site.btaUPDATED BTA Opens New Press Club in Kyustendil
Bulgaria opened a new press club in the southern town of Kyustendil on Thursday. "BTA's new home in Kyustendil is an example of how we can build on what has been achieved before us," BTA Director General Kiril Valchev said in his opening remarks.
"This is an important reminder in these days when we see destruction - not only of what has been created in older times, under a different system of government and by previous power-holders - but of what was built earlier the same day, as it were," said Valchev.
The BTA reporters in Kyustendil worked from home until April 3, 2014, when the news agency opened a small office in town.
The new office occupies an entire house that is close to the Vladimir "The Master" Dimitrov Art Gallery and the museum-house of Dimitar Peshev, the deputy Parliament chair who played a crucial role for the rescue of Bulgarian Jews from the Nazi death camps.
BTA tripled the number of its press clubs and now has one in each of the regional capitals except for Montana (where an opening is upcoming), as well as in four large cities that are not regional capitals, six abroad, one on the Antarctic Island of Livingston where Bulgaria has a research base, and on the naval research vessel Sv. Sv. Kiril i Metodii.
Kyustendil Mayor Ognyan Atanassov said at the opening event: "The Press Club is housed in a building that is emblematic, as it has played a peculiar role in history. This is the house of Dona Kovacheva, where she hosted revolutionaries who fought for the freedom of Macedonia. The house was the headquarters of the revolutionary Todor Aleksandrov [1881-1924, leader of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization]. There were caches of weapons here. Information is the weapon today. This house finally found its right owner. Over the years it has been managed by various organizations. BTA was the first to invest in the building maintenance."
Bulgarian Ambassador to North Macedonia Angel Angelov said: "I used to work at BTA, in the Balkan editorial office, so it is an honour and a pleasure to be here. It is important that this National Press Club in Kyustendil is active. On the one hand, it lies on Pan-European Corridor VIII, and on the other hand it is near the borders with Serbia and the Republic of North Macedonia. There is movement between Bulgaria and the two countries. There are Macedonian tourists in Kyustendil, there is a Macedonian shop in the town, and people from Bosilegrad often visit Kyustendil for medical treatment or shopping.
The opening of the press club was attended by local and state officials, as well as by representatives of cultural institutions in Kyustendil.
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