Jahja Fehratović

Jahja Fehratović (Serbian Cyrillic: Јахја Фехратовић; born March 29, 1982), alternately spelled Yahya Fehratović, is a politician in Serbia from the country's Bosniak community. He has been a member of the National Assembly of Serbia since 2016 and is also a member of the Bosniac National Council. Fehratović was the leader of the Bosniak Democratic Union of Sandžak (Bošnjačka demokratska zajednica Sandžaka, BDZS) from the party's formation in 2013 until December 2017, when it was renamed as the Justice and Reconciliation Party under Muamer Zukorlić's leadership. He is now a vice-president of renamed party.[1]

Early life and career

Fehratović was born in the Sandžak community of Novi Pazar, in what was then the Socialist Republic of Serbia in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. He attended elementary and secondary madrasa in Novi Pazar, received a bachelor's degree in Bosnian literature and the Bosnian language at the University of Sarajevo (2007), and subsequently received a master's degree (2012) and a Ph.D. (2013) from the International University of Novi Pazar. His master's thesis was on the poetics and politics of revolutionary poetry, and his Ph.D. was on the literary-historical and poetic characteristics of Sandžačkobošnjačke literature.[2] He has worked in the department of philology at the International University of Novi Pazar since 2009, is a published poet and novelist, and is an active publisher of historical Bosniak literature.[3]

Political career

Fehratović was a leading member of the Bosniak Democratic Union (Bošnjačka demokratska zajednica, BDZ) in the early 2010s.

In 2010, Serbia organized the first direct elections to the country's national minority councils. Fehratović contested the Bosniac National Council election at the head of an electoral list for the Bosniak Cultural Community, which was aligned with Chief Mufti Muamer Zukorlić. This list won seventeen seats, as against thirteen for the Bosniak List led by Sulejman Ugljanin and five for the Bosniak Renaissance list of Rasim Ljajić. These results proved to be extremely contentious, and the legitimacy of the Bosniak Cultural Community's victory was contested by both the Serbian government and Ugljanin's party. Fehratović was chosen as president of the Bosniac National Council's executive committee, but his leadership was not recognized by the Serbian government. The council's responsibilities were officially suspended shortly thereafter, although it continued to meet in defiance of the government's decision.[4]

Zukorlić ran for president of Serbia as an independent candidate in the 2012 presidential election, and Fehratović oversaw his campaign headquarters.[5] The following year, the pro-Zukorlić wing of the BDZ held a special convention that deposed Emir Elfić as party leader and selected Fehratović in his place. Elfić rejected this decision, arguing that the resolutions approved at the convention were unlawful and constituted an act of "aggression" on the BDZ.[6] This controversy appears to have resulted in a party split; the supporters of Zukorlić and Fehratović coalesced as the BDZS later in 2013, with Fehratović recognized as party leader.[7]

A new election was organized for the Bosniac National Council in 2014, and Fehratović contested the election as the leader of a list called "For Bosniaks, Sandzak and the Mufti." This list was defeated, nineteen seats to sixteen, by Ugljanin's "For Bosniak Unity," the only other party to appear on the ballot.[8] Fehratović alleged electoral fraud, charging that all of the overseers for a special second ballot in Tutin were members of Ugljanin's Party of Democratic Action of Sandžak.[9] Ultimately, however, Fehratović accepted his list's defeat and agreed to serve in opposition; in so doing, he said that Ugljanin would need to break his connections to Adem Zilkić, one of Zukorlić's rivals in the Islamic Community in Serbia, if Ugljanin's group wanted to cooperate with his own.[10]

Fehratović condemned the physical threats against Serbian prime minister Aleksandar Vučić at a 2015 commemoration for the victims of the Srebrenica massacre, saying that those who threatened Serbia's prime minister did a disservice to the Bosniak community. He also urged a full and lasting reconciliation between the Serbian and Bosniak communities.[11]

The BDZS ran its own electoral list for the 2016 Serbian parliamentary election. Fehratović received the second position, after Zukorlić.[12] The list won two parliamentary mandates, and Zukorlić and Fehratović were duly declared elected. They initially served as independent members of the assembly, although they were formally recognized as representatives of the Justice and Reconciliation Party in December 2017.

The Justice and Reconciliation Party is aligned with Serbia's coalition government led by the Progressive Party. As religious fundamentalists opposed to LGBT rights, Zukorlić and Fehratović absented themselves from the assembly during the confirmation vote for Serbian prime minister Ana Brnabić in June 2017.[13]

Fehratović is a member of the parliamentary friendship groups with Austria, Macedonia, Montenegro, Russia, and Switzerland.[14]

References

  1. ↑ "БДЗС постала Странка правде и помирења,председник Зукорлић", Novosti, 23 December 2017, accessed 23 March 2018.
  2. ↑ JAHJA FEHRATOVIĆ, Otvoreni Parlament, accessed 4 October 2017.
  3. ↑ PREDSJEDNIK: Jahja Fehratović, Bošnjačka demokratska zajednica Sandžaka, accessed 21 April 2017.
  4. ↑ Gordana Andric, "Serbia Reshuffle Fuels Bosniak Council Vote Confusion", Balkan Insight, 17 March 2011, accessed 21 April 2017.
  5. ↑ JAHJA FEHRATOVIĆ, Otvoreni Parlament, accessed 21 April 2017.
  6. ↑ "Serbian paper looks at rifts in Bosniak party," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European, 2 April 2013 (Source: Politika website, Belgrade, in Serbian 1 Apr 13).
  7. ↑ BDZ Sandžaka – Sa novom snagom i novim ljudima spremna za izbore, Elektronske Novine Sandžak Press, 25 December 2015, accessed 21 April 2017. This source is strongly aligned with the BDZ-S.
  8. ↑ Избори за чланове националног савета бошњачке националне мањине, одржани 26. октобра и 2. новембра 2014. године (непосредни избори), Republika Srbija - Republička izborna komisija, accessed 21 April 2017.
  9. ↑ "Bosniak party chief declares election victory in minority councils elections," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European, 4 November 2014 (Source: Radio B92 text website, Belgrade, in English 0000 gmt 3 Nov 14).
  10. ↑ "Serbia's new ethnic council to resolve disputes among Bosniaks - chairman," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European, 2 December 2014 (Source: Politika website, Belgrade, in Serbian 27 Nov 14).
  11. ↑ Reagovanja na napad na premijera, protestna nota BiH, Radio Television of Serbia, 11 July 2015, accessed 21 April 2017.
  12. ↑ Избори за народне посланике 2016. године » Изборне листе (МУАМЕР ЗУКОРЛИЋ / MUAMER ZUKORLIĆ - БОШЊАЧКА ДЕМОКРАТСКА ЗАЈЕДНИЦА САНЏАКА / BOŠNJAČKA DEMOKRATSKA ZAJEDNICA SANDŽAKA), Republika Srbija - Republička izborna komisija, accessed 26 January 2017.
  13. ↑ "Kako stoji Brnabić...", Radio-televizija Vojvodine, 18 June 2017, accessed 4 October 2017; "Srbija dobila novu Vladu: Premijerka Brnabić i članovi kabineta položili zakletvu," Sandžačka novine, 29 June 2017, accessed 4 October 2017; S.J.M., "Zukorlić: Bićemo deo vlasti, očekujemo mesta državnih sekretara", Novosti, 4 July 2017, accessed 4 October 2017.
  14. ↑ JAHJA FEHRATOVIC, National Assembly of Serbia, accessed 21 April 2017.
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