site.btaBTA Director General Says Commemorative Plaque of Lyuben Karavelov Unveiled in Belgrade Is Duty Done to Bulgarian Journalism

BTA Director General Kiril Valchev said it befits the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) to initiate the placement of a commemorative plaque of Lyuben Karavelov in Belgrade. This is also duty done to Bulgarian journalism because Lyuben Karavelov is one of its most illustrious names, Valchev said at the unveiling of a plaque of the Bulgarian journalist, writer and revolutionary Lyuben Karavelov, who lived in the Serbian capital. The plaque was unveiled on the initiative of BTA together with the Bulgarian Embassy in Serbia. It was put at the Consular Service of the Bulgarian Embassy in Belgrade.

Valchev said: "We are putting a commemorative plaque in Belgrade where Lyuben Karavelov lived and worked as a journalist for the 190th anniversary of his birth on November 7, 1834."

He added that this is also a good occasion for BTA to announce its readiness to reinstate its correspondent in Belgrade, the leading Bulgarian journalist Teodora Encheva, who reported from that city for Bulgaria's national news agency between 2001 and 2004.

BTA's Director General said the newly unveiled plaque of Lyuben Karavelov is located in Svetogorska Street on the territory of the Consular Service of the Bulgarian Embassy.

Valchev added that the unveiling of the plaque was an occasion to show BTA's future correspondent office in the same street to the news agency's partners, the Union of Bulgarian National Electronic Media. He said: "BTA's home in Belgrade, which will be operational as soon as the administrative procedures under Serbian law are completed with the assistance of the Bulgarian Ambassador to Serbia, Petko Doykov, will also be home to all Bulgarian media."

"This memorial plaque will also remind us of the articles Lyuben Karavelov wrote in Belgrade, such as the one entitled 'What Do We Need?', in which he referred to the need of solidarity between Serbs and Bulgarians, which, in his words, 'existed long ago, but this solidarity was often violated by our rulers, who often made the people hate and fight with their brother just to satisfy their self-love'. In the same article, he even wrote about uniting the two peoples, but also made an appeal which is still a guiding principle in the modern European Union: 'Let each people live as it wishes'."

Earlier in 2024, BTA initiated the placing of a memorial plaque of writer and journalist Aleko Konstantinov at the Faculty of Law of Odesa National University, where Konstantinov studied law between 1881 and 1885, and a plaque of poet and magazine editor Atanas Dalchev in the patio of the Bulgarian Consulate General in Thessaloniki, where Dalchev was born.

Attending the event were Bulgarian Ambassador in Belgrade Petko Doykov; Angel Angelov, Head of the Bilateral Relations General Directorate of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Momchil Raichevski, Director of the Southeast Europe Directorate of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Dimitar Tsanev, Consul General of Bulgaria in Nis; Milen Mitev, Director General of the Bulgarian National Radio and Chairman of the Union of Bulgarian National Electronic Media; Gospodin Yovchev, Chief Operating Officer of bTV Media Group; Hristo Hristov, Executive Director of the Bulgarian National Darik Radio; Anton Andonov, Member of the Board of the Bulgarian National Television; Zoran Djurov, President of the Municipal Council of Tsaribrod; and representatives of the Bulgarian community in Serbia from Belgrade, Tsaribrod, Bosilegrad and Vojvodina.

Bulgarian musician Theodosii Spassov played on the kaval Hubava Si Moya Goro (You are beautiful, my forest) set to a poem by Lyuben Karavelov, and those present joined in with the lyrics.