Alija Behmen (25 December 1940 – 1 August 2018) was a Bosnian politician who served as the 36th
mayor of Sarajevo from 2009 to 2013, and was a member of the
Social Democratic Party
The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology.
Active parties
Fo ...
.
He also served as
Prime Minister of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina from 2001 to 2003.
Early life and education
Behmen was born on 25 December 1940 in
Split
Split(s) or The Split may refer to:
Places
* Split, Croatia, the largest coastal city in Croatia
* Split Island, Canada, an island in the Hudson Bay
* Split Island, Falkland Islands
* Split Island, Fiji, better known as Hạfliua
Arts, entertai ...
,
Kingdom of Yugoslavia
The Kingdom of Yugoslavia ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Kraljevina Jugoslavija, Краљевина Југославија; sl, Kraljevina Jugoslavija) was a state in Southeast and Central Europe that existed from 1918 until 1941. From 1918 ...
, present-day Croatia. He graduated in 1969 from the
Faculty of Economics
A faculty is a division within a university or college comprising one subject area or a group of related subject areas, possibly also delimited by level (e.g. undergraduate). In American usage such divisions are generally referred to as colleges ...
at the
University of Sarajevo
The University of Sarajevo ( Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian: ''Univerzitet u Sarajevu'' / Sveučilište u Sarajevu / Универзитет у Сарајеву) is a public university located in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is the largest ...
, where he later presented a doctoral dissertation in the field of modeling transport costs and their impact on the reproduction and development of the economy. In 1974, Behmen defended his master's degree in
marketing
Marketing is the process of exploring, creating, and delivering value to meet the needs of a target market in terms of goods and services; potentially including selection of a target audience; selection of certain attributes or themes to emph ...
. From 1970, he worked at the Institute of Economics in
Sarajevo
Sarajevo ( ; cyrl, Сарајево, ; ''see names in other languages'') is the capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its administrative limits. The Sarajevo metropolitan area including Sarajevo ...
and at the Sarajevo State Technical University as responsible for technological and economic functions. He was also Deputy President and Chairman of the Management Board of the ŽTO Sarajevo.
From 1978 to 1980, Behmen chaired the PO Interšped Workers' Organization. He was then appointed Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Transport and Communications.
Political career
In the
1998 general election, as a candidate of the
Social Democratic Party
The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology.
Active parties
Fo ...
, Behmen was elected member of the
Sarajevo Cantonal Assembly and deputy chairman of the
Federal House of Peoples.
From March 2001 until February 2003, he served as
Prime Minister of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina entity. At the end of 2001, six citizens of
Algeria
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, map_caption =
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, capital = Algiers
, coordinates =
, largest_city = capital
, relig ...
n origin (the so-called "
Algerian Six") were accused of planning a terrorist attack on the
U.S. embassy
The United States has the second most Diplomatic mission, diplomatic missions of any country in the world List of diplomatic missions of China, after Mainland China, including 166 of the 193 member countries of the United Nations, as well as obse ...
in
Sarajevo
Sarajevo ( ; cyrl, Сарајево, ; ''see names in other languages'') is the capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its administrative limits. The Sarajevo metropolitan area including Sarajevo ...
. They were taken into custody in October, and the
Council of Ministers
A council is a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate, or make decisions. A council may function as a legislature, especially at a town, city or county/ shire level, but most legislative bodies at the state/provincial or nati ...
revoked their citizenship in November. After a 3-month-process, the Supreme Court of the
Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina ordered their release based on lack of evidence. According to documents filed by the detainee's American lawyers in their U.S. federal court habeas action, Christopher Hoh, the then U.S.
chargé d'affaires, had told then Behmen that the U.S. would cut all diplomatic relations if the men were not arrested. Eventually, the Council of Ministers yielded to the demand, and the six were deported to
Guantánamo Bay.
In the
2006 general election, Behmen was elected member of the
Federal House of Representatives. He left the post in January 2009, after being appointed
mayor of Sarajevo. Behmen served as mayor until March 2013.
Death
On 1 August 2018, Behmen died in
Sarajevo
Sarajevo ( ; cyrl, Сарајево, ; ''see names in other languages'') is the capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its administrative limits. The Sarajevo metropolitan area including Sarajevo ...
at the age of 77.
[ He was buried in Sarajevo at the Bare Cemetery on 3 August, two days after his death.]
References
External links
*
, -
{{DEFAULTSORT:Behmen, Alija
1940 births
2018 deaths
Politicians from Split, Croatia
Bosniaks of Bosnia and Herzegovina
University of Sarajevo alumni
Academic staff of the University of Sarajevo
Politicians of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Social Democratic Party of Bosnia and Herzegovina politicians
Prime ministers of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Mayors of Sarajevo
Burials at Bare Cemetery, Sarajevo