site.btaCzech Centre to Continue Its Activities in Bulgaria

The Czech centre will continue its activities in Bulgaria, the cultural institution announced on Monday.

"The Director General of the Czech Centres network has reversed the decision to close the centre in Sofia. The credit for this goes entirely to all of you who joined forces and supported us - both here in Bulgaria and in the Czech Republic," the press release says. The centre states that their hall will be made available every Wednesday for cultural events in the period until June 20, and after the summer season the programme will resume from September 23 until the end of the year. 

The Czech Centre in Sofia had announced that it was ending its activities in a press release on April 27 this year. "It is with great sadness that we inform you that, according to the decision of the Director General of the Czech Centres network, the Czech Centre in Sofia will be closed and is ending its cultural and educational activities in Bulgaria," the release said.

At a meeting of the Academic Council of St. Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia on April 29, an open letter in defence of the Czech Centre in Sofia was unanimously supported. Sofia's Sredets acting Mayor Alexander Petkov distributed an open letter to the Czech Minister of Foreign Affairs and to the Director General of the Czech Centres, with a copy to the Bulgarian Foreign Minister, in which he expressed his support for the preservation of the Czech Centre in Sofia and called for its closure to be reconsidered.

On May 4, hundreds of citizens gathered for a peaceful protest in downtown Sofia against the Centre's closure. "We intend to prove that this institution is extremely valuable to us. We insist that the Czech Centre continue its activities," protest co-organizer Maya Petkova told BTA.