Written by: Muhamet Hamiti
(Memorial speech for the historic President of Kosovo. Pristina, January 21, 2026)
The historic President of Kosovo, Dr. Ibrahim Rugova, passed away on January 21, 2006. Kosovo was gripped by cold weather, with snow and frost, those days when Rugova died and was buried five days later. Pristina became the center of pilgrimage to honor his magnificent figure, by the people of the country as well as by high political personalities of many countries of the world here and across the Atlantic. He was already the greatest figure of the contemporary Albanian world, an adored personality, with attributes then such as “The Fragile Colossus”, “The Gandhi of Kosovo”, sometimes even “The Dalai Lama of Kosovo” or even “The Nelson Mandela of Kosovo”, of the country that he marked in writing: Kosovo – Ancient Dardania, a quality that he himself embodied with the signs of ethnic and human identity: the Dardanian Flag, the Anthem with a Kosovar song and the Coat of Arms (the Seal of the President).
For two decades of patriotic and political activity, Ibrahim Rugova was crowned the leader of the people of Kosovo, elected President by plebiscite vote of his people: a personality with a culture of roots and of the entire century. On May 24, 1992, in the first parliamentary and presidential elections in Kosovo, 867 thousand 557 citizens voted Ibrahim Rugova President of the Republic of Kosovo. He remains the most voted figure ever in the history of Kosovo. He was elected President of Kosovo four times.
Contemporary chroniclers, politicians and dignitaries, familiar with his cultural and historical activities in the Albanian and foreign world, do not shy away from the temptation to know the secret of the conquest of human hearts with local and planetary resonance. Research continues even more to elucidate and qualify his doctrine, his political strategy, the bloodshed of human freedom with sacrifices of eternal patience as peaceful resistance, which was accepted by the people of the country and the whole world.
Ibrahim Rugova was aware that he was the leader of the people of survival. His political doctrine (as an internal organization) was based on the local popular right. Therefore, his political strategy was based on the trust and understanding of the cause of freedom from the outside world. In this way, Ibrahim Rugova secured support for his liberation and humane policy both at home and in the world: for the salvation and survival of his people. He survived the great upheavals of the Continent and the atrocities of the Siujdhësa, fiercely confronted with the political legacy of communism and its aggressive opponents, knowledgeable or ignorant, blinded by the struggle for power.
Rugova's language of communication, with his own people and others – that is, the language of the country and the international one – never lost its reason, even in the most critical situations. He spoke softly, but held strong positions.
Rugova softened the peaceful resistance with the formula “people have the right to defend their doorsteps”. He won world support for saving the population pursued by the savagery of the invaders. And the population returned to itself and to Kosovo with dizzying speed. Remember the summer months of 1999, when hundreds of thousands of Kosovars returned to their homelands, violated and destroyed by the Serbian machinery.
Prophetic Ibrahim Rugova welcomed the liberation with an open heart, singing a hymn to salvation and expressing gratitude to the saviors with a “Prayer to God” on June 12, 1999. He claimed that “after the war we are all less” and “we are all equally small” when speaking about the peoples of Siujdhesë. (Rugova did not like the term ‘Balkan’. He spoke more about Kosovo in Southeast Europe).
Ibrahim Rugova, the courageous peacemaker, survived the assassination attempts. The last time right in the center of Pristina, on March 15, 2005, when he was going to the Kosovo Presidency to receive the EU Commissioner for Foreign Policy, Javier Solana. After the meeting with the great European diplomat, he openly declared in front of the cameras without a twitch of his lips: “I survived this time too!” and added “Unfortunately, there are still elements, there are still people who want to destabilize Kosovo”. Kosovo was the first for him.
President Ibrahim Rugova's Baptism Formula was: "An independent and democratic Kosovo, integrated into the EU and NATO, in permanent friendship with the United States of America", with the following explanation: "this solution would calm this part of Europe and the world".
In his first youth, Ibrahim Rugova knew the heroic thunders of Gjergj Fishta in “The Lahuta of Malcís” and his narrative revolt “Europe, dirty and filthy…”. He also experienced the kindness of Naim Frashëri and his vision of the Sun rising from the west. In his second youth, he learned from Eqrem Çabeji about the tribe and the polis in the Albanian world and about “Albania between East and West”, but he himself saw Kosovo – ancient Dardania in the Western world.
In his early childhood, Ibrahim's mother, who sacrificed her life for him, witnessed that Slavic communists had shot his father and grandfather, whose graves were never discovered.
When the political formation Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) was founded and Ibrahim Rugova was elected its leader, within a few months, the first anti-communist party in Albanian lands in the 90s reached 700 thousand members. This was an existential reaction of the people left without a god, since the communist structures of Kosovo had lost their orientation in time and space. So, within the political formation there was a first-rate intellectual layer, illegal activists who found political shelter to legalize their activity, communists who quickly converted to take over the ownership of power, but most of them were non-political people who were called by circumstances to resist the disintegration by the aggressive Serbian occupation.
Ibrahim Rugova, who in principle advocated multi-party democracy, united the other Albanian parties of Kosovo in a Coordinating Council, and then the Albanian parties in the territories of the former Yugoslavia in another council and was elected its chairman. This was a structural political instrument that would produce fundamental documents for the Kosovo of the future: parliamentary elections, declaration of independence, adoption of the Constitution, Referendum on independence. A sequence of political and governmental actions to keep the people organized for survival.
Ibrahim Rugova's detractors became especially active after Rugova's first meeting with Ramiz Ali in Tirana, when the democratic leader of Kosovo refused to pay homage at Enver Hoxha's grave in Tirana. Enverists, now legal not only in Albania but also in Kosovo and the diaspora, opposed and attacked Rugova and his political formation. Their dangerous language was put into action. Rugova did not respond, or spoke softly: "everyone should express their opinion". Rugova measured his internal tremors to preserve the national substance, the political and strategic alliance abroad. "This brave man never gave up on criticism and shame, because he was the most knowledgeable and the wisest of all", said the Albanian moral authority Át Zef Pllumi about Ibrahim Rugova. "Rugova's politics are national politics with a human face that creates friendship," said Sabri Hamiti, his friend and colleague in letters and politics.
The post-war period brought new political parties to Kosovo, now with an increased drive for power, albeit under international supervision. Rugova’s Democratic League, although terribly damaged by the murder of its prominent activists, won the Albanian popular vote in two municipal and central elections. The reborn Rugova refused to accept the shedding of Albanian blood for power. With true political patience, he accepted the creation of joint institutions, kneeling with those who had insulted and denigrated him, only to create the independent Republic of Kosovo – ancient Dardania. And when Ibrahim Rugova’s heart stopped beating, the President of Kosovo was the head of the Delegation for the Status of the Republic.
Even when he faced the deadly disease, lung cancer, Ibrahim Rugova said on September 5, 2005, when he addressed his people: “I am convinced that with God’s help I will overcome this battle and we will continue to work together more strongly for the recognition of the independence of our country, Kosovo, as soon as possible by our American and European friends.” While I, his spokesman, when I gave the sad news of his death on January 21, 2006, I said to the international media: “He fought the battle with cancer with dignity and great courage until his last breath.”
Ibrahim Rugova is widely known in the country as the historic President, and in the country and the world as the Founding Father of the state of Kosovo.
As with the founding fathers, the figure of Ibrahim Rugova has grown over the years. Rugova and Kosovo are inseparable binomials of our history.
We forever remember Ibrahim Rugova, the guardian angel of Kosovo!
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