Alija Izetbegović

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Alija Izetbegović
1st President of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina
In office
20 December 1990 – 14 March 1996
Prime Minister Jure Pelivan
Mile Akmadžić
Haris Silajdžić
Hasan Muratović
Preceded by Obrad Piljak (As President of the SR Bosnia and Herzegovina)
Succeeded by Živko Radišić (As President of the Tripartite presidency)
1st Bosniak member of the
Bosnian-Herzegovinian Presidency
In office
14 March 1996 – 15 October 2000
Succeeded by Halid Genjac
Personal details
Born (1925-08-08)8 August 1925
Bosanski Šamac, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Nationality Bosniak
Political party Party of Democratic Action
Spouse(s) Halida Repovac
Profession Politician, activist, lawyer, author, and philosopher
Religion Sunni Islam

Alija Izetbegović (Bosnian pronunciation: [alija izɛtbɛɡɔʋitɕ]) (8 August 1925 – 19 October 2003) was a Bosniak politician, activist, lawyer, author, and philosopher who in 1990 became the first President of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He served in this role until 1996, when he became a member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, serving until 2000. He was also the author of several books, most notably Islam Between East and West and the Islamic Declaration.

Early life[edit]

Izetbegović was born in the town of Bosanski Šamac, situated in the north of Bosnia; he was one of five children born to a distinguished but impoverished family descended from former Slavic Ottoman aristocrats from Belgrade who fled to Bosnia in 1868, after Serbia gained independence from the Ottoman Empire. His grandfather, Alija, was the mayor of Bosanski Šamac. While his grandfather Alija was a soldier in Üsküdar, he married a Turkish woman, Sıdıka Hanım. The couple moved to Šamac and had five children. His father, an accountant, declared bankruptcy in 1927, and the next year the family moved to Sarajevo. With a devoted family and Muslim upbringing, he received a secular education and graduated from Sarajevo Law School.[when?]

Around the same time he joined the Mladi Muslimani (Young Muslims), a Nazi-affiliated SS Division Handžar unit[1] during the Second World War. After the war, Izetbegović was arrested in 1946 and sentenced to three years in prison for his wartime activities.[2] Once free, he earned a law degree at Sarajevo University and remained engaged in politics.[3] Izetbegović was married four times. He had a son, Bakir, who also entered politics, as well as two daughters.[2]

Dissident and activist[edit]

In 1970, Izetbegović published a manifesto entitled the Islamic Declaration, expressing his views on relationships between Islam, state and society. The authorities interpreted the declaration as a call for introduction of Sharia law in Bosnia, and banned the publication.[4] The declaration remains a source of controversy. It was used by Serb nationalists to justify the war, often quoting the declaration as an intent to create an Iranian style Muslim republic in Bosnia.[4] Passages from the declaration were frequently quoted by Izetbegović's opponents during the 1990s, who considered it to be an open statement of Islamic fundamentalism. [5] The opinion is shared by some Western authors such as John Schindler.[6]

Izetbegović vigorously denied such accusations.[4] British author Noel Malcolm asserted that the Serb nationalist interpretation of the Declaration was false propaganda and offered a more benevolent reading.[7] Explaining that it was "a general treatise on politics and Islam, directed towards the entire Muslim world; it is not about Bosnia and does not even mention Bosnia" and that "none of these points can be described as fundamentalist". Malcolm argues that Izetbegović's views were much more thoroughly expressed in his later book, Islam between East and West, where he presented Islam as a kind of spiritual and intellectual synthesis which included the values of West Europe."[7]

Izetbegović wrote the book Islam between East and West in 1980. It explores the notion that "Islam is the only synthesis capable of unifying mankind's essentially dualistic existence".[citation needed]








Bosnian War[edit]

HDZ leader Stjepan Kljuić, SDS leader Radovan Karadžić, and SDA leader Izetbegović in Sarajevo, 1992

In February 1992, Izetbegović called a national referendum on independence for Bosnia as a European condition for recognition of Bosnia as an independent state, despite warnings from the Serbian members of the presidency that any move to independence would result in the Serbian-inhabited areas of Bosnia seceding to remain with the rump Yugoslavia. The referendum was boycotted by Serbs, who regarded it as an unconstitutional move, but achieved a 99.4% vote in favour on a 67% turnout (almost entirely constituted of Bosniaks and Croats).[citation needed]


Izetbegović consistently promoted the idea of a multi-ethnic Bosnia under central control, which seemed a hopeless strategy under the circumstances. The Bosnian Croats, disillusioned with the Sarajevo government and supported militarily and financially by the Croatian government, increasingly turned to establishing their own ethnically-based state of Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia in Herzegovina and Central Bosnia. The Croats pulled out of the Sarajevo government and fighting broke out in 1993. In most areas local armistices were signed between the Serbs and Croats (Kreševo, Vareš, Jajce). Croat forces launched their first attacks on Bosniaks in Gornji Vakuf and Novi Travnik, towns in Central Bosnia on June 1992, but these attacks failed.[citation needed] The Graz agreement caused deep division among Croats and strengthened the separatist group, which led to the Lašva Valley ethnic cleansing campaign against Bosniak civilians. The campaign planned by the self-proclaimed Croatian Community of Herzeg-Bosnia's political and military leadership from May 1992 to March 1993 and erupting the following April, was meant to implement objectives set forth by Croat nationalists in November 1991.[11][12][13]


For three and a half years, Izetbegović lived precariously in a besieged Sarajevo surrounded by Serb forces. He denounced the failure of Western countries to reverse Serbian aggression and turned instead to the Muslim world, with which he had already established relations during his days as a dissident. The Bosnian government received money and arms. Following massacres on Bosnian Muslims by Serb and, to a lesser extent, Croat forces, Arab volunteers came across Croatia into Bosnia to join the Bosnian Army. They were organized into detachment called El-Mudžahid. The number of the El-Mudžahid volunteers is still disputed, from around 300[14][15] to 1,500.[14] Foreign fighters, styling themselves mujahiddin, turned up in Bosnia around 1993 with Croatian identity documents and passports. They quickly attracted heavy criticism amplified by Serbian and Croatian propaganda, who considered their presence to be evidence of violent Islamic fundamentalism at the heart of Europe. However, the foreign volunteers became unpopular even with many of the Bosniak population, because the Bosnian army had thousands of troops and no need for more soldiers, but for arms. Many Bosnian Army officers and intellectuals were suspicious regarding foreign volunteers arrival in central part of the country, because they came from Split and Zagreb in Croatia, and were passed through the self-proclaimed Croatian Community of Herzeg-Bosnia unlike Bosnian Army soldiers who were regularly arrested by Croat forces. According to general Stjepan Šiber, the highest ranking ethnic Croat in Bosnian Army, the key role in foreign volunteers arrival was played by Franjo Tuđman and Croatian counter-intelligence underground with the aim to justify involvement of Croatia in Bosnian War and mass crimes committed by Croat forces. Although Izetbegović regarded them as symbolically valuable as a sign of the Muslim world's support for Bosnia, they appear to have made little military difference and became a major political liability.[15]

In 1993, Izetbegović agreed to a peace plan that would divide Bosnia along ethnic lines but continued to insist on a unitary Bosnia government from Sarajevo and on the allocation to the Bosniaks of a large percentage of Bosnia's territory. The war between the Bosniaks and Croats was eventually ended by a truce brokered with the aid of the Americans in March 1994, following which the two sides collaborated more closely against the Serbs. NATO then became increasingly involved in the conflict with occasional "pinprick" bombings conducted against the Bosnian Serbs, generally following violations of ceasefires and the no-fly zone over Bosnia. The Bosnian Croat forces benefited indirectly from the military training given to the Croatian Army by the American military consultancy Military Professional Resources, Inc. In addition, the Croatians provided considerable quantities of weaponry to the Bosnian Croats and much smaller amounts to the Bosnian Army, despite a UN weapons embargo. Most of the Bosnian Army's supply of weapons was air-lifted from the Muslim world, specifically Iran – an issue which became the subject of some controversy and a US congressional investigation in 1996. In September 1993, the Congress of Bosniak Intellectuals (Drugi bošnjački sabor) officially re-introduced the historical ethnic name Bosniaks. The Yugoslav "Muslim by nationality" policy was considered by Bosniaks to be neglecting and opposing their Bosnian identity because the term tried to describe Bosniaks as a religious group not an ethnic one.[16]

Ending the war[edit]



After the war[edit]

Alija Izetbegović's grave in Sarajevo

After the Bosnian War was formally ended by the Dayton peace accord in November 1995, Izetbegović became a Member President of Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina. His party's power declined after the international community installed a High Representative to oversee affairs of state, with more power than the presidents or parliaments of either the Bosniak-Croat or Serb entities. He stepped down in October 2000 at the age of 74, citing his bad health. However, Izetbegović remained popular with the Bosniak public, who nicknamed him Dedo (which in Bosnian means grandfather). His endorsement helped his party to bounce back in the 2002 elections.[citation needed]


He died in October 2003 of heart disease complicated by injuries suffered from a fall at home. An ICTY investigation of Izetbegović was in progress, but ended with his death.[18][19] Following his death there was an initiative to rename a part of the main street of Sarajevo from Ulica Maršala Tita (Marshal Tito Street) and the Sarajevo International Airport in his honour. Following objections from politicians from Republika Srpska, the international community, and UN envoy Paddy Ashdown, both initiatives failed.[20] On 11 August 2006, Izetbegović's grave at the Kovači cemetery in Sarajevo was badly damaged by a bomb. The identity of the bomber or bombers has not been determined.[21]

Personal life[edit]

In October 2006, his son Bakir (born 1956) was elected to a four-year term in the Parliament of Bosnia and Herzegovina as a representative of the SDA. Four years later, in October 2010, he too was elected to the Presidency as the Bosniak member.[citation needed]


Available in English

  • Notes From Prison – 1983–1988
  • The Islamic Declaration, Alija Izetbegović, s.n., 1991

Available in Bosnian

  • Govori i pisma, Alija Izetbegović, SDA, 1994


  1. ^ "Alija Izetbegovic was a member of the "Young Muslims", one of four Nazi units of Muslims"
  3. ^ a b Nedžad Latić, Boja povijesti, ISBN COBISS.BH-ID
  6. ^ John R. Schindler, Zenith Press (2007)
  7. ^ a b Noel Malcolm. Bosnia: a short history. 
  9. ^ YouTube
  10. ^ "ICTY: The attack against the civilian population and related requirements". 
  13. ^ "ICTY: Summary of sentencing judgement for Miroslav Bralo". 
  15. ^ a b "Predrag Matvejević analysis". 
  17. ^ Dianna Johnstone. Fool's Crusade, London: 2002 [ISBN missing]


Political offices
Preceded by
Nijaz Duraković
President of the Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina
post created
President of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Succeeded by
Živko Radišić
Tripartite presidency