Eli Yurukova

ELI YURUKOVA graduated in Journalism from Sofia University "Kl. Ohridski". She graduated in journalism from the Jagiellonian University. She worked for many years at Radio Free Europe. Later she also worked for the BBC as a war correspondent in the former Yugoslavia and for almost all newspapers and TV stations in Bulgaria. Her reports from the battlefields of the Yugoslav wars, her analyses of the political, military and humanitarian catastrophe and the refugee wave remain in time.

At one point during the tragic South Genocide, the government in Belgrade declared her persona non grata as a journalist. Her professional accreditation was revoked, but despite the risk she continued to work, arguing that no one could shut down the voice of truth.

Eli Yurukova has lived in Belgrade for more years than she has lived in Bulgaria. She has also spent time in Kosovo and Macedonia as a war correspondent. Today she is an international political consultant with a reputation as one of the best experts on the region. She currently works at the United Nations University for Peace. Elie Yurukova admits that if it had not been for poetry as protection in her heart, she would not have been able to survive the atrocities of war.