Ali Šukrija

Ali Shukrija
2nd Communist Prime minister of Kosovo
In office 1963 – May 1967
Preceded by	Fadil Hoxha
Succeeded by	Ilija Vakić
Personal details
Born	(1919-09-12)12 September 1919 Kosovska Mitrovica, Kingdom of Serbia (in today's Kosovo)
Died	6 January 2005(2005-01-06) (aged 85) Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro
Nationality	Yugoslav
Political party	League of Communists of Kosovo

Ali Shukriu (Serbian: Али Шукрија, Ali Šukrija) was a political figure of Kosovo, during its period as an autonomous province of Yugoslavia. He served as Prime Minister of Kosovo (1963–1967), and later as President of Kosovo (1981–1982).

Early life

Ali Shukrija was born in Kosovska Mitrovica and studied medicine at the University of Belgrade before World War II. He joined the communist movement in 1939, was arrested in 1941, but was then able to join the partisans. after the war, he studied at the Djuro Djakovic high political school of Belgrade and was public prosecutor in Kosovo in 1945.

Political career

Shukrija subsequently became Serb minister of the interior and in 1950 was a member of the Serb parliament. In his later political career, Ali Shukrija was vice chairman of the executive council of Kosovo, and from 1963 to May 1967 succeeded Fadil Hoxha as chairman, becoming virtual prime minister of Kosovo. Following the purge of Xhavid Nimani in August 1981, he also served briefly, until 1982, as president of the presidium. Ali Shukrija is remembered as a particularly pro-Yugoslav politician who served Belgrade loyally in the face of a rising Albanian nationalist movement. In 1989 he resigned from Kosovo's political structures during the miners' strike.

Later life

He lived the rest of his life in retirement in Belgrade until his death in 2005.