Johan Tarčulovski

Johan Tarčulovski, sometimes spelled Johan Tarculovski, is a Macedonian war veteran and a former inspector for the escort service provided to Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski. He participated in the insurgency in the Republic of Macedonia.

Career
His political career began after the independence of the Republic of Macedonia in 1991 and was one of the early members of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization - Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity. In 1993, he was named president of the Cair Municipality Youth Force Union.

With the victory of VMRO-DPMNE in the 1998 elections Tarculovski joined the security crew for the Prime Minister of the Republic of Macedonia Ljubco Georgievski. In 1999 he was appointed as bodyguard of the President of Macedonia. He remained as his bodyguard until Trajkovski's tragic plane crash.

In 2001 he participated in the Macedonian-Albanian Conflict. The events of the war had severe consequences for Tarculovski. He was brought before the international court in Hague, convicted and sentenced to 12 years in prison. He stayed in jail from March 21, 2005 to April 11, 2013, when he was released from a German prison.

War criminal
He was convicted and sentenced by the Hague prosecution for war crimes on August 12, 2001 in Ljuboten. After spending eight years in prison he returned to his homeland where he was greeted as a "war hero."

Personal life
He was born in the village Ljubanci (in Butel Municipality) on November 17, 1974. He finished agricultural high school, Braka Miladinovci.

Tarčulovski married Macedonian folk singer Sonja Tarčulovska (née Veličkova). They have two children.