Tahiri was one of the organizers of the 1981 protests that took place on March 11, 1981, in Pristina. While many believed the protest to be spontaneous, it was in fact planned and organized by Gani Koci, Bajram Kosumi, and others. On 1–2 April 1981, organized demonstrations began, asking for recognition of a Kosovar Republic. Tahiri organized his fellow citizens around his ideology of freeing Kosovo from Serbian influence.