Džemal Bijedić

{{Infobox officeholder

|name = Džemal Bijedić

|image = Visit of Džemal Bijedić, Yougoslav Prime Minister, to the CEC (cropped).jpg

|image_size = 200px

|caption = Bijedić in 1976

|office = 23rd Prime Minister of Yugoslavia
{{small|President of the Federal Executive Council}}

|term_start = 30 July 1971

|term_end = 18 January 1977

|president = Josip Broz Tito

|predecessor = Mitja Ribičič

|successor = Veselin Đuranović

|office1 = 3rd President of the People's Assembly of SR Bosnia and Herzegovina

|term_start1 = 1967

|term_end1 = 30 July 1971

|predecessor1 = Ratomir Dugonjić

|successor1 = Hamdija Pozderac

{{Collapsed infobox section begin|Ministerial offices

|cont = yes

|titlestyle = border:1px dashed lightgrey}}

{{Infobox officeholder

|embed = yes

|office2 = Secretary of the Interior

|term_start2 = 30 July 1971

|term_end2 = 3 December 1971

|primeminister2 = Himself

|predecessor2 = Radovan Stijačić

|successor2 = Luka Banović

}}

|birth_date = {{Birth date|1917|04|12|df=y}}

|birth_place = Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Austria-Hungary

|death_date = {{Death date and age|1977|01|18|1917|04|12|df=y}}

|death_place = near Kreševo, SR Bosnia and Herzegovina, SFR Yugoslavia

|alma_mater = University of Belgrade

|party = League of Communists of Yugoslavia

|spouse = Razija Bijedić

|children = 3

}}

Džemal Bijedić ({{lang-cyrl|Џемал Биједић}}, {{IPA|bs|bijěːdit͡ɕ}}; 12 April 1917 – 18 January 1977) was a Bosnian and Yugoslav politician who served as Prime Minister of Yugoslavia from July 1971 until his death in a plane crash in January 1977. He additionally served as Secretary of the Interior from July to December 1971. Bijedić was also President of the People's Assembly of SR Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1967 to 1971.

Early life and education

Bijedić was born on 12 April 1917 in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina (then part of Austria-Hungary) to Adem and Zarifa from the prominent Bosnian Muslim merchant family of Bajramaga Bijedić, who had moved from Gacko to Mostar in 1915.{{cite book |last1=Bartolovic |first1=Dragan |title=Džemal Bijedić i njegovo vrijeme |date=1985 |publisher=Univerzitet "Džemal Bijedić" |pages=28–29}} Džemal was barely one year old when his father Adem died of the Spanish flu in 1919; his mother Zafira and uncle Bećir took care of the family in the 1920s.[https://www.telegraf.rs/english/3109866-bijedic-familys-tragedies-dzemal-died-after-he-saw-off-tito-his-great-granddaughter-was-murdered Telegraf.rs]

Bijedić finished his elementary and secondary education in Mostar, and graduated from the University of Belgrade Faculty of Law, where he joined the Communist Party of Yugoslavia in 1939. He became a member of SKOJ in October 1939 and a member of the Mostar branch of the League of Communists just two months later. Due to his political sympathies, he was three times detained when in Mostar.[https://sarajevotimes.com/anniversary-of-death-of-one-of-the-greatest-statesmen-of-bih-dzemal-bijedic/ Sarajevo Times]

Early career

In a documentary produced by Face TV, Mišo Marić claims that Bijedić joined the anti-communist Croatian Home Guard in April 1941, following the directives of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, as a lieutenant with the alias of Ante Jukić.von MureNL. [http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xyzlj7_miso-maric-namigivanje-zvijezdama-dzemal-dzema-bijedic_creation "Miso Maric - Namigivanje zvijezdama - Dzemal Dzema Bijedic"], :bs:Face TV, DailyMotion, Published 14 March 2013. Another documentary about Bijedić produced by Federalna televizija shows (at 15:34) a photo of Bijedić dressed in a military uniform with Croatian Home Guard collar insignia. The same photo was shown at the beginning of the first documentary (01:27), but the insignia was painted over with Partisans' red star in colour. It is also mentioned that Bijedić joined the Yugoslav Partisans in February 1943.PRIZNAJEM JUGOSLAVEN SAM. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkqFSH7Nwtk "Džemal Bijedic - Dokumentarac / Dokumentarni Film"], Federalna televizija, YouTube, Published 17 January 2016.

Political career

File:Ford A3723 NLGRF photo contact sheet (1975-03-19)(Gerald Ford Library) (cropped).jpg, 19 March 1975]]

After the liberation of Yugoslavia, Bijedić held many political roles, including as deputy Minister of Internal Affairs in the government of the Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He played a key role in the affirmation of the Muslims as a Yugoslav constitutive nation.{{cite book |title=Religious Separation and Political Intolerance in Bosnia and Herzegovina |last=Velikonja |first=Mitja |year=1992 |publisher=Texas A&M University Press |isbn=1-58544-226-7 |page=[https://archive.org/details/religiousseparat0000veli/page/223 223] |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/religiousseparat0000veli/page/223 }}

Significant progress in the economy of Herzegovina was made under Bijedić's leadership, with the establishment of heavy industry such as the Aluminijum Kombinat, and the modernization of the Sarajevo–Ploče railway.

Bijedić served as President of the People's Assembly of SR Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1967 to July 1971{{cite book |last1=Da Graça |first1=John |title=Heads of State and Government |date=2017 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-34965-771-1 |page=143 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M0YfDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA143}}{{cite book |last1=Flere |first1=Sergej |last2=Klanjšek |first2=Rudi |title=The Rise and Fall of Socialist Yugoslavia: Elite Nationalism and the Collapse of a Federation |date=2019 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-1-49854-197-8 |page=231 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KnetDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA231}} and as President of the Federal Executive Council of SFR Yugoslavia from 30 July 1971 to his death on 18 January 1977.{{cite journal |title=The Death of Džemal Bijedić |journal=Review of International Affairs |date=1977 |issue=642–665 |page=1 |publisher=Federation of Yugoslav Journalists}}

Death

On 18 January 1977, Bijedić, his wife Razija, and six others were killed when their Learjet 25 crashed on the Inač mountain near Kreševo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The plane took off from Batajnica Air Base in Belgrade and was en route to Sarajevo when it crashed, ostensibly due to poor weather conditions. Some have claimed that the crash was the result of foul play at the hands of his rivals,{{cite web|title=Famous Air Crash Victims - Part 4: Politicians|url=https://h2g2.com/edited_entry/A17641497|date=8 January 2007|author=The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy}} as he was considered a potential successor to an old and ailing Tito. Bahrudin Bijedić, a close relative of Džemal Bijedić and a former long-serving diplomat and Yugoslav consul in the United States—who also held the position of Minister of Internal Affairs in the Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina—has claimed that the Yugoslav Prime Minister was the victim of an assassination. His assertion was supported by Colonel Lazo Vukosavljević of the Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA), formerly the commander of a helicopter unit stationed in Jasenica near Mostar. Vukosavljević, an aeronautical electrical engineer by training, testified that upon arriving at the crash site, he noticed technical malfunctions in the aircraft’s altimeter and airspeed indicator, both of which had been showing a higher altitude than the aircraft’s actual position. While examining the recovered instruments, Vukosavljević commented aloud that the readings on the altimeters and airspeed indicators were displaying unusual and inconsistent values. After this, he was immediately ordered to leave the crash site by KOS (Yugoslav military counterintelligence service) operatives.{{Cite book |last=Garaplija |first=Edin |title=Tajni vilajet |publisher=Asocijacija za upravljanje rizicima u BiH |year=2024 |location=Sarajevo |pages=52, 53.}}

Bijedić and his wife were survived by their two sons, Dragan and Milenko, and one daughter, Azra.{{cite news|newspaper=Oslobođenje|date=29 October 2024|title=Preminuo Dragan Bijedić, arhitekt sarajevske Papagajke i sin Džemala Bijedića|language=Bosnian|url=https://www.oslobodjenje.ba/vijesti/bih/preminuo-dragan-bijedic-arhitekt-sarajevske-papagajke-i-sin-dzemala-bijedica-994459|accessdate=31 October 2024}}{{Cite web |date=2020-01-18 |title=One of the greatest Politicians in Bosnia-Herzegovina Dzemal Bijedic died on this Day |url=https://www.sarajevotimes.com/one-of-the-greatest-politicians-in-bosnia-herzegovina-dzemal-bijedic-died-on-this-day/ |access-date=2025-02-26 |website=Sarajevo Times |language=en-US}}

Legacy

The university in Mostar was renamed Džemal Bijedić University in his honour. His birthplace was also turned into a museum. An exhibition about Bijedić was held in Mostar in 2016.{{cite web | url=https://sarajevotimes.com/man-of-our-history-mostar-recalled-dzemal-bijedic/ | title="Man of our history": Mostar recalled Dzemal Bijedic – Sarajevo Times | date=19 January 2016 }}

References

Citations

Bibliography

{{cite book|last=Isaković |first=Alija |title=Antologija zla |publisher=Ljiljan |year=1994 |language=Bosnian }}

External links

[http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=4789 Toasts of the President Geral Ford and Prime Minister Dzemal Bijedic of Yugoslavia, 19 March 1975]

{{Succession box|title=Prime Minister of Yugoslavia|before=Mitja Ribičič|after=Veselin Đuranović|years=1971–1977}}

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Category:1917 births

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Category:Politicians from Mostar

Category:People from the Condominium of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Category:Bosnia and Herzegovina atheists

Category:Bosnia and Herzegovina former Sunni Muslims

Category:League of Communists of Bosnia and Herzegovina politicians

Category:Members of the Central Committee of the 7th Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia