Albin Kurti

Albin Kurti (born 24 March 1975) is the Prime Minister of Kosovo, having been elected in March 2021 for a second time.

Albin Kurti was born on 24 March 1975 in Pristina, Kosovo.

Kurti's father, Zaim Kurti originates from an Albanian family from the village of Sukobin in Ulcinj Municipality, Montenegro; an engineer, he moved to Pristina in search for employment.

Kurti's mother, Arife Kurti is a retired elementary school teacher, born and educated in Pristina.

Kurti also has 2 brothers, Arianit and Taulant.

Kurti finished his elementary and middle education in Pristina.

The occupation had started in 1991 and had led to ethnic Albanian academic staff and students having to use alternative locations for their classes due to them being barred from using university premises by Serbian law.

The protests were crushed violently, but the students and Kurti did not stop the resistance and they organized other protests in the following months.

He came to prominence in 1997 as the vice-president of the University of Pristina student union, and a main organizer of non-violent student demonstrations 1997 and 1998.

Kurti then worked in Adem Demaçi's office when the latter became the political representative of the Kosovo Liberation Army "Commander in chief" (KLA).

Albin Kurti first came to prominence in October 1997, as one of the leaders of the student protests in Kosovo.

Albanian students protested against the occupation of the University of Pristina campus by the Yugoslav police.

He was an activist for the Action for Kosovo Network (AKN), which was formed in 1997, and was a movement whose mission focused on human rights and social justice, education, culture and art.

In July 1998, Kurti collaborated as assistant of the political representative Adem Demaçi, close to the UÇK group.

These actions made him a target of the Yugoslav police.

In April 1999, during the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, Kurti was arrested and severely beaten by Yugoslav forces.

He was first sent to the Dubrava prison, but as the Serbian army withdrew from Kosovo, they transferred him to a prison in Požarevac on 10 June 1999.

Later that year, he was charged with "jeopardizing Yugoslavia's territorial integrity and conspiring to commit an enemy activity linked to terrorism" and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Kurti was released in December 2001 by Yugoslavia's post-Milošević government after being pardoned by President Vojislav Koštunica amid international pressure.

Since his release, he worked outside party politics in Kosovo but was a severe critic of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) and of corruption.

He organised non-violent protests in support of the families of those whose relatives disappeared in the war, and in favor of Kosovo's self-determination.

He graduated university in 2003 in Telecommunications and Computer Engineering at the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Pristina.

He is married to Norwegian Rita Augestad Knudsen, and they have a daughter named Lea.

In addition to his native Albanian, he also speaks Serbian, French, and English.

Besides his Kosovo citizenship, Kurti also holds Albanian citizenship and has voted in Albanian elections.

On 23 April 2003 Kurti graduated with a degree in Computer and Telecommunications Sciences from the University of Prishtina.

On 12 June 2005 AKN activists wrote the slogan "No negotiations, Self-Determination" on the walls of UNMIK buildings.

The police, with the help of UN Police, arrested, jailed, and convicted hundreds of activists, including Kurti.

AKN then changed its name to the Self-Determination Movement (Vetëvendosje).

Vetëvendosje demanded a referendum on the status of Kosovo, stating "only with a referendum as a use of international right for self-determination, can we realise a democratic solution for Kosovo, instead of negotiations which compromise freedom".

In February 2007 Vetëvendosje organized a protest against the Ahtisaari Plan, which according to them divided Kosovo along ethnic lines and did not give the people of Kosovo what they were striving for.

The protest turned violent and the Romanian UN Police killed two unarmed protesters and injured 80 others with plastic and rubber bullets.

Kurti was arrested.

He was detained until July 2007 and then kept under house arrest.

Amnesty International criticised the irregularities in his prosecution.

He was eventually sentenced to nine months.

Kurti was an advocate of "active nonviolent resistance".

Kurti has been a member of the Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo since 2010 in three consecutive legislatures.

Vetëvendosje joined the political spectrum of Kosovo by running in the elections of 2010 for the first time.

He first served in the role between February and June 2020.