Dragoslav Bokan

Dragoslav Bokan
Born (1961-02-15) 15 February 1961
Belgrade, PR Serbia, FPR Yugoslavia
Nationality Serbian
Occupation Film director and writer
Spouse(s) Željka Zdjelar[1]
Children 7[a]

Dragoslav Bokan (Serbian Cyrillic: Драгослав Бокан; born 15 February 1961) is a Serbian film director and writer.[2]

Biography

Bokan was born in Savski Venac, Belgrade, Yugoslavia (now Serbia) in 1961 to Serb parents Ilija and Milka (née Devetak). Several of his family members perished at the Jasenovac concentration camp held by the Ustashe, as part of an extermination campaign of Serbs, during World War II. His maternal grandfather and great-grandfather died at Jasenovac.[3]

Bokan graduated from the University of Belgrade Faculty of Dramatic Arts at age 22. In 1989, he moved to Port Chester, New York and a year later he returned to Serbia where he joined the Serbian National Renewal party. Bokan was head of the paramilitary section of the party known as the White Eagles before its split. Some White Eagles members were convicted of war crimes and other atrocities, but not those under Bokan's command.[4]

In the early 1990s he worked for the Belgrade publishing company BIGZ and wrote for Pogledi. In 1992, he founded and led the Serbian Fatherland Association party and ran for the presidency of Serbia in the 1992 Serbian general election. The party became defunct however in 1993. In an interview with The New York Times in April 1994, he was quoted as saying, "I don't believe in democracy because I don’t believe that any group at any time can change the course and goals of their ancestors."[5]

Bokan was interviewed in the 1995 BBC documentary series The Death of Yugoslavia. A part of his interview from this series appears at the end of the Death in June song, "Lullaby to a Ghetto". In 2007, he created the Kosovo is Serbia billboard campaign with quotes from Willy Brandt, Winston Churchill, Charles de Gaulle, John F. Kennedy, and George Washington.[6]

Bokan founded the Lepa Srbija, Rusija danas and Vodič za život magazines, and is a contributor to the Urban Book Circle.[7] On 17 July 2014, he was named the Donetsk People's Republic representative in Serbia (with a one-year term) by the Chairman of the Supreme Council.[8] For this, he was placed on a list of people banned from entering Ukraine.[9]

Republika Srpska name claim

In a July 2014 interview for Press, Bokan revealed that he, Goran Marić (Plavi orkestar founder) and Sonja Karadžić (Radovan Karadžić's daughter) created the name Republika Srpska as had been requested of them by Velibor Ostojić, then-Minister of Information of the Bosnian Serb government.[10]

Influences

Bokan has been influenced by a number of authors and philosophers from the esoteric Traditionalist school of thought such as Dragoš Kalajić, Mircea Eliade, Ezra Pound, René Guénon and Julius Evola among others. Bokan was also influenced by Jean-Marie Le Pen with whom he met in the early 1990s.[11]

Arrests

On 23 April 1992 he was arrested in Belgrade.[12] He was accused of "possession of one hand grenade and four bullets found in his apartment" and was jailed for seven days. The trial lasted for a year and a half, and eventually resulted in a sentence of six months imprisonment.[13] The arrest was an apparent effort to ease criticism of Serbia's role in the Bosnian War.[14]

Personal life

Bokan is the father of seven children. His first child Vlad passed away just three days after birth in 1993.[15]

Published books

In 1988, Bokan initiated the publishing and Serbian-language translation of On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and The Heroic in History by Thomas Carlyle.

He is also the author of the following books:

  • Ognjeni ljiljani
  • Portret mladog dendija
  • Beograd, grad tajni
  • Novi Sad: Od varoši do grada
  • Kosovo je srce Srbije
  • Politika: Mit, hronika, enciklopedija

Notes

  1. ^ His first child passed away in infancy in 1993 due to an injury caused by childbirth.[16]

References

  1. ↑ "Željka Zdjelar: Biografija sa pevanjem i pucanjem". Espreso.rs. 2016-02-21. Retrieved 2016-12-04.
  2. ↑ "Dragoslav Bokan biography". Urban Book Circle. 16 May 2013. Retrieved 29 October 2013.
  3. ↑ Ćirilica - Ristić, Jakšić, Bokan, Petronijević i Živanović (TV Happy, 20 November 2017)
  4. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on July 19, 2014. Retrieved October 11, 2017.
  5. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on July 29, 2014. Retrieved July 29, 2014.
  6. ↑ Nicholas Wood (2007-12-24). "Serbia Enlisting Some Unlikely Faces". The New York Times. Retrieved 2016-11-18.
  7. ↑ "ABOUT US - Urban Book Circle®". Urbanbookcircle.com. 2012-02-14. Retrieved 2016-11-18.
  8. ↑ Narodna republika Donjeck dobija predstavništvo u Srbiji: Dragoslav Bokan, komandant srpskih Belih orlova na čelu, Novosti.rs, 12 August 2014; accessed 4 August 2018 (in Serbian)
  9. ↑ Kijev "progoni" i naprednjake, Večernje novosti, 20 October 2016; accessed 20 December 2017 (in Serbian)
  10. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on July 19, 2014. Retrieved October 11, 2017.
  11. ↑ Dada Vujasinović, Duga (11 April 1992). "Firer mekog srca (pg. 47)" (in Serbian). Retrieved 30 May 2018.
  12. ↑ Bokan arrested in Belgrade, Refworld.org; accessed 13 July 2015.
  13. ↑ Trial of Bokan, Tol.org; accessed 13 July 2015.
  14. ↑ The Times-News (25 April 1992). "Ongoing battles threaten European Community peace efforts". News.google.com. Retrieved 2 September 2015.
  15. ↑ Vlad Bokan at Find a Grave
  16. ↑ Slobodan Despot (2014-04-18). "Quand un père doit baptiser seul son bébé mourant" (in French). Retrieved 2018-05-30.
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