Albanians mourn Arben Xhaferi

SKOPJE, Macedonia, Aug. 16 – Arben Xhaferi, a prominent ethnic Albanian leader in Macedonia who fought for equal rights for the minority, has died. He was 64.
The founder of one of the two main Albanian minority parties in Macedonia died from complications of a stroke he suffered a week ago, Aleksandar Caparevski, the director of the country’s clinic for neurosurgery, said.
Xhaferi is well-known for his role in the Ohrid Agreement that defused an inter-ethnic conflict in Macedonia. He was one of the signatories. But Xhaferi is well-known for his personality among Albanians all over the world. He was a strong and recognized voice in Albania too. Xhaferi succeeded in his efforts to get the preamble of the constitution changed to provide equal status for all ethnicities in Macedonia instead of referring to the country as “the nation-state of the Macedonian people.”
Xhaferri was born in 1948 in Tetova and graduated philosophy from the University of Belgrade.
Afterwards he spent many years as an editor of cultural sections in Radio-Television of Kosova as well as collaborated with international newspapers and various media.
He returned in Macedonia this time becoming a politician in 1994 and only one year after he succeed to led the Democratic Party of Albanians from 1995 to 2007, but remained President Emeritus after stepping down because he had Parkinson’s disease.
All Albania’s political parties expressed their sorrow for the death of Arber Xhaferri.
“Arben Xhaferri used his ideals to serve the people, human freedom, democracy, co-existence, peace and stability. As a visionary politician he used skillfully his dialogue and diplomacy even in the moments when peace seemed hopeless,” said Albanian President Bujar Nishani.
“With the loss of Arben Xhaferri the nation’s world of thinking and political elite lost one of the most distinguished personalities of the last decades. His fundamental values and contribution in the national and social emancipation of our nation are an extremely valuable inheritance deserving deep gratitude from all Albanians nowadays and the generations to come,” said Prime Minister Sali Berisha.
“Arber Xhaferri was a non-typical Albanian who said great truths and opened unexplored paths with an extraordinary intellectual bravery. His death is a great loss for the Albanian world, to an extent that only Arber Xhaferri could have engraved in a unique person. Prey in peace,” said leader of the main opposition Socialist Party Edi Rama in a reaction in his Twitter account.