TIRANA, May 28 – Former President of Albania Bujar Nishani passed away on Saturday as he had been hospitalized in serious condition for weeks in a hospital in Germany. Nishani was taken to Germany for treatment after suffering from bilateral pneumonia with respiratory insufficiency as a result of complications caused by Covid-19. The former head of state’s health situation worsened after he was infected with coronavirus a few months ago.
Bujar Nishani was born in Durrës on September 29, 1966. He completed his higher studies in 1988 at the Military Academy “Skënderbej” in Tirana. He finished his postgraduate studies in Defense Resource Management in 1996 in California, US. Nishani also studied law at the Faculty of Law of the University of Tirana, where he graduated in Law in 2004. In 2005, he received a Master’s degree in European Studies from the School of European Studies of the University of Tirana.
His professional career began in 1988 as a lecturer at the Military Academy “Skënderbej”. Later, in 1993, he served as Director of Foreign Affairs at the Ministry of Defense, to continue in the Department of Relations with NATO at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1994. In 1996, Nishani served in the cabinet of the Minister of Defense. In 1997, he was appointed and served as chairman of the Euro-Atlantic Military Forum.
Nishani’s political career is related to the Democratic Party (DP) which he joined in 1991. In 2001 he was elected secretary of the Tirana’s DP branch; in 2003 he was elected a member of the Municipal Council of Tirana from the list of candidates of the Democratic Party; in 2005 he was elected a member of the National Council of the Democratic Party and later a member of the Chairmanship of the Democratic Party.
In July 2005, Nishani, a candidate for the Democratic Party, was elected MP in constituency 34 in Tirana. In the June 2009 parliamentary elections, he was re-elected MP.
From March 2007 to September 2009, Nishani served as Minister of Interior; from September 2009 to April 2011 he served as Minister of Justice and then, in April 2011, he was reappointed Minister of Interior, where he served until June 2012.
On July 24, 2012, Bujar Nishani was elected President of Albania and served in this position for a full 5-year term until 2017.
Nishani was a good and fluent English speaker. He is survived by wife and two children. /Argumentum.al
