Emir Elfić

Emir Elfić (Serbian Cyrillic: Емир Елфић; born 31 August 1977) is a Serbian Bosniak politician and diplomat. He served in the National Assembly of Serbia from 2012 to 2014 and has held high political office at the city level in Novi Pazar. From 2016 to 2022, Elfić served as Serbia's ambassador to Lebanon.

Early life and career

Elfić was born in Novi Pazar, in the Sandžak region of what was then the Socialist Republic of Serbia in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. He is a graduate of the Faculty of Trade and Banking at BK University in Belgrade.[1]

He was a brother-in-law to the late Muamer Zukorlić, Chief Mufti of the Islamic Community in Serbia, with whom he was at one time politically aligned.

Politics

Early years (2008–12)

In 2008, Elfić became assistant to the mayor of Novi Pazar for infrastructure and investments.[2]

Serbia organized the first direct elections for the country's national minority councils in 2010. Elfić was elected to the Bosniak National Council on the electoral list of Zukorlić's Bosniak Cultural Community, which won seventeen mandates, as against thirteen for the Bosniak List led by Sulejman Ugljanin and five for the Bosniak Renaissance list of Rasim Ljajić. These results proved to be extremely contentious, and the legitimacy of the Bosniak Cultural Community's victory was contested by both the Serbian government and Ugljanin's party. Elfić was chosen as a deputy chair of the council when it met in July 2010.[3] The Serbian government subsequently revoked the council's authority, although Zukorlić's group continued to oversee what it described as council meetings in defiance of this decision.[4][5] Elfić resigned as assistant to Novi Pazar's mayor in September 2010, citing what he described as government discrimination against the Bosniak community and attempts by the state to utilize waqf property for secular purposes.[6]

In September 2010, Elfić was chosen as leader of the newly formed Bosniak Democratic Union (Bošnjačka demokratska zajednica, BDZ), a political party closely associated with Zukorlić's movement.[7] He said that the party's main purpose was to promote the national identity of the Bosniak community, while also maintaining good relations with the Serb community in the region.[8]

As party leader, Elfić called for the Sandžak to be recognized as an autonomous region in Serbia. In a May 2011 interview, he rejected the idea that this would contribute to the disintegration of Serbia. He was quoted as saying, "We see our autonomy as contributing to European integrations. We do not regard autonomy as a disintegration project, but rather as the project to advance and integrate the region. We want Sandžak to be as it has been throughout is long history - a region that brings together rather than separates."[9]

In January 2012, Elfić condemned Serbian president Boris Tadić for attending a twentieth-anniversary celebration of the Republika Srpska in Banja Luka (commemorating the anniversary of the entity's de facto creation prior to the Bosnian War, not its sanctioned establishment in the Dayton Agreement). Elfić argued that the event commemorated the foundation of a "parastate and paramilitary" that committed aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina and ethnic cleansing against the Bosniak community.[10]

Parliamentarian (2012–14)

The BDZ contested the 2012 Serbian parliamentary election as part of the All Together alliance, which also included parties representing Serbia's Croat, Slovak, and Hungarian communities. Elfić received the lead position on the alliance's electoral list and was elected to the national assembly when it won a single mandate.[11][12] The results overall were a disappointment for Zukorlić's movement, which received far less support in the Sandžak than most pundits expected.[13]

There was a falling out between Elfić and Zukorlić in 2013, and the BDZ split into rival factions. The pro-Zukorlić wing of the party held a convention that deposed Elfić and named Jahja Fehratović as party leader; Elfić rejected the legitimacy of this convention, describing it as an act of aggression against the party.[14] The division ultimately led to a party split; Elfić continued to lead the BDZ, while the group led by Zukorlić and Fehratović became the Bosniak Democratic Union of Sandžak (Bošnjačka demokratska zajednica Sandžaka, BDZS).

Elfić led another version of the All Together coalition in the 2014 Serbian parliamentary election.[15] The list did not receive enough votes to win any mandates, and the BDZ generally became inactive after this time.

After leaving parliament, Elfić became aligned with Rasim Ljajić's Sandžak Democratic Party (Sandžačka demokratska partija, SDP). He was appointed to the Novi Pazar city council in 2014 with responsibility for international co-operation and remained in this role for the next two years.[16] In 2015, it was reported that Ljajić proposed Elfić to become Serbia's ambassador to Lebanon.[17]

Ambassador (2016–2022)

Elfić was appointed as Serbia's ambassador to Lebanon in 2016.[18] He was recalled from this role in October 2022.[19]

References
  1. H.E. Emir Elfic, ambassador, Embassy of the Republic of Serbia, Beirut - Lebanese Republic, accessed 16 May 2022.
  2. H.E. Emir Elfic, ambassador, Embassy of the Republic of Serbia, Beirut - Lebanese Republic, accessed 16 May 2022.
  3. "Serbian agency reports constitution of Bosniak council amid controversy, boycott," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European, 7 July 2010 (Source: FoNet news agency, Belgrade, in Serbian 1434 gmt 07 July 10).
  4. "Bosniak ticket headed by mufti ignores Serbian ministry, sets up Muslim council," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European, 7 July 2010 (Source: Excerpt from report by Serbian local TV from Novi Pazar).
  5. Gordana Andric, "Serbia Reshuffle Fuels Bosniak Council Vote Confusion", Balkan Insight, 17 March 2011, accessed 21 April 2017.
  6. "Mayor's aide quits over Serbian 'state regime's discrimination against Bosniaks," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European, 1 September 2010 (Source: Text of report by Serbian local TV from Novi Pazar).
  7. "Zukorlićev šurak na čelu nove stranke Bošnjaka", Radio Television of Vojvodina, 23 September 2010, accessed 16 May 2022.
  8. "Serbia: Sandzak mufti's brother in law forms 11th Muslim party," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European, 28 December 2010 (Source: Politika website, Belgrade, in Serbian 26 Dec 10).
  9. "Serbian mufti backs autonomy of Bosnia-Herzegovina's region," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European, 3 May 2011 (Source: Politika website, Belgrade, in Serbian 28 Apr 11).
  10. "Serbian Bosniak parties condemn presidents presence at Bosnian Serb celebration," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European, 17 January 2012 (Source: Text of report by Serbian newspaper Danas website on 12 January).
  11. Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине, 6. мај 2012. године, ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (14 СВЕ ЗАЈЕДНО: БДЗ, ГСМ, ДЗХ, ДЗВМ, Словачка странка - Емир Елфић), Republika Srbija - Republička izborna komisija, accessed 15 May 2022.
  12. EMIR ELFIĆ, Archived 2013-03-03 at the Wayback Machine, National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, accessed 16 May 2022.
  13. "Serbian commentary questions Sandzak mufti's leadership after election debacle," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European, 14 May 2012 (Source: Politika website, Belgrade, 10 Serbian 10 May 12).
  14. "Serbian paper looks at rifts in Bosniak party," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European, 2 April 2013 (Source: Politika website, Belgrade, in Serbian 1 Apr 13).
  15. Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 16. и 23. марта 2014. године, ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (14 ЛИСТА НАЦИОНАЛНИХ ЗАЈЕДНИЦА-БДЗ-МПСЗ-ДЗХ-МРМ-МЕП-Емир Елфић), Republika Srbija - Republička izborna komisija, accessed 21 August 2021.
  16. Službeni List (Grada Novog Pazara), Volume 21 Number 8 (1 December 2014), p. 175.
  17. "Serbian sources detail list of candidates for ambassador posts," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European, 13 August 2015 (Source: Text of report by Serbian newspaper Politika website on 11 August).13 August 2015.
  18. "Elfić novi ambasador u Bejrutu", Novosti, 9 March 2016, accessed 16 May 2022.
  19. "Mediji: Emir Elfić opozvan sa dužnosti ambasadora Srbije u Libanu", Danas, 13 October 2022, accessed 17 October 2022.
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