Three years since the passing of esteemed Professor Nijaz Duraković

Today marks three years since the passing of esteemed Professor Nijaz Duraković. On this occasion, a formal ceremony and the presentation of the Nijaz Duraković Foundation were held at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Sarajevo, reports the Patria News Agency.

As a professor, Duraković was knowledgeable, methodical, rhetorical, clear, loud, polemical to the point of quarrelsome, uncomfortable, and sometimes an unwelcome critic, while as a politician and statesman, he was charismatic, educated, convincing, combative, reliant on ideas, patriotic, clear in his stance, and a self-confident opponent.

In 1971, Nijaz Duraković completed his studies in sociology at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Sarajevo, then obtained his Master's degree in 1975, and earned his doctorate in 1979.

He began working at the same faculty as an assistant in 1976, and in 1986, he became a full professor teaching "Comparative Political Systems" and "International Relations."

In 1967, he joined the League of Communists, and from 1988 to 1991, he was a member of the Presidency of the Central Committee of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia.
In 1992, at a wartime congress, he founded a new party for which he wrote the program, named the Social Democratic Party (SDP), of which he was also the president.

From 1992 to 1996, he was a member of the wartime Presidency of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 1997, Zlatko Lagumdžija took over the presidency of the SDP, and Nijaz Duraković became a member of the party's Main Board and Presidency. In 2002, he left the party.

In 2006, he joined the Social Democratic Union and in the same year, he was the list leader for the Patriotic Bloc BOSS-SDU in the Parliamentary Elections for the House of Representatives of the BiH Parliament. He published 16 books and over 200 scientific and research papers.

He died in Sarajevo on January 29, 2012.