site.btaBTA Director General on Double Event at Ankara Press Club: Bridge Between Generations Seeking Path to Friendship between Neighbours

The Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) Press Club in Ankara Monday hosted an event that presented both the new BTA correspondent in Ankara, Ayse Sali, and an exhibition featuring posters from productions of Bulgarian plays translated into Turkish by Professor Huseyin Mevsim. Speaking at the event, BTA Director General Kiril Valchev described it as a bridge between generations seeking a path to friendship between neighbours. 

Among the guests of the event were Bulgarian Ambassador to Turkiye Angel Cholakov and Anadolu Agency Deputy Director-General and Editor-in-Chief Yusuf Ozhan.

In his address, Valchev presented Prof. Mevsim as a literary historian, researcher into Turkish-Bulgarian cultural and literary relations, translator, lecturer in Bulgarian language and literature, and head of the Department of Slavic Languages and Literature at Ankara University's Faculty of Languages, History and Geography. Prof. Mevsim was born in the Bulgarian southern village of Kozlevo on July 7. He graduated in Bulgarian Studies from the Paisii Hilendarski University of Plovdiv (South Central Bulgaria). In 1991, he moved to Turkiye, where he initially lived in Bursa and Istanbul. In 2001, he moved to Ankara, where in 2005 he completed a PhD with a thesis on "Bulgarian literature in Istanbul - Istanbul in Bulgarian Literature", Valchev said.

Prof. Mevsim has written many books and research on Bulgarian literature, folklore, and history, and has translated various anthologies into Bulgarian and Turkish. He has written and translated 68 published books in nearly 20 years, Valchev noted, giving as examples Chudomir’s Journey to Turkey, Between Two Shores, Nikola Furnadzhiev and Istanbul, Peter Dachev and Istanbul, and Zemya Predelna. Thanks to him, the plays of some of the most famous Bulgarian playwright, such as Stanislav Stratiev, Hristo Boychev, Yordan Radichkov, Elin Rahnev, and Stefan Tsanev - have been presented on Turkish stages, Valchev said.

He recalled that on June 27, 2024, Prof. Mevsim attended the presentation in Sofia of BTA's LIK magazine dedicated to Atanas Dalchev, as well as the unveiling by BTA of a memorial plaque to brothers Atanas and Lyubomir Dalchev in their hometown of Thessaloniki.

Among the posters featured in the BTA-hosted exhibition in Ankara are those for the plays Roman Bath by Stanislav Stratiev, Lazaritsa by Yordan Radichkov, I’m Paying by Yves Jamiaque, directed by Vladlen Alexandrov, The Murder of Gonzago by Nedyalko Yordanov, and two plays by Hristo Boychev: Orchestra Titanic and The Colonel’s Wife.

"With the opening of the exhibition of Prof. Mevsim, we officially present BTA's new correspondent in Ankara, Ayse Sali, who succeeds the person behind the exhibition's preparation, Nora Cholakova, BTA's first correspondent in Ankara after the reopening of the correspondent's office in Turkiye on February 2, 2023, when BTA unveiled its national press club in the Turkish capital to continue its policy of having media offices in all neighbouring countries as well as in states with big Bulgarian communities," Valchev explained. 

The BTA Director General presented Sali's professional experience. She graduated in Portuguese Studies from the St Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia. Initially, she worked at the BGNES news agency, followed by ten years at the Bulgarian National Television as a reporter and author of documentaries.

BTA's first permanent correspondent in Turkiye was Dimitar Shishmanov in Istanbul in 1954 and then in Ankara five years later, Valchev noted. "However, two years and a half ago, it was Prof. Mevsim who suggested to us that BTA had a correspondent in Turkiye as early as back in 1924, of which we have already found confirmation in the archives: Damyan Todorov Kalfov was appointed BTA correspondent and print associate in Istanbul from August 23, 1924, to March 31, 1926," Valchev specified.

The other permanent correspondents of BTA in Turkiye were Hristo Diamandiev, Stefan Solakov, and Lyubomir Gabrovski, and the last one was Apostol Saruivanov in Ankara, who left in 1993. Since 1998, BTA has been receiving information from Istanbul from non-permanent correspondent Nahide Deniz, Valchev said. In his words, this shows that Ayse Sali takes over from Nora Cholakova "the continuation of a century-old tradition".

According to Valchev, the two events at the BTA Press Club in Ankara on Monday evening are united in that they serve as a bridge between generations seeking a path to friendship between neighbours. "Because Prof. Huseyin Mevsim and Ayse Sali are united in that they bring the knowledge about each other of two neighbouring countries," he added. 

BTA and Anatolu Agency are doing the same, added Valchev and recalled of the agreement signed three years ago for daily exchange of news between the two partner agencies. However, the cooperation between BTA and Anadolu Agency is older - the first agreement dates back to 1972, he noted.

Valchev also mentioned the international organisations of which both news agencies are members, including the Association of Balkan News Agencies - Southeast Europe (ABNA-SEE), registered with its headquarters in Bulgaria and chaired by Anadolu Agency Director-General Serdar Karagoz. "Together we are also in two other organizations - the European Alliance of News Agencies (EANA) and MINDS International (Media Innovation Network), the association of 25 leading news agencies from around the world for cooperation in the field of news services," Valchev specified.

The Director General of BTA expressed his gratitude for the support BTA received in Ankara during the opening of the BTA National Press Club in the Turkish capital two and a half years ago, including from Bulgarian Ambassador to Turkiye Angel Cholakov and his team at the Bulgarian Embassy.