Today marks seven years since the first post-war former prime minister of Kosovo, Bajram Rexhepi, passed away.

In April 2017, the former prime minister was admitted to the KKUK due to a health attack on vital organs, while he was then sent to Turkey for recovery abroad.

After a five-month battle with the disease, Rexhepi passed away on August 21, 2017, leaving behind his wife and daughter.

Bajram Rexhepi was born in Mitrovica on June 3, 1954. He completed his postgraduate studies in Zagreb in 1985. He worked as a general surgeon and endoscopic specialist in the regional hospital of Mitrovica until 1990.

Rexhepi spent most of his career as a surgeon and gained fame as the best surgeon in the Mitrovica region.

During the Kosovo war in 1999, Rexhepi joined the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and spent three months serving as a field doctor. He served as mayor of southern Mitrovica, working with United Nations and NATO peacekeepers to reduce civil unrest.

While the Serbs and Albanians had broken off all dialogue, Rexhepi offered to give up his position in favor of a UN administrator, but the Serbs rejected this proposal. At the same time, he was also the head of the branch of the Democratic Party of Kosovo for the city of Mitrovica.

On March 4, 2002, after three months of negotiations and with the mediation of the then head of UNMIK Michael Steiner, the Assembly of Kosovo elected Bajram Rexhepi as the first prime minister of post-war Kosovo.

On April 1, 2010, Rexhepi was appointed Minister of Internal Affairs. In the last years of his life, he completely withdrew from politics, devoting himself to his profession as a surgeon.