Team of Radio Bulgaria is visiting the Bulgarians in Albania

published on 10/20/23 8:10 AM

Photo: Milena Selimi

From October 20 to 24, 2023, a Radio Bulgaria team will be on a working visit to Albania, as the goal of the journalists from the foreign-language service of the Bulgarian National Radio is to meet and talk with representatives of the Bulgarian national minority, Bulgarian educational institutions and companies in the Balkan country.

The visit is part of a new initiative by Radio Bulgaria to build a stronger relationship between Bulgarians in this country and Bulgarians around the world.

"Our goal is, through the power and authority of public-service radio, to tell the audience at home and abroad about Bulgarians who, due to historical, socio-economic or other factors, live outside the borders of their homeland", explains Krasimir Martinov, editor-in-chief of Radio Bulgaria, who, together with his colleague from the Albanian editorial office of the media, Kostandina Belo, herself a representative of the Bulgarian minority in Albania, is now in the Balkan country.

"Driven by the desire to build on what has been achieved and to follow its mission, the team of Radio Bulgaria is starting work on a new radio series oriented to a more in-depth study and presentation of the Bulgarian communities abroad", says Krasimir Martinov:

"Our goal is both to increase the national self-confidence of our compatriots abroad, and to convey to the Bulgarians in Bulgaria the knowledge of history, life and the contemporary challenges facing people living outside their homeland.

Krasimir Martinov, editor-in-chief of Radio Bulgaria

Due to the specificity of the community, the geographical proximity to Bulgaria, the common features and interrelationships in the Balkans, we decided to start our radio series with a conversation about the Bulgarian national minority in Albania. Our route includes meetings in the capital Tirana, the towns of Elbasan, Elbasan, Korça, Kukës, Bilishti, the villages of Vërnik, Pogradec, Golloborda, Ostreni i Madh, Gora. Our desire is to feel first hand and then convey to our large audience around the world the spirit and atmosphere of the places in Albania where our compatriots live."

The Bulgarian national minority in Albania was officially recognized by the Albanian state in October 2017. Its representatives live both in large cities and in smaller settlements, some of which are in hard-to-reach areas of Albania. Part of the Bulgarians there already find it more difficult to understand and speak the Bulgarian language, but others have managed to preserve their identity and language over time, even passing on the traditions to the next generations.

Currently, the exact number of Bulgarians in Albania is unclear, but the census that is currently underway in the country will give us a better idea of it.

"In addition to gathering information and impressions of the life of Bulgarians in Albania, with their on-site visit, the Radio Bulgaria team aims to learn more about the bilateral relations between Bulgaria and Albania, about the initiatives to popularize the cultural heritage of the two peoples, for the establishment of bilateral economic and business contacts, as well as for the potential opportunities for expanding cooperation within South-Eastern Europe and at the level of the European Union, insofar as Albania is a candidate for membership in the Union, and Bulgaria can pass on valuable experience to it along this path", Krasimir Martinov adds.

The new project of Radio Bulgaria, guided by and directed at Bulgarians around the world, is expected to start at the beginning of 2024. Selected moments from it will also be heard on the national radio airwaves, through the joint series of Radio Bulgaria and BNR's Horizont channel - "Motherland abroad", which began in 2020 as part of the Night Horizon radio show.

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Photos: Milena Selimi, facebook.com/Nasha.Golloborda, personal archive

Translated and published by Rositsa Petkova

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