Mahmut Bakalli
| Mahmut Bakalli | |
|---|---|
| 5th President of the League of Communists of Kosovo | |
| In office June 28, 1971 – 6 May 1981 | |
| Prime Minister | Ilija Vakić Bogoljub Nedeljković Bahri Oruçi Riza Sapunxhiu |
| Preceded by | Velli Deva |
| Succeeded by | Velli Deva |
| Personal details | |
| Born | January 19, 1936 Đakovica, Kingdom of Yugoslavia (now Kosovo[b]) |
| Died | April 14, 2006 Pristina, Kosovo, Serbia and Montenegro |
| Political party | Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (from 2001) League of Communists of Kosovo (until 1989) |
| Alma mater | University of Belgrade |
| Profession | Sociologist, Politician |
Mahmut Bakalli[a] (born 19 January 1936 – died 14 April 2006) was a Kosovar Albanian politician.
Bakalli's political career started in the youth organization of the League of Communists of Kosovo, eventually becoming its leader in 1961. In 1967, he became head of the party's Prishtina chapter. As he rose through the ranks, he was subsequently elected to the Central Committee of the party's Serbian chapter, and to the Presidium of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia's Central Committee.
Bakalli led the Communist Party in Kosovo during the late 1970s and early 1980s, but resigned after disagreeing with the way the 1981 protests by ethnic Albanian students were handled by Kosovo's own police, headed by Rahman Morina. Bakalli then spent two years under house arrest, before being expelled from the party. He was after that allowed to work in the province's Science Association until retirement, but was forced out when Slobodan Milošević increased Serbian control over Kosovo in the late 1980s.
He was a member of the Assembly of Kosovo from 2001. He also worked as an adviser to prime minister Agim Çeku. He graduated from the University of Belgrade's Faculty of Political Science.
In 2002, Bakalli was the first witness to testify at The Hague International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia at the trial of Slobodan Milošević.
He died of throat cancer at the age of 70. He had a wife and three daughters.
Notes
| a. | ^ Albanian spelling: Mahmut Bakalli, Serbo-Croat spelling: Махмут Бакали, Mahmut Bakali. |
| b. | ^ Kosovo is the subject of a territorial dispute between the Republic of Serbia and the Republic of Kosovo. The latter declared independence on 17 February 2008, but Serbia continues to claim it as part of its own sovereign territory. Kosovo's independence has been recognised by 108 out of 193 United Nations member states. |
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