Conference “Alija Izetbegović and his understanding of Law and State” Held at the University of Sarajevo

In cooperation with Yildirim Bayazit University in Ankara, the University of Sarajevo organized the Conference Alija Izetbegović and His Understanding of Law and State to mark the fifteenth anniversary of passing away of the first B-H Presidency President, Alija Izetbegović.
The goal of the Conference that was held on Friday, 19 October 2018 was to present form many angles Alija Izetbegović understands of law and state in his works and actions he took as a statesman. 
In his introductory address, University of Sarajevo Rector - Prof. Rifat Škrijelj expressed his honor and pleasure because of a scientific meeting in memory of the great statesman and thinker, the first President of the Presidency of the independent Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, late Allija Izetbegović.
“Even fifteen years after his death, Izetbegović’s works, actions and human qualities, as well as his importance and role in policy making and leadership of then only newly created state are very up to the moment and contain facts that are important, not only to historians, but also to the wider political and scientific public. President Alija Izetbegović is undoubtedly the greatest political figure in the recent history and most significant phenomenon in the overall BH history, a rare statesman of the world who was equally popular with and respected by international diplomats both in the East and in the West. Late Alija Izetbegović was a man who did not build a cult of personality like other presidents, but won people with his dignity, immense patience, faith and wisdom, all the people who care for the good as a universal value” said Rector Škrijelj, adding that for late Alija Izetbegović one can freely say that he belonged to those extraordinary lawyers and philosophers who gave to the law a brand new spiritual dimension.
"He saw the State of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and its political and legal order, first and foremost as a civil state in which the man-citizen is the main value that is affirmed, among other things, by the right to manifest its cultural, ethnic and national specifics. In other words, he advocated the principles of modern democracy in which everyone will have the right to be what they are” stressed Rector Škrijelj.

University "Yildirim Beyazit" in Ankara, is one of organizers, and its Vice-Rector Prof. M. Fatih Uşan said that Alija Izetbegović’ was known as a great and wise statesman, and above all, as a great lawyer. 
Ambassador of the Republic of Turkey to BiH H.E. Haldun Koç in his introductory address stressed that Bosnia and Herzegovina and Turkey are two friendly countries and thanked the organizers of this event. He recalled the late Alija was not only a politician and thinker, but more than that. “He had Bosnia in one part of the heart, and in the whole Islamic world in other. In war, when visiting fronts, he showed that he was brave” said Ambassador Koç. He recalled Alija's words: “Never seek revenge, but justice.”
"He wanted the Bosniaks to feel freely in their own country, it is difficult in a few words to describe this multidimensional personality, never gave up on his religious and national identity, never lost his dignity, peace, stability is what he fought for and never was he made a compromise about it” Koc said.

Prof. Dr. Zühtü Arslan, President of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Turkey, expose aimed to point out the importance of Alija Izetbegović's legal thought and its vision outside the borders of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the introductory lecture on the topic “Three concepts in the understanding of Alija Izetbegović: justice, law and freedom”, he stated that in the understanding of Alija Izetbegović these terms have a special place, and that they also form elements of his moral and political principle which he has formulated as “remaining human.” 

According to the conference program, the fooling papers were presented by eminent members of academic communities of the University of Sarajevo and the University Yildirim Beyazit in Ankara: 
•    Prof. Dr. Fikret Karčić “Understanding the law in the work of Alija Izetbegović”
•    Prof. Dr. Muharrem Kiliç “Izetbegović's Understanding of Law in Philosophical Thought”
•    Doz. Dr. Admir Mulaosmanović “Alija Izetbegović on the role of law and legal norms in society”
•    Academician Prof. Dr. Mirko Pejanović “Alija Izetbegović's attitude towards the statehood of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the historical context of the dissolution of the SFRY and the acquisition of the sovereign and independent status of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina”
•    Dr. Taylan Barin “Limiting the power in Alija's state concept”
•    Prof. Dr. Selmo Cikotić "The Understanding of State in the Works of Alija Izetbegović”

The Conference was organized with the support of the Embassy of the Republic of Turkey in BiH and Ziraat Bank.