Biography

Behgjet Isa Pacolli (born with August 30 1951 in March, Pristina) is politician and Albanian entrepreneur from Kosovo, which has served as The third president of the Republic of Kosovo. Also, he was the First Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Kosovo as well as the Minister of Foreign Affairs in the period 2017/2020 as well as in the period 2011/2014.

Voted as Deputy of the Assembly of Kosovo 5 mandates, since 2007 and continues, he is also a signatory of Independence of the Republic of Kosovo on 17.02.2008.

Early life and schooling

He finished primary school in March, while high school in Pristina. He completed his higher education in Hamburg The Germany, at the Institute of Foreign Trade, to continue with specialization in management Marketing and Management at the Mösinger Institute Zurich (1980-1982).

Behgjet Pacolli speaks several foreign languages: English, french, german, Italian, Russian, spanish, Serbo Croatian, etc. He is the son of Isa and Nazmija, the second of 10 children, married to Mrs. Masha Pacolli. He is the parent of six children: three girls and three boys (Arbresha, Selena, Hana, Isa, Diari and Arman).

Career to the heights of business success

After completing his studies, in 1973, he moved to Kosovo to be employed as a Foreign Language Correspondent at the Textile Factory, Gjilan. There, he also held the position of deputy director for development until 1975. From 1976 to 1980, Behgjet Pacolli held important managerial positions in several companies in the past.

Commercial Director for countries of origin at the company Peter Zimmer, Kufstein, Austria, and then Commercial Director, in the company Interplastica Engineering, in Morbio Inferiore IN Switzerland.

After the successes as a commercial director in the company Interplastica, he is appointed its general director. The successes of Behgjet Pacolli as the General Manager of this company were evident. During the 10-year period as the leader of the Interplastica company, he managed to increase the company's annual turnover tenfold. Thus Interplastica turns into an engineering giant, reaching a billion turnover in the early 90s.

Establishment of Mabetex Group

In the fall of 1990, he founded his company Mabetex Project Engineering, in Lugano The Switzerland. Pacolli's managerial skills and the sufficient experience gained during the previous years in management enabled Mabetex to grow quickly and very qualitatively.

Projects in Russia

Actually, Mabetex, thanks to managerial skills, wisdom and dignified behavior with the circle, methodology and professionalism, managed to undertake the implementation of very important projects such as: White House in Moscow, or the Parliament of the Russian Federation, the complete parliamentary infrastructure of Russia, the upper chamber (Federal Council of Russia) and The lower house (Duma) of Russia, the state residences of Russia, ranging from the west to the far east and from the north to the Black Sea. With Mabetex projects Russia the splendor of the imperial period returned. This was highly appreciated by the Russian state authorities and by the many visitors coming from the east and the west, all these evaluations, for the high quality and accuracy, served to raise the name of Mabetex and pave the way for the design and implementation of the historical project; The reconstruction of all buildings inside the Kremlin walls, which includes the Residence of the President of the Russian Federation, the offices of the president and his administration, with all other accompanying facilities. The faith given through this contract, Mabetexi proved with a short time of completion of the works and with high quality, which returns the Kremlin to its former identity as one of the 8 wonders of world architecture. For this splendor that returned to this complex of buildings of the 17th century, the intense interest of UNESCO also began. For this magnificent work carried out by Mabetex, by President Boris Yeltsin, Behgjet Pacolli was honored with the highest order that the Russian state gives to a foreign personality, the "State Laureate for Architecture and Art". Mabetex has also built Russia's first post-communist luxury hotel, Swiss Diamond Hotel Moscow, later called "Zolotoj Kolco" or "Golden Ring".

During the post-communist period in Russia, the Russian president, Boris Yeltsin, had strong communist political opponents, who demanded his overthrow at all costs. Thus, the political war against Yeltsin culminated in 1998, when the Prosecutor General of Russia, Yuri Skuratov, opened an investigation against Mabetex. This investigation later ended with a lack of evidence and in 2000 Pacolli sued Skuratov for defamation and defamation against him. He won the case, while Skuratov was forced to pay 1 million rubles for the damages caused against Mr. Pacolli.

In Yakutsk, Mabetex- built the largest hospital center in Russia, the administrative center of the city, the building of the Precious Stones (Diamonds) Committee, Universities, Theaters, Shopping Centers, a large number of different Factories, and one of the largest Wastewater Treatment Centers and other projects for environmental protection.

Kazakhstan

After extraordinary successes in the successful completion and in record time of projects in Russia, the President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, who had planned the transformation of the capital of his state, from Almaty in Akmola (later renamed as Astana) invites Behgjet Pacolli and his Mabetex to participate in the design and implementation of construction projects of the new capital.

Mabetex, in record time, builds the initial infrastructure (1996-1997) and enables the transformation of the capital from Almaty IN Astana on October 10, 1997.

Astana today it is one of the most modern and functional cities in the world. The contribution of Mabetex here is extremely large and it is worth noting that Mabetex, led by Behgjet Pacolli, designed and built the most vital facilities in the city such as:

Parliament Building,
the Prime Minister's building,
The buildings of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
State residences of Kazakhstan,
Presidential Palace (Akorda), which is known as the most important building of Kazakhstan. Many sports centers such as: Velo track, Hockey hall, Stadiums, Sports halls of different types and sizes, Olympic Center in Suchinsk, with the most avant-garde dancer of this time and many others. Mabetexi planned and built almost the entire hospital infrastructure of the capital.
Classical Theater of Opera and Ballet, known as an architectural wonder (Behgjet Pacolli is the author of the project),
Theater and Music Hall (Music Hall), congress center, etc.

IN Astana, Mabetex also built the three phases of the international airport, giving the city one of the most functional and modern airports. In the years 2014-2017, Mabetexi had the privilege to design and implement most of the works of Expo 2017, which was grandly inaugurated on June 10, 2017.

Central Asia

Mabetexi also operates in other countries Central Asia, like us Uzbekistan, state in which Mabetex built many facilities, starting from City Hall, up to other administrative, residential and banking facilities.

Mabetex Kosovo

The great desire to contribute to his homeland (which at that time, apart from being occupied, was also in a critical situation of poverty), pushed Behgjet Pacolli to engage the workforce and engineering exclusively from Kosovo.

Thus, in the implementation of Mabetex projects around the world, during the period 1991-2000, 4,000 to 5,000 people from Kosovo were engaged every year, helping to mitigate the difficult social situation. After the end of the war, Mr. Behgjet Pacolli decided that Mabetexi would factor directly in Kosovo, making large investments in order to improve the standard of living of the citizens and strengthen the country's economy. In addition to numerous factories, the Mabetex Group has also set up banking, insurance, design, hospital infrastructure, etc. in Pristina, the Mabetex Group has built the first luxury hotel, which even today is known as the best hotel in Southeast Europe. These and many other investments of the Mabetex Group in Kosovo generate the employment of over 4500 people.

Political Career

After a sensational life and career in the business world away from Kosovo, Mr. Behgjet Pacolli, since 2000, has dedicated himself with great will to work for the improvement of living in his hometown. Much of his potential was put into the interest of Kosovo, lobbying in Brussels and Washington, with his lobbying company "The New Kosovo Alliance” (New Kosovo Alliance), this company was created exclusively to lobby for the creation of the state of Kosovo. In this journey, B. Pacolli has collaborated with many important figures of world politics, especially American politics, such as: Frank Carlucci, Morton Abramowitz, S. Waterman, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Janusz Bugajski, Henry Kissinger, and many others.

For four years he was also a member of the board of the CSIS organization, in the committee led by Henry Kissinger.

The lobbying mission of Kosovo New Alliance, by Pacolli and other members of this organization was considered fulfilled at the moment when President Bush, during his visit to Tirana, in June 2007, declared that "Kosovo should be a state, an independent Republic, now".

From this moment, Mr. Behgjet Pacolli returned to Kosovo. At the insistence of some of his friends, the until then lobbying company, Aleanca Kosova e Re (AKR) changes its function and turns into a political party.

In the 2007 elections, AKR became the third party and led the parliamentary opposition in Kosovo, giving a great contribution to the declaration of Kosovo as an independent state. February 17, 2008. During this period, even though in the opposition, Behgjet Pacolli continued to contribute to achieving international recognition of Kosovo's citizenship.

2011 Presidency

In 2011 Mr. Behgjet Pacolli is elected 3rd President Republic of Kosovo. Immediately after taking the oath as President of the Republic, Behgjet Pacolli began a very dynamic activity at the head of the state.

Immediately after taking the oath as President of the Republic, Behgjet Pacolli began a very dynamic activity at the head of the state.

Pacolli made two state visits as president of Kosovo, in Albania and Macedonia. During this period he launched the idea of creating the Balkan Commonwealth, as a strategy to unify a common economic market that would promote economic development in these countries. He withdraws from this post due to deliberate "mistakes" in the election procedure, which were caused by the then Speaker of the Parliament of Kosovo, who absolutely also claimed the post of president. He had allowed those superficial releases during the election that later created a precedent for an equally absurd decision of the Constitutional Court, which states that the election of B. Pacolli should be repeated once more. This decision was strongly opposed as absurd by the international members of this court (Robert Carolan, constitutional judge, Almiro Rodrigues, constitutional judge), but it was approved by the area judges, who, as it was found later, were influenced by the President of this court who was positioned against Mr. Behgjet Pacolli. Despite the fact that Mr. Behgjet Pacolli could continue to exercise the office of president, he was withdrawn arbitrarily, without causing any institutional zone.

First Deputy Prime Minister of Kosovo 2011-2014 as well as in the period 2017-2020

After withdrawing from the post of president, in order to avoid the institutional blockade in an important period for the country, Mr. Behgjet Pacolli decided to continue co-governance and took the post of the first Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Kosovo. During this period, Mr. Behgjet Pacolli successfully led the lobbying campaign for the recognition and factorization of Kosovo as a state in the international arena, holding meetings with more than 100 presidents, prime ministers, or kings from different countries of the world. Despite the fact that the counter-campaign of the Serbian state against Kosovo and Mr. Behgjet Pacolli was exceptional, during this period Kosovo managed to exceed the expected number of 110 recognitions from around the world.

From 2017-2020, Mr. Behgjet Pacolli served as deputy. The first Prime Minister and as Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kosovo.

Ratings and decorations

TMK decorations;
Honors and Honors from Rochester University of Technology (Rochester);
Decorations from AUK (American University in Kosovo)
High decorations of the State of Peru, the President of Peru;
The highest state decoration of the Russian Federation (appreciations in architecture), the second foreign citizen after the American Armand Hammer to receive this decoration;
Honorary citizen of Astana, Republic of Kazakhstan;
Honorary Global Consul of Liberia (2002-2007);
Ambassador of Peace (Universal Peace Federation);
Knight of Global Peace of the Millennium; given by Centro Internazionale per la Pace fra i Popoli (International Center for Peace among Peoples) award given and Michail Gorbaciov, Perez De Cuellar, SS Giovanni Paolo II, Luciano Pavarotti, Helmut Kohl, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Kofi Annan, Bill Gates, etc;
Acknowledgment from the Foundation Nelson Mandela;
Acknowledgment from the Clinton Foundation Global Initiative.
Honorary citizen of the city of Lezha – Albania
Title "Honor of Kukës District" 2018
Honorary citizen of the city of Kukes 2018
Doctor Honoris Causa title from European university of tirana
TITLE Doctor Honoris Causa in Economics Ismail Qemali University Archived January 23, 2020 at the Wayback Machine, Albania, 2018
Honored with the "Key of Tirana"
Honorary citizen of Korca–Albania
Laureate of Gusi Peace Prize International – Manila
Honorary Citizen of Baton Rouge, State of Louisiana, US
Medal of Honor of the President of the Community College in Baton Rouge, Louisiana
The key to the city New Orleans, State of Louisiana
Honored with the special 2014 Leadership Award from POLIS International University, the award recognizes the contribution to development policy, to the pacification of Kosovo's politics, for the ideas in the creation of the National Economic Union and the humanitarian contribution.
President Nishani awards Behgjet Pacolli with the "Honour of the Nation" Decoration (2015)
The gratitude of the city of Tirana" is given to Mr. Behgjet Pacolli by the mayor Lulëzim Basha (2015)
Honored with the "Key of Tirana" by the mayor Erion Velijaj (2022)

Publications

Various publications from the socio-economic, political and cultural spheres;

Founder and publisher of the magazine "Albanica".

2004 Founder of the daily newspaper "news"

2010 Author of the autobiographical book "From Challenge to Challenge" Life Behgjet Pacolli.

2014 Author of the summary of studies, articles on the nationwide development space in the economic, financial, etc., "Union starts from the economy".

2014 Author of the documentary book "To lobby for Kosovo" the book is a collection of documents, articles, experiences, and comments on lobbying for the recognition of Kosovo. Archived September 16, 2017 at the Wayback Machine

Co-author with Mrs. Mimoza Thaqin, of the book "15 Principles of Success according to Behgjet Pacolli".

2022 "In the era of digital diplomacy" the book is a summary in the field of diplomacy on Twitter.

2022 "Here's what I had in mind" the book is a summary of Facebook activity.

2022 "Korean hostage crisis in Afghanistan"