Angel Orbetsov: Cultural diplomacy and academic exchange can change for good the lives of young people

(source: collage)

The special ambassador of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria in the Еast speaks about the Iranian Studies in Bulgaria and the prospects before the cultural diplomacy with Iran

IRNA, 22 November 2023

Angel Orbetsov is a special ambassador in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria. His familiarity with Persian and Iran goes back to the 1980s. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, he was a diplomat in Iran and served in consular affairs. He is the author of a number of scientific articles on the relations between Bulgaria and Iran and contemporary Iranian politics. His academic activities include teaching Persian language, lecturing on the history, diplomacy and political system of Iran in three Bulgarian universities, as well as authoring a Persian language textbook for Bulgarian students, translating an Iranian monograph on the history of Iranian art, and defending his doctoral thesis about the history of relations between Bulgaria and Iran, followed by the publication of a book in this field.

Angel Orbetsov stated that more than 200 Iranian studies graduates are working in various institutions, including the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Internal Affairs, and Defense, and in the cultural, scientific, tourism, and commercial fields inside and outside Bulgaria, and added that holding book weeks which has become a well-established practice in Iran and a number of other countries, and is completely compatible with cultural diplomacy.

The Persian Bridge of Friendship has republished this interview with the Bulgarian diplomat Angel Orbetsov, which was made by the site of the IRNA – the leading state news agency in the Islamic Republic of Iran. The interview is made in such a way that Orbetsov’s answers are retold by the Iranian media, rather than being given as questions and answers, without the editor’s intervention. In Bulgaria this type of interview is called American. The title of the interview was changed by the Persian Bridge of Friendship.

Angel Orbetsov: There is a positive emotion between Bulgarians and Iranians

The cover of Angel Orbetsov’s book (source: screenshot)

A book reveals the richness of Bulgarian-Iranian relations from 1878 to the late 1950s

Vladimir Mitev

Angel Orbetsov is a Bulgarian diplomat and Iranologist who published his doctoral research, Bulgarian-Iranian Relations from the (Bulgarian) Liberation to the Late 1950s, as a book in late 2022. Orbetsov is a former ambassador to China and longtime director of the Asia, Australia and Oceania Directorate at the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry. He was also a diplomat in Iran in the late 1980s and early 1990s, also serving in consular functions. He is the author of a number of scholarly publications on Bulgarian-Iranian relations and contemporary Iranian politics.

The interview was realised for Radio Bulgaria.

“Book of Iran” was presented at the Book Fair, Sofia

”Book of Iran” was presented on the fourth floor of the National Palace of Culture (photo: The Bridge of Friendship)

The publishing of this book, which is dedicated to Persian art, is an important event in the life of Bulgarian Iranian Studies

Vladimir Mitev

Bulgarian Iranology marked the translation and the publishing in Bulgarian language of “Book of Iran. The History of Iranian Art” by doctor Habibollah Ayatollahi, with an event at the Book Fair, Sofia. The book’s launch took place on 12th December, 2019 and was organised by the Cultural Representation of the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Bulgaria, publishing house “Gutenberg” and “The Association of Persian Language and Culture’s Friends of the Republic of Bulgaria”.