site.btaBTA Maintaining Press Club in Bosilegrad for 10 Years Joint Success for Bulgarians on Both Sides of Border, Says BTA Director General

The fact that BTA has managed to maintain this Press Club in Bosilegrad for ten years is a common success for Bulgarians on both sides of the border, BTA Director General Kiril Valchev said during a Friday news conference dedicated to the 10th anniversary of the BTA Press Club in the southeastern Serbian town with an ethnic Bulgarian majority population.

He recalled that the Press Club here is the first one outside Bulgaria, opened on December 12, 2015, with Aleksandar Dimitrov as the Agency's correspondent. Valchev also cited former BTA Director General Maxim Minchev, who at the opening of the press club said: "I sincerely hope that with this new Bulgarian cultural and information point we will strengthen the two-way exchange of information and make more people empathize with what is happening here."

In 2014, Bosilegrad was one of the hosts of the World Meeting of Bulgarian Media, along with Sofia and Tsaribrod (Dimitrovgrad, also located in Southeast Serbia and home of a significant Bulgarian population), which is why it is quite natural that this then developed into a National Press Club of BTA here, Valchev pointed out. He noted that there have been over 1800 publications in BTA with the keyword of Bosilegrad since 2015, with 1200 of those published after 2020. "The growth in these publications shows trends for the creation of more and more news from Bosilegrad," Valchev said.

"BTA has become an opportunity for Bulgarians around the world to know about each other, to be a link between them in different countries," he emphasized, adding that BTA has correspondents with national press clubs in seven countries with old Bulgarian communities, including Serbia, the Republic of North Macedonia, Moldova and Ukraine. "The model with a permanent correspondent is about to be introduced among new Bulgarian communities," Valchev noted, indicating that the Agency is also thinking about creating broadcasts in more languages.

He pointed out that at least ten countries in the world have very large Bulgarian communities, from which information needs to be provided, stressing that his goal during the next term of his mandate as Director General is to open new permanent correspondent offices in Albania and Belgium in 2026. "There will also be clubs in Pristina (Kosovo), in Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina) and in Tbilisi (Georgia), which will be responsible for the entire Caucasus region.

"In Brussels, I imagine a permanent press club like the one here in Bosilegrad. I hope that very soon we will have such a press club for meetings and conversations. Here, in Bosilegrad, we have held several forums together with the European Commission and the European Parliament," Valchev recalled, adding that the press club in Bosilegrad also has another important task, namely to set a good example to Serbia regarding accession into the EU. "Bulgaria has gained good experience, we can help our neighbors with it," he said, emphasizing that Bulgaria is a benchmark in the EU in terms of minority rights.

The news conference will reveal the name of the fifth winner of the Maxim Minchev Award, established five years ago by the GLAS Association in Bosilegrad. During the event, the interim amount raised from the 13th Christmas charity initiative, which began on November 19 and will continue until December 22, will also be announced. The funds raised will traditionally support various youth initiatives in 2026. The initiative has raised over EUR 40,000 since 2013.

Currently, BTA has 43 press clubs in total.