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Vanga died the day the head of BNT was baptized
Vanga died the day Emil Koshlukov was baptized at the Rila Monastery. And then her godmother, the Bulgarian Radka Lalovska, an immigrant in Greece, said to her, “Did you see? She was waiting for you to get baptized.”
This is just one of the fun, instructive, scary and funny stories from Koshlukov’s life.
For most of his conscious life, for 31 years, he has been in the limelight. Former political prisoner, released early in the beginnings of democracy, face of dissidents, rallies and establishment of the UDF, rebel as a student, later deputy, television presenter and producer. There is no advertisement that escapes.
His popularity seems to leave the feeling that everything is already known about him. As well as his interest in the church and his persistence in BNT to have not one, but two (thus far) religious programs, seem to predetermine the fact that he is a believer from an early age.
However, he was not baptized until 1996.
“It was like all the products of social pedagogy with a lot of atheism in the soul. This is how we were raised and educated. Of course, I had respect for the faith, but I was not a believer. For me, orthodoxy was a cultural and historical heritage, as most people perceived it, “explains Koshlukov.
Her godmother Radka Lalovska has lived in Athens for 40-50 years. According to him, in 1989 he managed to convince the Greeks that they should help Bulgaria after the fall of communism. Thanks to her, trucks with oil, food and medicine from our neighbor arrive in Bulgaria. “I remember his interview on Greek central television when he said that the Greeks should thank the Bulgarians for giving them the opportunity to help. According to orthodoxy, this is so – blessed is the giver, because there is an opportunity, the one who does not receive.”
It was this woman who convinced him to get baptized, because “it is not by chance that Bulgaria is Orthodox.” She became his godmother along with one of the bodyguards of Stanka Jeleva, the daughter of President Zhelyu Zhelev. Koshlukov also connected his life with the two. (See chart below).
Today he is the CEO of BNT, he will soon turn 55 (on October 26), he says it with regret, but with pleasure he tells his stories of dissent.
Student in USA
Koshlukov (pictured above) is wearing a T-shirt at his university in Santa Barbara, California, but the photo is in one of his first rooms in Sofia. It was done during one of his student vacations.
“I also have a chain around my neck, this shows that the growth process is not over yet. There are no more chains. But college was great and I am very happy to see this photo. This is my favorite school. I suspect the Every student’s favorite university is the one they graduated from, ”he says.
Hundreds of friends
evenings with Zhelyu Zhelev
The young dissident Emil Koshlukov is with Liana Pandelieva and Zhelyu Zhelev at one of the great rallies at the beginning of democracy in front of the church-monument “St. Alexander Nevsky “.
“Liana worked on” Panorama “with Ivan Garelov, hence we take her as an advertising face on our posters. You can see how beautiful she is, so our choice is the right one. Later she went to study in the United States, we have listened to each other for years, but we don’t keep in touch, “Koshlukov said today.
And according to him, Zhelyu Zhelev, God forgive him, is one of the people who plays a very important role in his life. “This is one of the people I have sincerely respected,” said Koshlukov, who later became an adviser to our first democratically elected president.
“Zhelyu is one of the great real dissidents. As a scientist and philosopher, he understood perfectly what totalitarianism meant, his book” Fascism “is really very good. Besides, he was from that old race that we belong to, we must already be minerals, but people who believed in principles. Morality was important to us, politics cost nothing. As proof, I say that the first president of Bulgaria had an apartment in Mladost, which belongs to his daughter Stanka. Nothing more. It was amazing how it was I could ignore both material achievements in the name of high moral principles, ”explains BNT’s CEO.
The two have known each other since 1989. When Koshlukov was released from prison, there were already informal organizations in Sofia such as Ecoglasnost and the Club for Glasnost and Reconstruction. He seeks contact with them through political prisoners he knows, and they introduce him to Zhelyu Zhelev.
They became friends in September-October 1989. At that time, Koshlukov began studying English philology at the University of Sofia. He knows almost no student, as his studies are delayed due to jail and his classmates have already graduated. Then Zhelev told him: “Here is Stanka, and she is a student, she acts.” Thus, the two formed the first independent student association, which later became part of the Federation of Independent Student Associations, and Koshlukov became its coordinating secretary.
“We’ve become friends all these years.” From the apartment on Chavdar Street behind the TV to the residence in Boyana, we probably spent hundreds, hundreds of nights together, “Koshlukov said.
The only person
made the king serve him
The king raised a finger and seemed to be arguing with Emil Koshlukov, at least that’s what the photo shows. “But the king never fought. He is one of the best communicators when he is in a small group. It is very difficult to speak in front of an audience, but in a personal conversation he is a charming person. He did not allow bad words and bad manners, he is perfectly polite and polite. “
The first meeting of the current head of BNT with the king was abroad, long before he returned to Bulgaria.
Koshlukov seems to be the only person who made the king serve him. They are to be seen in Madrid, the king gets up early and the meeting is at 8. It is Sunday when the servants always rest.
“This is Madrid in 2000, a beautiful city, there is no covid and I am 20 years younger. Until 6 o’clock I explored the sights of Madrid in some more interesting neighborhoods. He was very ill and there was a cart with drinks and sodas. And I say, “Your Majesty, won’t you give me a car? Because I can’t open my mouth.”
To this day, he counts this laugh and is genuinely amused by it. Perhaps I am the only person who made the king serve him. After all, we were with them, I can’t get up alone, ”Koshlukov recalled.
Arrested and beaten
in elections in Serbia
This is a wonderful story with Miroslav Sevlievski and Krasen Kralev, Koshlukov explains and recounts:
In 2000, Milosevic made the so-called elections and says it will allow foreign observers to show that they are fair and free. Then the Bulgarian Association for Fair Elections, of which Miro was president, began preparing the Serbian CSID on how elections are observed.
We asked for observers, but they turned us down. From Bulgaria, the Serbs released only Velko Valkanov, who, of course, came back and said that Milosevic was a great democrat and that everything was fine.
After we were rejected, the three of us decided to go to Serbia as tourists, because there can be no revolution next to our country and we shot. Yes, but the Serbian services knew everything. By training with the Americans, we learned that there are 7 different types of secret services in Serbia.
We were arrested between 5.30 and six in the morning at the hotel in Nis, although as alleged dissident conspirators we had a room in one hotel and slept in another.
With experience as an old prisoner and Krassen as an old boxer, we managed to escape a fight. Look, because he doesn’t know how to move his head, they broke his eardrum. When you get slapped, you have to turn around a bit so your eardrum doesn’t break, but he doesn’t know these numbers. So he just got permanently stuck, his hearing was damaged. We were released because the fourth with us was Grozdan Karadzhov, at that time secretary general in the Kostov office and with a diplomatic passport. In my opinion, the Serbs were afraid to scare a diplomat and let us go. Otherwise, they said they would leave us in a minefield in Kosovo and no one would know anything else about us. This was Milosevic, and there they were killing people.
We went home and held a press conference. Then the American ambassador to Bulgaria, Bill Montgomery, invited us to a conference in Budapest, where the American embassy was transferred from Belgrade due to the war. I think this was compensation for the fight, as we slept on the top floors of the Marriott hotel and ate salmon on my stomach. And Montgomery was a great American diplomat of the rank of those who came to Bulgaria at that time and knew what democracy was and what communism was.
He always wins the bass
Mario Tagarinski gave two 50 BGN bills to Emil Koshlukov in parliament, who probably earned some low on his memoirs.
“I’m usually good at predictions and people lose when they catch a bass with me,” Koshlukov said confidently.
The first free
choices in us
Koshlukov is in the group (left, under the spotlight) gathered around Kevork Kevorkian and Georgi Pirinski the night after the first election, in which there were high suspicions of counterfeiting.
“There is talk of 600,000 votes, the BSP won them, they controlled the electoral process. He had brought ballots found in the polls in Pazardzhik. Stoyan Ganev and I, God forbid, traveled here. “Then there was a big scandal about the election result, which all readers remember well,” he said.
Under Patriarch Maxim
Koshlukov kisses the hand of Patriarch Maxim. Their meeting is due to the law on the church, approved by the National Assembly, which ends the schism in it.
“We united the church and restored the Holy Synod. We have done a good deed. He has been taking care of the church in some way for 20 years,” Koshlukov said.
Cry and give 5,000 BGN.
for a church in Stara Zagora prison
This photo captures Emil Koshlukov crying in front of Stara Zagora Prison, where he spent 4 years. He is already a deputy and as such goes to prison for the Church of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker. It donated 5,000 BGN for its construction.
“She is crying for the church. The credit goes to Father Yordan, a fantastic priest from Stara Zagora, who went out of his way to have a church in the prison, and to the man next to me (pictured, ba), the director of the prison, then Karuchkov, who cooperated as best he could.
And the reasons for building a church are that I, as a former prisoner, know how important faith is in difficult times, how important it is to have confidence and hope in the most difficult moments of your life, especially in prison.
This is the first Orthodox church in a Bulgarian prison. Father Jordan deserves eternal praise because he continued to work. He is now in the Radnevo mental home. A person who has given himself to help, to give faith and comfort to the faith of people in difficulty. That’s why I helped then. When I’m in Stara Zagora, I go to church regularly, I see these people, they are great and we became friends, “says Koshlukov.
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