Jaffery, Talat

Born April 15, 1962 in the village of Forino near Gostivar , Socialist Republic of Macedonia , Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia . He studied at an elementary school in the neighboring village of Chegran , and then at the Belgrade military high school. He studied at the Military Academy of the Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA) in Belgrade, after graduation he served in command and staff positions at the General Mihailo Apostolski Military Academy in Skopje . From 1985 to 1991 he was an officer of the JNA, and from 1992 to 2001 - an officer of the armed forces of the Republic of Macedonia ^[1] .

In 2001, an ethnic conflict broke out in the Republic of Macedonia. Talat Jaferi at that time was a senior officer of the armed forces of the Republic of Macedonia and served in the military unit of Tetovo . On April 28, 2001, on the day of the clashes in Weiz, he was the commander of the military unit of the Macedonian army ^[2] . Then, a few days later, Talat Jaferi deserted and joined the Albanian rebel Army of National Liberation , becoming the commander of the 116th brigade under the call sign “Commander Forino” ^[3] . After the end of hostilities fell under amnesty in accordance with the Ohrid Agreement ^[1] .

From 2004 to 2006, he was Deputy Minister of Defense of the Republic of Macedonia ^[4] , and from 2008 to 2013, Talat Jaferi was a deputy from the Democratic Union for Integration party in alliance with the conservative party. The Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization - the Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity .

In 2012, Talat Jaffery gained fame for his lengthy speeches, which were used as an obstruction tactic to block the adoption of a law on veterans, which would provide benefits to veterans of Macedonian origin, but did not take into account the rebels of the National Liberation Army ^[1] .

In 2013, he took the post of Minister of Defense of the Republic of Macedonia in the office of Nikola Gruevsky after the resignation of Fatmir Besimi . The appointment of Talat Jaferi to this position provoked protests from both ethnic North Macedonians ^{[5] [6]} (in particular, retired general Stojans Angelov from the opposition Dignity party ^[1] ) and ethnic Albanians ^[7] . Talat Jaferi declared that he would strive to make the armed forces of the Republic of Macedonia “a symbol of coexistence, tolerance and respect for differences” ^[1] .

In April 2017, Talat Jaferi was elected speaker of the Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia with the support of the coalition of the Albanian minority parties and the opposition Social Democratic Party SDSM , which led to unrest in the parliament building ^[8] . The Inner Macedonian Revolutionary Organization Party, the Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity, described the events as a “coup” ^[9] . Subsequently, the demonstrators broke into the parliament building, beating journalists and parliamentarians, the situation was resolved by the police ^{[8] [10]} .