Fikret Abdić

Fikret Abdić (born 29 September 1939), also known as Babo, is a Bosnian politician and businessman who first rose to prominence in the 1980s for his role in turning the Velika Kladuša-based agriculture company Agrokomerc into one of the biggest conglomerates in SFR Yugoslavia.

Fikret Abdić was born in the village of Donja Vidovska, Velika Kladuša, Kingdom of Yugoslavia on 29 September 1939.

After completing his studies in agronomy, Abdić, as a relatively young engineer, became the director of the Agricultural Cooperative (Agrokomerc) in Velika Kladuša.

By raising the small agricultural cooperative into a modern food combine which employed over 13,000 workers, the economy of the entire area was boosted and living standards improved, in a region previously unindustrialized and undeveloped.

Agrokomerc transformed Velika Kladuša from a poverty-struck region to a regional powerhouse.

Bosnian Muslims gathered around the Party of Democratic Action (SDA) led by Alija Izetbegović, a former convict and a member of the Young Muslims, who was a major defendant during the 1983 Sarajevo process.

Abdić, a former member of the League of Communists, joined the SDA as one of its leaders.

In late 1987, just before the death of Hamdija Pozderac, Raif Dizdarević was about to take over the annual Presidency of Yugoslavia, during which a scandal arose.

Abdić found himself prosecuted for "counter-revolutionary acts endangering the social order of the SFRY " under Article 114 of the Criminal Code of the SFRY and eventually imprisoned for alleged financial improprieties and Hamdija Pozderac resigned.

The scandal shook not only the Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but the whole of Yugoslavia.

Another of his controversial moves was erecting a monument to an Ottoman Bosnian başbölükbaşı, Mujo Hrnjica, on a hill above Velika Kladuša.

After a fight for political monopoly, the League of Communists of Yugoslavia lost the election to nationalist parties.

In the Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbs supported the Serb Democratic Party (SDS), while the Croats supported the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ).

He won the popular vote in the Bosnian presidential elections of 1990.

In the early 1990s, during the Bosnian War, Abdić declared his opposition to the official Bosnian government, and established the Autonomous Province of Western Bosnia, a small and short-lived province in the northwestern corner of Bosnia and Herzegovina composed of the town of Velika Kladuša and nearby villages.

In the 1990 election for the Presidency of the Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Abdić won 200,000 votes more than Izetbegović.

He and Izetbegović were both elected as representatives of the Muslims in the Presidency, while Ejup Ganić, also a member of the SDA, was elected to the Presidency as a representative for the minorities.

Abdić thus emerged as a main threat to Izetbegović's dominance over the SDA and a potential President of the Presidency.

The Abdić's line overtaking the SDA also became a possibility.

However, Abdić retreated after being isolated by the leaders of the SDA and agreed to be just a Presidency member after opposition from the SDA's hardliners.

According to NIN, Abdić briefly appeared in Sarajevo when the Bosnian War broke out, hoping to assume the presidency after Izetbegović had been arrested by the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA).

However, he was preempted by Izetbegović having already named Ejup Ganić for that position.

Abdić believed that Izetbegović aspired to create a unitary state based on Bosnian Muslim supremacy.

As a member of the Presidency, but also of the SDA, he protested against the arbitrariness of Izetbegović and people who were above all loyal to Izetbegović.

Escalating tensions led to a dire situation with no apparent solution.

Abdić, departing Sarajevo in August 1992, witnessed the war's toll on both the people and the government.

In the spring of 1992, the Bihać pocket, spanning 15,500 square kilometres, was surrounded by hostile forces on all sides - the Republic of Serb Krajina to the west and north (separated from Croatian territory), and the Bosnian Serb Republika Srpska to the south and east.

The mini-state existed between 1993 and 1995 and was allied with the Army of Republika Srpska.

Amidst conflicts between Croats and Muslims in 1993, Abdić advocated strongly for negotiations as the only viable alternative to cease the bloodshed, stressing the responsibility to create a negotiation-friendly atmosphere.

His emphasis on peace through negotiation highlighted a growing conflict between him and Izetbegović, signalling their differing approaches to resolving the crisis.

Lord Owen, an English diplomat and co-author of the Vance-Owen and Owen-Stoltenberg peace plans described Abdić as "forthright, confident and different from the Sarajevan Muslims. He was in favour of negotiating and compromising with Croats and Serbs to achieve a settlement, and scathing about those Muslims who wanted to block any such settlement."

Using his expansive network of business connections, Abdić was able to keep the city supplied with consumer goods such as cigarettes, coffee and detergent, even as it was under siege by Serb forces.

Abdić enjoyed strong local support.

In 2002, he was convicted on charges of war crimes against Bosniaks loyal to the Bosnian government by a court in Croatia and sentenced to 20 years imprisonment, which was later reduced on appeal to 15 years by the Supreme Court of Croatia.

On 9 March 2012, he was released after having served two thirds of his reduced sentence.

Agrocomerc became recognizable countrywide utilzing advertising and marketing extremely skillfully, to the point that Agrokomerc's mascot, a chef with a tall white cap, was as ubiquitous as Vučko or Zagi (the 14th Summer Universiade's mascot).

Tops biscuits, Agrokomerc's main product (a copy of the Jaffa Cakes), almost pushed its more famous predecessor off the market, in SR Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Local residents of Velika Kladuša reportedly called him Babo (Father).

He ran the company with strong political backing from influential politician Hamdija Pozderac and his brother, Hakija, utilizing combined socialist and capitalist methods.

He was imprisoned again in June 2020 on suspicion of abuse of his office as Mayor.