Alfred Moisiu

President of Albania

(Albania Government, Official Presidential Website)

Alfred Moisiu was sworn in as the president of Albania on June 24, 2002, becoming the head of state at age 73. He replaced Rexhep Meidani.

Moisiu, a military pioneer engineer, was born on 1 December 1929, in Shkodër, Albania. From 1943 to1945 he participated at the Antifaschist war for the liberation of Albania. He went to school for his Military Engineering degree in Saint Petersburg, from 1946 to1948 and from 1952 to 1958 in Moscow, where he graduated the Military Engineering Academy with a Gold Medal. In 1995, he attended a course for high military officials at the NATO college in Rome. Moisiu received his PhD in Military Sciences in 1979.

Moisiu carried out many duties in the Albanian Armed Forces and in the Defense Ministry, until he became Deputy Minister of Defense from 1971 to 1981. In 1982, he was politically neglected for almost a decade, until the fall of the communist regime. In 1992, he became Minister of Defense in the Technical Government that replaced the administration of Ramiz Alia.

Moisiu served as the Deputy Minister of Defense from 1994 to 1997, when civil unrest and popular protests knocked out the administration of Sali Berisha. From 1994 until he was elected president, he chaired the Albanian Atlantic Association.

When he was elected President of Albania in 2002, he had to give up his retirement for the third time. His election was a result of an historic agreement between ruling socialist leader Fatos Nano and Berisha.

Moisiu says he will stand above political interests. He says he aspires for peace in the Balkans and the NATO membership of Albania.