly for a period of year.

After Dimitrov's Cabinet fell, Ganev retained his post at the UN, but he refused to leave his seat in the Bulgarian Parliament until the Constitutional Court declared the two posts incompatible, forcing him to leave Parliament.

Over the next 10 years, Ganev lived in the US, only to return to Bulgaria in 2001 to head the Cabinet of Bulgaria's former Tsar and Prime Minister, Simeon Saxe-Coburg for a period of less than a year, after which he resigned and returned to the US.

Ganev's last visit to Bulgaria was several months ago, according to reports of mediapool.bg.