Is Iran ready to present itself to the world?

An Iranian city (source: Pixabay, CC0)

Interview with the Bugarian journalist and Iranologist Vladimir Mitev on the Bulgarian Iranian Studies and the image of Iran in Bulgaria

Mohammad Asiabani

Bulgaria is located in the southeast of continental Europe and borders Greece, Turkey, Serbia, Macedonia, Romania and the Black Sea. It could be a good base for Asians to connect with other European countries. The culture of the Bulgarians has many similarities with the culture of Iran and many lexical similarities are found in the languages ​​of the two countries. The history of political relations between the two countries in the new era is 125 years old.

According to some Bulgarian Iranologists, including Professor Ivo Panov, Iranian philosophy and culture have always been of great interest to Bulgarian intellectuals. But what has Iran benefited from such capacities to expand relations between the two countries? We talked about the cultural presence of Iran in Bulgaria with Vladimir Mitev, a Bulgarian journalist and Iranologist. He is one of the editors of the Barricade website and also manages the The Persian Bridge of Friendship blog.

Mitev speaks Persian well, but for some reason preferred to have the conversation in English. You will read the text of Mehr’s conversation with him, translated by Akram Amini. This article was publilshed on 27 July 2021 at Mehr News Agency.

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Dr. Sirma Kostadinova: Bulgarian language has resemblances with Persian

Sirma Kostadinova, Ph.D. (source: Sirma Kostadinova)

An interview with the head of the Iranian Studies at the University of Sofia about Bulgarian Iranology and Iranian culture

Denitsa Kitanova

This article was originally published by the Bulgarian news agency Focus on 4 July 2021. It is republished with the consent of the agency. The title is changed. A subtitle is added.

Bulgarian literature in Iran: where’s the catch?

Belogradchik Rocks (source: Pixabay, CC0)

Two years after the beginning of a series of translations of Bulgarian contemporary authors into Persian, a number of accomplishments have taken place, but for the engine of this cooperation – Farid Ghadami, knowledge also comes with sacrifice

Vladimir Mitev

Bulgarian literature has been “famous” for being generally unknown beyond the borders of Bulgaria in the last 30 years. While Romanian authors have been translated massively into Bulgarian for many years, the Bulgarian literature books have been largely unknown in Romania, with the exception of a few Romanian-speakng Bulgarian authors, who attract interest maybe also because of their personal openness to the northern neighbours. There are European countries that have Bulgarian culture centers and that certainly boosts the profile of Bulgarian creators. But it has been said many times that Bulgaria lacks a sustainable strategy to promote Bulgarian literature and culture abroad.

Sirma Kostadinova: The Persian language has an amazing power to create metaphors

Sirma Kostadinova, Ph.D (source: Sirma Kosadinova)

Interview with the Head of Iranian Studies at Sofia University about the characteristic feature of the Persian language to use body parts for expressions full of life and eloquence

Vladimir Mitev

Senior Assistant Professor Dr. Sirma Kostadinova graduated in Iranian Studies at the Center for Eastern Languages ​​and Cultures at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski ”(2008). She specialized in Persian language at the Allameh Tabatabai University and at the Islamic Culture and Relations Organisation in Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran (2008 and 2015). She defended her master’s degree in Indian and Iranian cultural and social studies (2010) and her doctorate in “Mythological Characters in Abul-Qasem Ferdowsi’s Shah-nameh”(2018). She realises a project as a part of the National Program “Young Scholars and Postdoctoral Fellows” on “Metaphors in the modern Persian language – origin, current status and classification” (2019). She is a lecturer in Persian Civilization and Theoretical Persian Language at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski ”. In October 2020, she was elected head of the Iranian Studies specialty at the University of Sofia.