Bosnian Muslims during the cold war: Their identity between domestic and foreign policies
Religion and the Cold War: A Global Perspective, Vanderbilt University Press , ss.182-205, 2012
- Yayın Türü: Kitapta Bölüm / Araştırma Kitabı
- Basım Tarihi: 2012
- Yayınevi: Vanderbilt University Press
- Sayfa Sayıları: ss.182-205
- Boğaziçi Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet
Özet
Although the Bosnian War of 1992-1995 posed a real threat to the physical existence of the Bosnian Muslims, it produced some important results in terms of their national development.1 The Bosnian Muslims entered the war as Muslims but emerged from it as Bosnjaci (Bosniaks).2 In September 1993, the Bosniak Assembly-349 Bosnian Muslim politicians, intellectuals, and clerics convening in Sarajevo as a consultative body-accepted Bošnjastvo (Bosnianhood) as the national identity of the Bosnian Muslims. The name Bošnjak (Bosniak) officially became the national identification of the Bosnian Muslims for the first time in history3 The fact that the Bosnian Muslims were fghting against the Bosnian Serbs as well as against the Bosnian Croats strengthened their national consciousness as a distinct nation. During the war, Alija Izetbegovic continued to act as the president of Bosnia-Herzegovina, while the Muslims controlled the Bosnian army and the state bureaucracy, which had a multiethnic character. Both during and afer the war, the Muslim leadership acted as an independent political agent involved in international negotiations concerning the political future of Bosnia-Herzegovina. In the Dayton Constitution, the Bosnian Muslims were referred to as Bosniaks and their language as Bosnian, and the Dayton Accords confirmed the status of the Bosnian Muslims as a constituent nation along with the Croats in the establishment of the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina.4. © 2012 by Vanderbilt University Press. All rights reserved.