Adil Zulfikarpašić

Zulfikarpašić was born in Foča, a town along the Drina river in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (now Bosnia and Herzegovina).[1]

In 1938, Zulfikarpašić joined the Communist Party of Yugoslavia and became a Party organizer. In 1941, he joined Yugoslav Partisans and was a member of partisans' brigade "Zvijezda" of Vareš. In 1942, during World War II, he was caught by the Ustaše (the Croatian pro-Nazi forces) in Sarajevo and was tortured by them and sentenced to death. With the help of Yugoslav Partisans he escaped and in 1945 with the war ending in victory over the Axis powers, the Communists came into power and Zulfikarpašić was appointed Deputy Minister of Trade.[1] He soon became disillusioned with Josip Broz Tito's government and fled into exile in Zurich, Switzerland.[1]

At the beginning of the Party of Democratic Action (est. 1990), the party also included a very influential secular nationalist grouping, led by Zulfikarpašić and Muhamed Filipović.[2]

On 26 December 1991, Serbia, Montenegro, and the Serb rebel-held territory in Croatia (Serb Krajina) agreed that they would form a new "third Yugoslavia".[3] Efforts were also made in 1991 to include Bosnia and Herzegovina within the federation, with negotiations between Milošević, Bosnia's Serbian Democratic Party, and the Bosniak proponent of union – Bosnia's Vice-President Adil Zulfikarpašić taking place on this matter.[4] Zulfikarpašić believed that Bosnia could benefit from attempting to forge a union with Serbia, Montenegro, and Krajina; and promoted a compromise between the Serbs and Bosniaks, in which Serb Krajina and Bosniak Sanjak from Serbia would be annexed into a Greater Bosnia that within a union with Serbia and Montenegro, would secure both the unity of Serbs and Bosniaks.[4] Zulfikarpašić's proposition opposed any cantonization of Bosnia.[4] The Bosnian Serbs did not include Zulfikarpašić's proposition alongside their propositions.[4] However Milosevic continued negotiations with Zulfikarpašić to include Bosnia within a new Yugoslavia.[4] Efforts to include the whole of Bosnia within a new Yugoslavia effectively terminated by late 1991 as Izetbegović planned to hold a referendum on independence while the Bosnian Serbs and Bosnian Croats formed autonomous territories.[5]

Zulfikarpašić returned to Bosnia and Herzegovina and in the lead up to the Bosnian War, as Bosnia and Herzegovina held an independence referendum for independence, he stood alongside the future Bosnian president, Alija Izetbegović.[6] He was a member of Izetbegovic's Party of Democratic Action, but soon formed another party because of differing political views, the Muslim Bosniak Organization with Muhamed Filipović.[7]

In 2001, Zulfikarpašić established the Bosniak Institute in Sarajevo.[8] In 2002, he was elected an honorary member of the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Bosnia and Herzegovina.[9]

• Adil Zulfikarpašić (1998). The Bosniak. C.Hurst & Co. Ltd. ISBN 1-85065-339-9.Gace, N., Đilas, M. (1998), The Bosniak: Adil Zulfikarpasic, London, Hurst & Company
• Filandra, Š., Karic, E. (2004), The Bosniac Idea, Zagreb, Globus
• Imamović, M. (1996), Bošnjaci u emigraciji: monografija Bosanskih pogleda, Sarajevo, Bošnjački institut Zurich, Odjel Sarajevo
• Zulfikarpašić, A. (1991), Članci i intervjui povodom 70-godišnjice, Sarajevo, Bošnjački institut
• Zulfikarpašić, A., Gotovac, V., Tripalo M., Banac, I. (1995), Okovana Bosna, Zurich, Bošnjački institut
• Zulfikarpašić, A. (2005), Osvrti, Sarajevo, Bošnjački institut – Fondacija Adila Zulfikarpašića
• Zulfikarpasic, A., Bučar, F. (2001), Sudbonosni događaji: historijski presjek presudnih zbivanja i propusta, Sarajevo, Bošnjački institut – Fondacija Adila Zulfikarpašića