Academy in Antwerp, Belgium, on the 12th anniversary of Alija Izetbegović's death

The Bosniak Cultural Community in Belgium is organizing, on the occasion of the 12th anniversary of the death of the first President of the Presidency of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the late Alija Izetbegović, an academy in Antwerp titled “We swear by the Great God that we will not be slaves,” reports the Bosnian news agency Patria.

The academy is named after Izetbegović's famous quote before the start of the Serbian aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992, which became a great motivation for patriots of Bosnia and Herzegovina to defend the country, even though they faced a far more militarily equipped and powerful enemy.

Member of the Parliament of BiH Šemsudin Mehmedović, who will speak on Saturday at the Academy in Antwerp, told the Patria agency that it is very important for Bosniaks to remember the character and work of Izetbegović, because he is a man who devoted his entire life to the struggle for the freedom of Bosniaks, all through the building of a democratic society in BiH, in which he envisioned freedom for all other peoples living in the country.

Unfortunately, says Mehmedović, those who replaced Izetbegović at the head of the SDA and the state after his departure were clearly not an adequate replacement.

Alija Izetbegović was born in Bosanski Šamac on August 8, 1925. He was one of the most prominent Bosniak leaders of his time, who enjoyed great popularity among Bosniaks.

After five years spent in prison, due to “Muslim nationalism” and “hostile propaganda,” as the then communist government sentenced him in a politically staged trial in 1983 in Sarajevo, in the 1990s he became the leader of the Party of Democratic Action, and later the first President of the Presidency of the RBiH… He withdrew from politics in 2001. He died in Sarajevo on October 19, two years later, writes NAP.