June 24, (BTA/GNA)- The Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) opened Saturday a National Press Club in Odessa, Ukraine. This is the first permanent bureau of a Bulgarian media outlet in Ukrainian Bessarabia, which is home to some 200,000 ethnic Bulgarians
During the opening event, writer Theodora Dimova presented her new book “Prayer for Ukraine”.
BTA Director General Kiril Valchev and Ioana Krasteva, an editor with the BTA department for Bulgarian Media and Communities Abroad, presented a special English-language edition of the BTA magazine for art and cultre, LIK, dedicated to Bulgarians in Ukraine.
The Director General announced that next year it is in Odessa that BTA plans to organize the World Meeting of Bulgarian Media – in June. “We hope peace will be restored by then and we can go there together. There will be no songs at today’s opening event, unlike the opening of the BTA other press clubs, because days of war are better suited to quiet prayer. That is why we have invited the writer Teodora Dimova to present her new book Prayer for Ukraine for the first time. With her presence she sets an example to all, including Bulgarian leaders, who do not dare to come to the Bulgarians in Ukraine these days for fear of the missiles,” said Valchev.
The press clubs are part of the BTA policy for establishing its presence across Bulgaria, neighbouring countries and countries with historic diaspora.
BTA currently has 23 press clubs in regional capitals, 2 in smaller towns, and 5 outside the country: Bosilegrad (Serbia), Taraclia (Moldova), Skopje (Republic of North Macedonia), Bucharest (Romania) and Ankara (Turkey).
BTA also had a press club on board the first Bulgarian naval research ship Sv. Sv. Kiril i Metodii during its voyage to Antarctica from December 27, 2022 to May 2, 2023.
BTA/GNA