Today marks 19 years since the death of the former president of Kosovo, Ibrahim Rugova. He passed away on January 21, 2006, where he was buried with high state and military honors.

Ibrahim Rugova was born on December 2, 1944 in Cerce, Istog. On January 10, 1945, the Yugoslav communists shot his father, Uka, and grandfather Rrustë Rugova, who had been a well-known fighter against the Chetnik forces that were infiltrating Kosovo during the Second World War.

Ibrahim Rugova attended primary school in Istog, secondary school in Pejë, in 1967. He attended the Faculty of Philosophy - Albanian Language and Literature Branch in Pristina. During the academic year 1976-77 he stayed in Paris, at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, under the supervision of Professor Roland Barthes, where he pursued his scientific interests in the study of literature, with a focus on literary theory. He received his doctorate in the field of literature at the University of Pristina in 1984.

In 1996, Dr. Ibrahim Rugova was elected a corresponding member of the Academy of Arts and Sciences of Kosovo. At first he was an editor in the student newspaper "Bota e re" and the scientific magazine "Dituria" (1971-72), which were published in Pristina. For a while he also worked in the magazine "Fjala". Then, for nearly two decades, Rugova developed his scientific activity at the Albanological Institute as a literature researcher. For some time he was the editor-in-chief of the magazine "Albanological traces" of this Institute. He has been involved in literary creativity since the beginning of the sixties.

In 1988, Rugova was elected chairman of the Writers' Association of Kosovo, which became a powerful nucleus of the Albanian movement against the Serbian and Yugoslav communist rule in Kosovo.

As an intellectual with a reputation that gave voice to this intellectual and political movement, Rugova was elected, on December 23, 1989, by the founding president of the Democratic League of Kosovo, the first political party in Kosovo that directly challenged the communist regime in power. LDK, under his leadership, quickly became the leading political force in Kosovo, gathering the majority of the people around him.

In cooperation with other Albanian political forces in Kosovo as well as with the then Assembly of Kosovo, Rugova and the LDK completed the legal framework for the institutionalization of Kosovo's independence. The Declaration of Independence (July 2, 1990), the declaration of Kosovo as a Republic and the adoption of its Constitution (September 7, 1990), the popular referendum on the independence and sovereignty of Kosovo, held at the end of September 1991, was a prelude to the first multi-party elections for the Assembly of Kosovo, on May 24, 1992.

Doctor Ibrahim Rugova was elected president of the Republic of Kosovo. He was re-elected to this post in the elections held in March 1998.

Under his leadership, the LDK won the majority of votes in the first internationally sponsored local elections in post-war Kosovo in October 2000, as well as the first national elections in 2001 and the second local elections in 2002. The LDK won and the national elections in 2004.

Doctor Ibrahim Rugova was elected president of Kosovo in March 2002 and was re-elected in 2004.

He passed away on January 21, 2006 in Pristina and was buried in the "Coast of the Sun", with the highest honors of the people of Kosovo.

On the anniversary of his death on January 21, 2007, President Fatmir Sejdiu decorated the historical president of Kosovo with the "Hero of Kosovo" Order, the highest title in the country given to Albanian and Kosovo historical figures who have done "acts of bravery for freedom and the independence of Kosovo".

Ibrahim Rugova has published the following works:

- Lyrical touch, Rilindja, Pristina, 1971

- Towards theory, Rilindja, Pristina, 1978

- Bibliography of Albanian literary criticism 1944-1974, Albanian Institute, Prishtina, 1976 (together with Isak Shema)

- Literary criticism (from De Rada to Migjeni), Rilindja, Pristina, 1979 (together with Sabri Hamiti)

- Strategy of meaning, Rilindja, Pristina, 1980

- The work of Bogdan 1675-1685, Rilindja, Pristina, 1982

- Areas and premises of Albanian literary criticism 1504-1983, Institute of Albanian Studies, Pristina, 1986

- Aesthetic rejection, Rilindja, Pristina, 1987

- Independence and democracy, Fjala, Pristina, 1991

- The issue of Kosovo, Dukagjini, Pejë, 1994

- The set of works by Ibrahim Rugova in eight volumes, Faik Konica, Pristina, 2005

Ibrahim Rugova's international awards and titles:

- In 1995, Dr. Ibrahim Rugova was awarded the Peace Prize of the Paul Litzer Foundation in Denmark

- In 1996, Dr. Ibrahim Rugova was declared an Honorary Doctor (Honoris Causa) of the University of Paris VIII, Sorbonne, France

- In 1998, Dr. Ibrahim Rugova was awarded the Sakharov Prize of the European Parliament

- In 1999, Dr. Rugova received the Peace Prize of the city of Münster, Germany, while he was declared an honorary citizen of the Italian cities: Venice, Milan and Brescia.

- In 2000, Dr. Ibrahim Rugova received the Peace Prize of the Democratic Union of Catalonia "Manuel Carrasco i Formiguerra" in Barcelona, ​​Spain

- In 2004, Dr. Ibrahim Rugova was awarded the Europe Prize, Honorary Senator by the pan-European Coudenhove-Kalergi Foundation

- Also honored by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (USA), "Friend of the United States of America"

- In 2004, Dr. Ibrahim Rugova was declared an Honorary Doctor (Honoris Causa) of the University of Tirana.