site.btaMemorial Plaque to Atanas and Lyubomir Dalchev Unveiled in Thessaloniki

A memorial plaque to Bulgarian poet Atanas Dalchev and his brother Lyubomir Dalchev was unveiled Sunday at the Bulgarian Consulate General in Thessaloniki, their hometown. The plaque was placed at the initiative of the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) and the Consulate General. During the event, the June issue of the Bulgarian News Agency's LIK magazine, dedicated to Atanas Dalchev's 120th birth anniversary, was also presented.

Among those present at Sunday's event were: BTA Director General Kiril Valchev; Bulgarian Consul General in Thessaloniki Anton Markov; Victoria Dalcheva, daughter of Atanas Dalchev, and other members of the family; Prof. Huseyin Mevsim, professor of Bulgarian language and literature at Ankara University and author of the book Atanas Dalchev in Thessaloniki and Istanbul; Prof. Mihail Nedelchev, professor and researcher in theory and history of literature at New Bulgarian University in Sofia, editor of the two-volume book of Atanas Dalchev's works published by Bulgarian Writer in 1975, and author and editor of studies on the poet; Boyko Vassilev, journalist and presenter on Bulgarian National Television; Assoc. Prof. Georgi Lozanov, Editor-in-Chief of LIK magazine; and Iriney Konstantinov, actor with recordings of Atanas Dalchev's poems and Sofia Theatre Director. 

In his speech, BTA Director General Valchev said that Bulgaria should put signs around the world in places with traces of notable Bulgarians. "This is part of the protection and promotion of Bulgarian traditions and culture, as well as the provision of information about the lives of Bulgarians living outside the borders of Bulgaria - two principles on which the BTA Act obliges Bulgaria's national news agency to base its activities. For the national holiday on March 3 this year, BTA together with the Consulate General in Odesa placed a memorial plaque to Aleko Konstantinov at the Law Faculty of Odesa University, where Konstantinov graduated, on the occasion of his 160th birth anniversary. BTA dedicated an issue of LIK magazine to that anniversary as well, after organizing Aleko Today talks at the BTA national press clubs across Bulgaria throughout the past year. There are still many places in the world, such as Thessaloniki and Odesa, where the vicissitudes of history should not erase the traces of notable Bulgarians, because placing memorial signs for them can only make us closer to the countries where these places are," Valchev noted. 

In Valchev's words, the school keeps the memory of the traces of the Bulgarians around the world better than any paper or stone. That is why on the traditional date of the first day of school in Bulgaria, September 15, the issue of LIK magazine about Atanas Dalchev in Thessaloniki is presented and the memorial plaque to him and his brother Lyubomir Dalchev is unveiled at the Consulate General of Bulgaria in the city.

"It is the Bulgarian schools at all times everywhere in the world - including in Thessaloniki, from the former Bulgarian Men's High School of Thessaloniki, where Hristo Dalchev - the father of Atanas and Lyubomir Dalchev - was a teacher alongside Konstantin Velichkov, and Andrey Lyapchev, Gotse Delchev, Damyan Gruev, Ivan Mikhailov, and Todor Alexandrov were among its graduates, to the present Bulgarian Sunday School at the Bulgarian Zograf Monastery on Mount Athos - are the gateway to Bulgarian culture and especially to those artists like the Dalchevs who give a bird's eye view of what is valuable in life. Without the knowledge of them from the lessons in Bulgarian schools, where the 'undeveloped soul has always been strengthened', as said by Atanas Dalchev in Destiny, the children of Bulgarians would have become owners of Bulgaria like those owners of the house with the walled door to the balcony in Atanas Dalchev's poem The Balcony, who did not even suspect that their house had a balcony", said Valchev.

"That is why BTA started to consistently promote the activities of Bulgarian schools, including those around the world, in the special BG World column  with news from Bulgarians outside the borders of Bulgaria. And from this news we see every day how right Atanas Dalchev was in his poem To the Motherland, from which there is a couplet on the memorial plaque in Thessaloniki: that Bulgarians, regardless of when and in whose land they have been born, are united in one destiny", Valchev said. 

Bulgarian Consul General in Thessaloniki Anton Markov said: "We have managed to immortalize individuals of importance to our history." In his speech, Markov also said: "I am very excited about today because it is a very good day for the Consulate General. A few months ago, when we met with Mr. Kiril Valchev, Director General of the Bulgarian News Agency, we decided that we should do something for the Bulgarians in Thessaloniki - to immortalize our individuals who are important not only for the history of Bulgaria but also of Greece. We decided and started this event as a joke. We wanted it to happen for Atanas Dalchev's birthday, but for objective reasons we couldn't. Then we gave ourselves a deadline that we would do it by September 15. I am happy that we succeeded. I would like to thank the relatives, the Dalchev family and all the special guests who have come here for this very important event. I am sure that the Bulgarian News Agency and the Consulate General in Thessaloniki will continue to do only good deeds in the future."

Victoria Dalcheva, daughter of poet Atanas Dalchev, said Atanas and Lyubomir Dalchev lived their lives honestly and as good people, as well as devoted to both arts - poetry and sculpture and fine art. "We are very excited about this, albeit symbolic, return of the two brothers from Thessaloniki - Lyubomir and Atanas Dalchev - to their birthplace. The place where they were born and where their father taught them to swim before they could walk. I spent a long time with both brothers, who were very connected to each other," Dalcheva said.

"I will also draw a parallel with the third brother, who was an architect but was born in Constantinople and is therefore absent from the plaque. This is also a tribute to their father, who all the time worked for the cultural, educational and economic interests of the Bulgarians from Macedonia and Thrace, and when he was a teacher, and when he was a lawyer for the people of VMRO, and when he became a national representative in the Turkish parliament," she also said.

Prof. Mihail Nedelchev, professor and researcher in theory and history of literature at New Bulgarian University in Sofia, and author and editor of studies on poet Atanas Dalchev, said that the memory of Atanas Dalchev has always been alive. Prof. Nedelchev described Atanas Dalchev as a personality he did not dare to approach because of the great respect he had for him. "It is wonderful that today in Thessaloniki this plaque brings us together. It is wonderful that we are awakening the memory of these two great Bulgarians. They lived in Thessaloniki, they went to Constantinople. I am very happy to be present today at this celebration," said Prof. Nedelchev. 

Assoc. Prof. Georgi Lozanov, Editor-in-Chief of LIK magazine, said: "Our identity is threatened by nothing but our forgetfulness." "There are times when the nation and national identity are threatened. Due to historical circumstances it can be melted down, and there are despotic forces that try to destroy it in one way or another. We are very fortunate to live in a period when our national identity is not under threat. We should not succumb to the insinuations that want to shape it as some kind of militant identity against someone else," said Assoc. Prof. Lozanov.

"When a national identity is not threatened, it becomes a cultural identity. And it is carried to the greatest extent by the great figures in culture. That is why the true worship of the national is the worship of the great cultural figures on whom our identity rests. Here are two such artists who stand on this plaque - Atanas and Lyubomir Dalchev," he added. 

Boyko Vassilev, journalist and presenter on Bulgarian National Television, said that Atanas Dalchev is a teacher not only of poetry, of great values and exceptional mastery, but also of social behaviour. "I am extremely excited. Apart from being in one of my favourite cities, I am touching the most important topic in my life - the relationship between the European and the Bulgarian, between the world and the native. What greater proof of this connection than the personality of Atanas Dalchev", said Vassilev. 

"This is the man who made no public compromise. This is the man who chose to remain silent rather than to get hung up on nonsense, lies, propaganda and everything else. This is the author of the famous remark that Bulgaria has many talents but no characters. I have always thought that the strength that Dalchev had was what united the Bulgarians from Macedonia - the stubbornness, the character, the strength. We should feel this strength today," the journalist added. 

Actor Iriney Konstantinov read poems by Atanas Dalchev. Konstantinov, who is the Director of Sofia Theatre and an actor with many recordings of Atanas Dalchev's poems, read the works Prayer, To the Motherland, and Cuckoo. 

On behalf of the Bulgarian News Agency, coins dedicated to the 125th anniversary of the BTA were presented to Consul General Markov Victoria Dalcheva. 

Poet and translator Atanas Dalchev was born in Thessaloniki on June 12, 1904. His brother, artist and sculptor Lyubomir Dalchev, was born on December 27, 1902 in one of the then Bulgarian neighborhoods of Thessaloniki. 

Huseyin Mevsim, professor of Bulgarian language and literature at Ankara University, said that the Balkan artist, before being known worldwide, must first be known by his neighbours. He is the author of the book "Atanas Dalchev in Thessaloniki and Istanbul". 

"The history of literature is primarily concerned with the Chronos - the time in which an artist was born and lived. Equally important is the topoi - the place where an artist was born. If today we talk about the phenomenon of Atanas Dalchev, or Lyubomir Dalchev, I think that they owe much of this legacy to Thessaloniki - the city where they were born. The city where Atanas Dalchev spent his first four years, before he went to Constantinople or Istanbul, to spend four years there as well," he added and stressed that he aims to track down the exact location of Atanas Dalchev's birth house, which has not been preserved to this day.