Arben Taravari

Arben Taravari (Арбен Таравари; born 9 April 1973) is a Macedonian doctor and politician. He was elected mayor of Gostivar Municipality in 2017 and served as Minister of Health in the same year. A member of the Alliance for Albanians, he came fifth of seven candidates in the 2024 North Macedonian presidential election.

Biography
Born in Gostivar, SFR Yugoslavia, Taravari graduated from the Faculty of Medicine at the Ss. Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje in 1998. He completed his specialisms in neurology (2006) and family medicine (2011). Since 2010 he is a lecturer at his alma mater, and in 2011 he defended his thesis on Parkinson's disease.

An ethnic Albanian and member of the Alliance for Albanians, Taravari was one of two party members named in the government of Zoran Zaev starting in July 2017. He resigned in October. He was elected mayor of his hometown in 2017 and 2021.

In the 2024 North Macedonian presidential election, Taravari came fifth of seven candidates, receiving 83,393 votes (over 9%) in the first round. He had said that year that the Constitution of North Macedonia should be amended to guarantee one of the three main offices – president, prime minister, speaker of the parliament – to Albanians. He also said that Bulgarians should be recognised in the constitution, that the constitution should be revised to name the Albanian language explicitly, and for the president to be voted indirectly by parliament.