Clever King of European Muslims, Islamic world, Turkish world and naturally Bosnia and Herzegovina It has been 19 years since Aliya Izetbegovic handed away.
Izetbegovic, the primary President of impartial Bosnia and Herzegovina, who struggled to awaken the non secular and nationwide consciousness of Muslim Bosniaks throughout the former Yugoslavia, and was imprisoned twice for this trigger, is commemorated on the nineteenth anniversary of his loss of life.
In accordance with the information of AA, Izetbegovic, who has struggled since his youth to lift the attention of Islam and to make Muslim Bosnians equal with different peoples within the nation, managed to guard his nation’s independence within the assaults launched by Serbs and Croats within the Nineteen Nineties to divide Bosnia and Herzegovina amongst themselves.
The Clever King’s childhood
Aliya Izetbegovic was born within the metropolis of Bosanski Samac on August 8, 1925, as one of many 5 kids of Mustafa and Hiba couple. Izetbegovic, who moved to Sarajevo together with his household when he was 3 years previous and accomplished his training there, was among the many names who opposed discrimination in opposition to the Muslim inhabitants in his youth.
Whereas the Second World Struggle was occurring, the fascist Ustaše regime in Croatia annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina and established the Unbiased State of Croatia (NDH).
Whereas the Muslims within the nation had been declared as “Croats”, Jews, Serbs and Roma had been subjected to nice persecution. Muslim Bosnians and Croats who didn’t agree with the regime additionally suffered from this persecution. However, the Chetnik motion, shaped by “racist” Serbs, started to bloodbath Muslims within the areas the place it was lively. The primary aim of the Chetniks was to fully clear all non-Serbs from this geography.
Through the former Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Izetbegovic was among the many outstanding figures of the “Younger Muslims”, whose primary function was to lift consciousness of Muslim Bosniaks within the nation on non secular and nationwide points. This motion aimed to make sure Muslims acquire equal rights with different ethnic and non secular teams within the nation, in addition to to rebuild Muslim homes and mosques destroyed by Chetniks and Ustaše.
First jail sentence
Though the Federal Folks’s Republic of Yugoslavia, which was established after the Second World Struggle, was victorious over fascism, it didn’t remedy the issues of Muslim Bosniaks in non secular and nationwide issues. Some members of the “Younger Muslims” formation, together with Izetbegovic, had been arrested in 1946 for his or her actions to “elevate non secular consciousness”. Izetbegovic, 21, was sentenced to three years in jail.
After getting out of jail, Izetbegovic enrolled within the college of agriculture, and a couple of years later, he went to the legislation college and graduated from there.
Izetbegovic married Halida in 1949 and had three kids named Leyla, Sabina and Bakir.
Persevering with the battle for human rights within the former Yugoslavia led by Josip Broz Tito, who had Marxist-Leninist views, Izetbegovic wrote articles in newspapers and magazines reminiscent of “Preporod”, “Calendar” and “Glasnik” with out revealing his id. Izetbegovic revealed his articles underneath the pseudonym “LSB”, which consists of his kids’s initials.
Izetbegovic, who’s carefully within the state of affairs within the Islamic world, revealed his work “Islam Declaration”, which he began to jot down within the Sixties, in 1970.
“Sarajevo Course of” and second imprisonment
With the loss of life of Tito in 1980, ultra-nationalist rhetoric re-emerged in Yugoslavia. In these years, “expression crime” was added to the penal code. Izetbegovic was arrested with 12 Muslim intellectuals in 1983, simply earlier than the publication of his work “Islam Between East and West”.
The historic trial known as the “Sarajevo Course of” started. Izetbegovic and different Muslim intellectuals had been discovered responsible of the crime of expression and of participating in hostile exercise by forming an organized group. Izetbegovic’s conviction was primarily based on his statements in his e-book “Declaration of Islam”. Izetbegovic was sentenced to 14 years in jail.
Persevering with to jot down whereas he was in jail, Izetbegovic wrote his work “My Escape to Freedom – Notes from the Dungeon: 1983-1988” right here.
Izetbegovic was pardoned in 1988.
Izetbegovic was elected the primary chief of the Democratic Motion Get together (SDA), which was based in 1990 and is at this time the biggest Bosniak get together in Bosnia and Herzegovina. SDA gained essentially the most votes in Bosnia and Herzegovina within the first multi-party election, whereas Izetbegovic grew to become the president of Bosnia and Herzegovina, one of many 6 socialist republics within the former Yugoslavia.
conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Yugoslavia started to disintegrate within the early Nineteen Nineties. Whereas the Yugoslav Folks’s Military (JNA) was frightening conflicts in Slovenia in 1991, clashes broke out in Croatia shortly thereafter. These conflicts additionally unfold to the villages of Ravno and Popovo in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1991.
With the disintegration of Yugoslavia, the problem of independence additionally got here to the fore in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Serbian politician Radovan Karadzic, who would later be sentenced to life imprisonment for his crimes within the conflict in Bosnia, opposed the concept of independence and argued that if there was a conflict, the Muslims within the nation would perish.
The historic “independence” referendum was held on 29 February-1 March 1992. 99.7 % of those that participated within the referendum, which nearly all of Bosnian Serbs boycotted, stated “sure” to impartial Bosnia and Herzegovina.
After the referendum, the JNA and the paramilitary Serb teams it armed launched assaults in several cities of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Izetbegovic was calling on all Bosnians to withstand these assaults, and the pro-independence supporters had been combating a tricky battle underneath the management of Izetbegovic.
Serbian paramilitary teams carried out huge massacres of civilians, together with girls and kids. Folks had been pushed from their properties, girls had been raped, the whole lot associated to Islam and Muslims was destroyed, and unbelievable torture was accomplished to civilians in focus camps.
Those that defended the independence of the nation had been combating in opposition to the Serbs within the north and east, whereas they had been combating a fierce battle with the Croats within the south and west.
Main massacres and genocides befell in lots of cities reminiscent of Prijedor, Bijelina, Zvornik, Visegrad, Srebrenica and Foça, in addition to the capital Sarajevo, which was underneath siege by the Serbian forces for 3.5 years.
First President of impartial Bosnia and Herzegovina
The toll of the conflict, which resulted in 1995 with the Dayton Peace Settlement, was very heavy. Whereas practically 200 thousand folks misplaced their lives, greater than 1 million needed to go away their properties.
With the settlement, Bosnia and Herzegovina was divided into Brcko Autonomous Area with two entities (Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska). The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina would additionally include 10 cantons.
Relating to Dayton, which introduced a posh political construction to the nation, though Izetbegovic silenced the weapons, “This isn’t a simply peace, however it’s higher than persevering with conflict.” had used the phrases.
Alija Izetbegovic grew to become the primary President of “impartial” Bosnia and Herzegovina and later the primary President of the Presidential Council within the new political construction.
Izetbegovic handed away on October 19, 2003
Izetbegovic, who resigned from his publish within the Presidency Council in 2000 on account of well being issues, introduced that he wouldn’t be a candidate for the presidency at his get together’s congress in 2001.
Aliya Izetbegovic, who left the folks of Bosnia and Herzegovina with an internationally acknowledged, impartial and sovereign state, died on October 19, 2003 within the capital Sarajevo.
The final statesman Izetbegovic met with earlier than his loss of life was President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The Bosnian chief, whose funeral was attended by greater than 150 thousand folks from completely different international locations, was buried within the Kovaçi Cemetery in Sarajevo after he made his will that he “needed to be buried in a modest grave among the many martyrs” earlier than his loss of life.
Izetbegovic, who can also be recognized for his mental character, left behind works reminiscent of “Islam Between East and West”, “Declaration of Islam”, “My Escape to Freedom”, “My Witness to Historical past” and “We Will Not Be Slaves”.