Rexhepi, who was being treated in a private hospital in Turkey died at the age of 63. Rexhepi was in a coma since April, when he suffered a brain aneurysm.

Fellow party member and leader of the Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, Kadri Veseli, said his death was a great loss.

“Extremely saddened by the news about the death of Bajram Rexhepi, the former Kosovo Prime Minister and former Deputy President of the PDK. It is a great loss for our country. His contribution to Kosovo was great and the people of Kosovo will remember Bajram as a hardworking and very responsible man,” wrote Veseli on his official Facebook page.

A doctor by profession, Rexhepi served as Kosovo’s first Prime Minister after the Kosovo war between 2002 and 2004. During the 2004 March riots, in which 19 people died and hundreds of Serbian homes were burned, Rexhepi played a major role in placating the situation.

Kosovo President and former PDK leader Hashim Thaci also expressed his condolences.

“I am devastated by news of the premature death of the former prime minister, my dear friend and colleague Dr. Bajram Rexhepi,” Thaci wrote on Twitter.

Other dignitaries also took to social media to express their condolences, with former President Atifete Jahjaga writing on Facebook that she was “honored and had the pleasure of knowing him personally during the difficult beginnings of Kosovo’s state-building process.”

Rexhepi’s successor Ramush Haradinaj, the leader of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, AAK, also commented on the sad news on Facebook.

“Kosovo has lost a man dedicated to its freedom and democracy, its first Prime Minister that together with other political forces, led the difficult process of revitalizing the country and an excellent doctor that helped people in time of peace and war,” wrote Haradinaj.