Editing Azem Vllasi

{{Short description|Kosovar politician}}
{{Infobox President
| name                = Azem Vllasi
| image               = Stevan Kraguljevic, Azem Vlasi.JPG
| order               = [[President of the League of Communists of Kosovo]]
| term_start          = 29 April 1986
| term_end            = 27 April 1988
| predecessor         = Kolë Shiroka
| successor           = [[Kaqusha Jashari]]
| birth_date          = {{Birth date and age|1948|12|23|df=y}}
| birth_place         = [[Kamenica, Kosovo|Kosovska Kamenica]], [[Socialist Republic of Serbia|PR Serbia]], [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|FPR Yugoslavia]]<br>{{small|(now [[Kamenica, Kosovo|Kamenica]], [[Kosovo]])}}
| party               = [[Social Democratic Party of Kosovo|Kosovar Social Democratic]] (from 2004)<br>[[League of Communists of Kosovo|Kosovar League of Communists]] (until 1989)
| profession          = lawyer, politician
| spouse              = Nadira Avdić-Vllasi
| caption             = 
}}

'''Azem Vllasi''' (born 23 December 1948) is a [[Kosovo Albanian]] politician and lawyer. He served as the [[President of the League of Communists of Kosovo|president of the presidency of the Provincial Committee]] of the [[League of Communists of Kosovo]] (LKK) from 29 April 1986 to 27 April 1988. A critic of [[Slobodan Milošević]], Vllasi was removed from power amidst the [[anti-bureaucratic revolution]].<ref>{{Cite book |title=Confronting the Yugoslav controversies: a scholars' initiative |date=2009 |publisher=Purdue Univ. Press [u.a.] |isbn=978-1-55753-533-7 |editor-last=Ingrao |editor-first=Charles W. |series=Central European studies |location=West Lafayette, Ind. |pages=278 |editor-last2=Emmert |editor-first2=Thomas Allan}}</ref> He later became a lawyer and political consultant.

== Early years ==
Vllasi was born in Robovac, [[Kosovska Kamenica]], [[Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]], in today's [[Kosovo]].
In his youth and student years, Vllasi chaired a number of youth organizations: the student league of Kosovo and of Yugoslavia, and from 1974, the [[League of Socialist Youth of Yugoslavia]]. As socialist youth chairman, he became popular and gained the support of President [[Josip Broz Tito|Tito]], which helped him to become the first re-elected youth leader. After graduation, he became a [[lawyer]] before joining big politics. In 1980, he publicly challenged the autocratic ruler of [[Albania]], [[Enver Hoxha]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://files.osa.ceu.hu/holdings/300/8/3/text/85-3-38.shtml |title=RAD Background Report}}{{dead link|date=October 2016 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> claiming that ethnic Albanians in Yugoslavia were better off than people in Albania and describing his rule as brutal and dictatorial. Azem Vllasi was a Chevening Scholarship holder in early 1970s and studied at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.{{cn|date=May 2025}}

== Leader of Kosovo and dismissal ==
Later on, Vllasi became a member of the [[central committee]] of the [[League of Communists of Yugoslavia]] and became the leader of the [[League of Communists of Kosovo]] in 1986. Under Vllasi, the [[League of Communists of Yugoslavia|Albanian-led Party]] took a more assertive position towards the [[Serbia]]n government, and could be expected to put up strong opposition to any moves to reassert Serbian authority over Kosovo. The [[Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo|autonomous province of Kosovo]] at the time had an equal vote in the [[Presidency of the SFRY|federal presidency]] of [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]] with the Yugoslav republics, and its own executive body, legislature, and judiciary.

In November 1988, [[Kaqusha Jashari]], who had succeeded Vllasi as LKK president in April, and Vlassi himself were toppled in the [[Anti-bureaucratic revolution]] because of their unwillingness to accept the constitutional amendments curbing Kosovo's autonomy, and replaced by appointees of [[Slobodan Milošević]], the leader of the [[League of Communists of Serbia]] at the time. In response to this, the local population started a series of public [[Demonstration (people)|demonstrations]] and a [[general strike]], particularly the [[1989 Kosovo miners' strike]].

A partial [[state of emergency]] in Kosovo was declared on February 27, 1989, and the newly appointed leaders resigned on February 28. Soon thereafter, Kosovo's legislature, under a threat of force authorised by the federal presidency, acquiesced and passed the amendments allowing Serbia to assert its authority over Kosovo. Vllasi was arrested by the police on the charges of "counter-revolutionary activities". He was released from the Točak prison in [[Titova Mitrovica]] in April 1990.

== Today ==
Vllasi survived the war years and works today as a lawyer, author, and political adviser/consultant. He is a member of the [[Social Democratic Party of Kosovo]] (PSDK).  In December 2005, Kosovo's prime minister [[Bajram Kosumi]] appointed Vllasi as special adviser for negotiations over the final status of Kosovo.  Vllasi also served as a political advisor to Kosovo's prime minister [[Agim Çeku]].

Vllasi is married to Nadira Avdić-Vllasi, a [[Bosniaks|Bosniak]] journalist. They have two children, Adem, a practicing attorney in the United States, and Selma, a medical practitioner who also lives and works in the United States.

===Assassination attempt===
On 13 March 2017, Vllasi was wounded in an attack at the entrance of his office where he worked as a lawyer. The would-be assassin, Murat Jashari, was later arrested together with an accomplice.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://gazetametro.net/arrestohet-murat-jashari-i-dyshuari-per-plagosjen-e-vllasit/ | title=Arrestohet Murat Jashari, i dyshuari për plagosjen e Vllasit |website=gazetametro.net |date=13 March 2017}}</ref> Jashari was sentenced to psychiatric treatment at the Institute of Forensic Psychiatry in Pristina, where he died of cancer on 3 March 2021.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://kallxo.com/lajm/vdes-murat-jashari-i-akuzuar-per-plagosjen-e-azem-vllasit/ | title=Vdes Murat Jashari, i akuzuar për plagosjen e Azem Vllasit |website=kallxo.com | date=3 March 2021 }}</ref>

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20071013020458/http://bosanskaposta.no/vise.php?article_id=369&category_id=7 Interview (in Bosnian)]

{{s-start}}
{{succession box |
  | before = [[Slobodan Filipović]]
  | after = [[Zdravko Mutin]]
  | title = President of the<br>[[Yugoslav Olympic Committee]]
  | years = 1982 – 1983
|}}
{{S-end}}

{{SKK Chairman}}
{{LCY Presidency}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vllasi, Azem}}
[[Category:1948 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:People from Kamenica, Kosovo]]
[[Category:Kosovo Albanians]]
[[Category:Social Democratic Party of Kosovo politicians]]
[[Category:Kosovan writers]]
[[Category:University of Pristina alumni]]
[[Category:Kosovan lawyers]]
[[Category:Kosovan prisoners and detainees]]
[[Category:Prisoners and detainees of Yugoslavia]]
[[Category:Yugoslav prisoners and detainees]]
[[Category:Kosovan Muslims]]
[[Category:League of Communists of Kosovo politicians]]
[[Category:Ex officio members of the Presidency of the 12th Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia]]
[[Category:Ex officio members of the Presidency of the 13th Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia]]
[[Category:Members of the Central Committee of the 12th Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia]]
[[Category:Members of the Central Committee of the 13th Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia]]
[[Category:Yugoslav Albanians]]