Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan honoured the late Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic on social media on Saturday marking the 16th anniversary of his death.
Erdogan posted a photo of Izetbegovic on Twitter, along with one of his quotes: “They buried us into the ground, but they didn’t know we were seeds.”
#Aliyaİzzetbegoviç pic.twitter.com/1jGsTFGCVQ
— Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (@RTErdogan) October 19, 2019
Erdogan also his paid respects to Izetbegovic in a speech on the same day at a gathering in Kayseri.
Izetbegovic was the first President of the internationally recognised independent state of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the top commanding officer of the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina during the 1992-1995 war.
He was born on August 8, 1925, in the northeastern town of Bosanski Samac and died on October 19, 2003, in Sarajevo.
Izetbegovic faced prison time alongside 13 Muslim intellectuals because of his political activities in the well-known ‘Sarajevo process’.
He established the Party of Democratic Action (SDA), which is still today the strongest Bosniak party in the country.
After the SDA’s victory in the 1990 multi-party election, he was elected first Chairman of the Presidency of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He became a Presidency member after the war as well, in 1996.
He stepped down due to health issues in 2000.
Izetbegovic was the author of many books and publications, which were translated into many world languages.
