Raif Dizdarević

Raif Dizdarević (born 9 December 1926) is a Bosnian politician who served as Yugoslavia's first Bosniak president. Dizdarević participated in the armed resistance as a Yugoslav Partisan during World War II.

Dizdarević was born into a Bosnian Muslim family in 1926. His nephew was Srđan Dizdarević, who died in 2016.

After the war, as a member of the Communist Party and ally of Josip Broz Tito, he was elevated into high political functions. From 1945 he was a member of the Department of State Security.

• Diplomat, serving on embassies in Bulgaria (1951–1954), the Soviet Union (1956–1959), and Czechoslovakia (1963–1967)
• 1972: Assistant Federal Secretary for Foreign Affairs, with Miloš Minić as Minister
• 1978–82: Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina
• 1982–83: Chairman of Federal Assembly
• 1984–88: Minister of Foreign Affairs of Yugoslavia
• 1988–89: Chairman of the Collective Presidency of Yugoslavia, following the resignation of Hamdija Pozderac . During his time as head of state, Yugoslavia had a foreign debt of over US$21 billion and an annual inflation rate of 217 percent. In March 1989, Dizdarević had to cancel a foreign trip to Brazil, Uruguay and Senegal amid unrest in the Albanian-majority province of Kosovo.

Dizdarević, who tried to keep the Yugoslav federation together, lost his political influence with the start of the Yugoslav wars. Later he lived in Sarajevo and published his memoirs. His son Predrag lives in the United States, while his daughter Jasminka lives in Belgrade, Serbia. He published a memoir book Od smrti Tita do smrti Jugoslavije ("From the death of Tito to the death of Yugoslavia", ISBN 978-9958-10275-2 ) and a book of memories on events and personalities Vrijeme koje se pamti' ("Times to be remembered", ISBN 9958-703-81-5).