SARAJEVO
By Kayhan Gul
Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) restored the house of decedent first Bosniak president Alija Izetbegovic in Bosanski Samac city of Bosnia Herzegovina.
TIKA started a project to restore the unused facing-extinction house last year, supported by Bakir Izetbegovic, son of Alija and member of the Bosnia Herzegovina Tripartite Presidency, which was completed recently.
The house will serve as 'Memorial House of Alija Izetbegovic' and be used as center for the humanitarian aid organization 'Merhamet'.
Hosting cultural events as well, the House will include a museum, where personal belongings of Alija will be exhibited.
Saying Bosnia Herzegovina had two symbols, which were "Srebrenitsa and Alija Izetbegovic," TIKA's coordinator in Sarajevo Dr. Zulkuf Oruc told AA in an exclusive interview that their aim was to attribute to the memorial culture of Alija and to perform the duty of loyalty to him by restoring the house.
Alija Izetbegovic (8 August 1925 – 19 October 2003) was a Bosniak politician, activist, lawyer, author, and philosopher who in 1990 became the first President of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Muslim families, including Alija's, moved to the northwestern Bosanski Samac city in 1868 due to Serbian intemperances in Belgrade. Grandfather and father of Alija along with their families lived nearly sixty years in the two-story house until the migration in 1928.
Izetbegovic, born in 1925 as grandson to a Turkish women (Sidika) spent his first years of childhood in that house.
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