site.btaUPDATED BTA Opens National Press Club in Troyan

The Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) opened a new National Press Club in Troyan. It adds up to a total of 41 press clubs that the national news agency has in and out of the country. The Friday opening event coincided with one of the largest local culture events, the Plum Festival.

The opening of the new press club is part of the BTA policy under the brand "BTA National Press Club". They are a preferred place for communication between the media and representatives of business, politics, culture and sports. The press clubs host news conferences, discussions, exhibitions and other events.

BTA has press clubs in all of the 28 regional capitals.

Troyan becomes the fifth town which is not a regional capital, and which has a BTA press club. The other four are Kazanlak, Petrich, Samokov and Svishtov.

Outside the country, BTA has press offices in Ankara (Turkey), Bosilegrad (Serbia), Bucharest (Romania), Odesa (Ukraine), Skopje (Republic of North Macedonia) and Taraclia (Moldova) and at the Bulgarian base on Livingston Island in Antarctica. BTA also unveiled a non-permanent press club on board the first Bulgarian naval research ship Sv. Sv. Kiril i Metodii.

"The opening of a national press club in Troyan can be placed among the contemporary arguments supporting an optimistic theory of the Bulgarian nation, which a man born here on October 13, 1907, Ivan Hadzhiyski, discovered in the past during the Bulgarian Revival, when - as he wrote in his book Optimistic Theory of the Bulgarian Nation - the words "Bulgarian", "Bulgarian way", "Bulgarian production" expressed then the national upsurge, national pride and honor," said at the opening event BTA Director General Kiril Valchev. 

"During the time of Ivan Hadzhiyski, who died in World War II at the age of just 36 on Mount Visoka Cuka in Serbia on October 4, 1944, and whose 80th anniversary will be commemorated, the words 'Bulgarian' and 'Bulgarian way' were already commonly used, as they are nowadays, as - in his words - 'the most derogatory appellations ... in the black mirrior of our self-underestimation'. 'Bulgarian way' (a congress, a cultural event, a state, a public enterprise, etc.) is a job that is ill-considered or ill-thought-out, poorly commenced, without leadership or ineptly managed, which, as if as a rule, ends in scandal, only to serve as a shameful registration of its unfortunate heroes," Hadzhiiski wrote," the BTA director general said. 

Kiril Valchev added that the opening of a BTA national press club in Troyan, not far from Ivan Hadjiyski's native house-museum, is a modern refutation of Bulgarian self-depreciation, because it is a work that is well thought out, well started and well managed with the help of Troyan Mayor Donka Mihailova and the Troyan Municipal Council. 

One-third of the BTA press clubs were built over 18 years from 2003 and the other two-thirds were created only in the past three years, said the BTA Director General.

He explained that the meaning of having this extensive network of press clubs is "to make this country visible from all aides". "This can't be achieved only with news from the offices in the Bulgarian capital and several foreign capitals, and the largest cities in Bulgaria," Valchev added.

In his words, this network of correspondents with offices, equipment and electric cars, allows "us to take the Bulgarian news out of the capsule of a few institutions in central Sofia, from which often fly arrows of pessimism, and to show the efforts of the entire Bulgarian people - again in the words of Hadzhiyski - to unleash their hidden strengths and to create for themselves in the new history a place and a destiny that their aspirations, their ambitions, their hard work and their beautiful land deserve". 

Valchev said that beginning in September, BTA starts using its network of local offices to cover on a regular basis the sittings of all municipal councils in Bulgaria.

He pointed out the arguments for the permanent presence of BTA in Troyan. "The population of the town is 17,000 people, but together with the other settlements in the municipality and close to it, it is almost twice as many, but with its location at the foot of the Balkan Range, it is more than 30 kilometres away from the regional capital Lovech. The economy of Troyan Municipality is leading not only in the Lovech region, but also with industry of national importance in the field of woodworking, pharmacy, electrical engineering, textiles, etc. Together with Oreshak, Troyan is a leading tourist centre of the Balkan Range. The town has an important cultural and historical significance, as the Troyan Monastery is one of the three stauropypial monasteries and spiritual centres of Bulgaria." 

Troyan Mayor Donka Mihailova congratulated the attendees with the beginning of the Bulgarian Plum Festival and with the opening of the BTA National Press Club. "We appreciate the fact that Troyan is among the towns that are not regional capitals and yet they already have a BTA press club. I strongly believe that we, the local government, will generate good news for BTA to report. I strongly believe that BTA will also detect all the failures in our work so that we can eliminate them faster," Mihailova said. 

She hailed BTA's policy of having press clubs in smaller towns of the country as well. "Life in Bulgaria does not happen only in central Sofia only," she said. She thanked BTA for "doing more than covering events but also standing behind some very important national causes for Bulgaria".

The BTA National Press Club in Troyan was blessed by Metropolitan Gabriel of Lovech and Protopriest Voyden Bozhkov.

The Metropolitan of Lovech commended BTA for its work, for keeping people informed about the events and for covering the work of the church. "They cover church events seeking to help people see the spiritual riches that we need in our life," he said. 

The BTA Director General also received a congratulatory address from the Hegumen of the Troyan Monastery, Bishop Sioniy. 

Attending the opening were also BTA Deputy Director General Evgenia Drumeva, Regional Governor Dora Stoyanova, MPs Ivelin Parvanov and Kiril Todorov, Troyan Monastery vicar Archmadrite Stefan, Bulgarian National Radio Director General Milen Mitev, Apriltsi Mayor Tihomir Kukenski, the Troyan deputy mayors, the chair and members of the municipal council, institutional representatives and journalists.

During the opening ceremony, BTA Director General Kiril Valchev and Troyan Mayor Donka Mihailova signed a media partnership agreement to promote the municipality's Calendar of Cultural Events.