DRIJEMANJE NA RAMENU VREMENA ili ŽUDNJA ZA VLAŠĆU PREDVODNIKA IZNAD NADA I STRAHOVA SUNARODNJAKA
SNOOZE ON SHOULDER TIME or THE LEADERS΄ POWER DRIVE SET ABOVE THE HOPES AND FEARS OF PEOPLE

Summary/Abstract: Together with their rival Croat and Serb colleagues, the Bosniak politicians seized the opportunity to form a new Yugoslav state. Thus began the two decades of their quarrelsome political and economic journey marked by sporadic tactical alliances. The wealth of Bosniak families that had been acquired by generations, with their reputation built in the Ottoman and Danube Empires, melted in this era defined by the fermentation of a new, bourgeois, class. Old politicians withdrew from the scene, while the new ones, lacking sophistication and manners, emerged. The Bosniak politicians, mostly gathered around the Yugoslav Muslim Organisation (JMO) demonstrated the tendency of playing the game of short-term tactical moves and compromises. Their main political goal – the autonomy of Bosnia and Herzegovina - was not realised due to opposition of the Serb and Croat politicians. This idea was broadly accepted by the Bosniak population. However, the fluid borderline between demagogy and actions taken by the Bosniak politicians hindered the movement for autonomy. When, in 1939, the Bosniak politicians were faced with the de facto partition of Bosnia and Herzegovina, it became clear that their value on the Yugoslav - even on Bosnian-Herzegovinian, for that matter - political market had long been wasted.

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