| Adil Zulfikarpašić | |
|---|---|
| 1st Vice President of Bosnia and Herzegovina | |
| President | Alija Izetbegović |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 23 December 1921 Foča, Kingdom of Yugoslavia |
| Died | 21 July 2008 (aged 86) Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina |
| Nationality | Bosniak |
| Political party | Muslim Bosniak Organization (MBO) |
| Religion | Sunni Islam |
Adil Zulfikarpašić (23 December 1921 – 21 July 2008) was a prominent Bosniak politician and intellectual.
Adil Zulfikarpašić was born in Foča, a town along the River Drina in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (now Bosnia and Herzegovina).[1]
In 1938 he joined the Communist Party of Yugoslavia and became a Party organizer. 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 the Josip Broz Tito's government and fled into exile in Zurich, Switzerland.[1]
He returned to Bosnia and Herzegovina and in the lead up to the Bosnian War, as Bosnia and Herzegovina held an independence referendum for independence, Zulfikarpašić stood alongside the future Bosnian president, Alija Izetbegović.[2] 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.[3]
In 2001 he established the Bosniak Institute in Sarajevo.[4] In 2002 he was elected an honorary member of the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Bosnia and Herzegovina.[5]