A surviving child of an assassinated Balkan legislator is one of the latest permanent hires for the House Foreign Affairs Committee Democrats.
Rudina Hajdari, whose father was Member of Parliament Azem Hajdari, has been on the Hill since last year as an intern but is now a staff associate.
The elder Hajdari started his political career as a student leader in the pro-democracy movement against the ruling Party of Labour of Albania in 1990. Shortly afterwards, he was one of the founders and the first chairman of the first non-Communist party in Albania since World War II. His life was cut short when he, and his bodyguards, were gunned down right outside the offices of the Democratic Party in Tirana in 1998. There had been at least two other attempts made on his life beforehand.
Rudina Hajdari, who is working under Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), earned her BA in political science from Fordham University and her MA in geopolitics, territory and security from King's College in London. She also earned a certificate in international humanitarian law and law of armed conflict from the U.S. Institute of Peace.
She later spent two years in Albania's Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a junior analyst.
Engel is co-chair of the Albanian Issues Caucus.
