Zlatko Hasanbegović

Zlatko Hasanbegović (Croatian pronunciation: [zlâtko xǎsanbeːɡoʋit͜ɕ]; born 14 June 1973) is a Croatian far-right [1] politician and historian who has served as a member of the Croatian Parliament since 2016. He served as Minister of Culture in the Cabinet of Tihomir Orešković from 22 January to 19 October 2016. Hasanbegović is also a member of the Zagreb Assembly and one of the founders of the Independents for Croatia party.

Zlatko Hasanbegović
Member of Parliament
Assumed office
14 October 2016
PresidentKolinda Grabar-Kitarović
Prime MinisterTihomir Orešković
ConstituencyI electoral district
Member of the Zagreb Assembly
Assumed office
10 July 2017
Minister of Culture
In office
22 January 2016 – 19 October 2016
PresidentKolinda Grabar-Kitarović
Prime MinisterTihomir Orešković
Preceded byBerislav Šipuš
Succeeded byNina Obuljen Koržinek
Personal details
Born (1973-06-14) 14 June 1973
Zagreb, SR Croatia, SFR Yugoslavia
(now Croatia)
NationalityCroatian
Political partyHomeland Movement
(2020–present)
Other political
affiliations		Croatian Pure Party of Rights (1996–1997)
Croatian Democratic Union (2015–2017)
Independents for Croatia (2017–2019)
Bloc for Croatia
(2019–2020)
Spouse(s)Lamija Hasanbegović
Children2
Alma materUniversity of Zagreb
ProfessionHistorian, politician, activist

As a historian, Hasanbegović's interests are relations between the modern Croatian ideologies, especially pravaštvo (Croatian nationalist ideology) and its relations towards Islam in Croatia and in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the 19th and 20th centuries. He researches Muslim elements of the Croatian bourgeois culture until 1945 and relations of political parties as well as religious and national relations in Bosnia and Herzegovina since the Austrian-Hungarian occupation until the communist takeover. He was an associate of the Institute of Humanities Ivo Pilar.

From 2019 up until the 2020 Croatian parliamentary elections he was the president of the Bloc for Croatia political party, which then merged with the far-right Miroslav Škoro Homeland Movement.

Early life and education

Zlatko Hasanbegović was born on 14 June 1973 in Zagreb to Bosniak parents Zumreta Hasanbegović (née Prohić) from Gračanica and Ibrahim Hasanbegović from Bosanska Gradiška. His mother's side of the family moved from Gračanica (modern day Bosnia and Herzegovina) to the Croatian capital of Zagreb in 1941. His maternal grandfather, Sabrija Prohić, was a rich industrialist with properties across the former Kingdom of Yugoslavia. During World War II, the Prohić family helped hide a Jewish girl from Gračanica in their house in Zagreb.[2][3] Hasanbegović's grandparents Sabrija and Safeta Prohić, along with his aunt and uncle Esma and Avdo Prohić, were posthumously named "Righteous among the Nations" by Israel in 2018.[4] Hasanbegović was forbidden from attending the award ceremony.[5]

After the war, they were accused for smuggling foreign currency and arrested by the Communists. Sabrija Prohić tried to escape to Argentina, but was caught and later killed as a "class enemy", while their entire property was confiscated.[2][3]

In 1998 he took part in Fascist demonstrations.[6]

Hasanbegović finished elementary and high school in Zagreb, after which he enrolled in Zagreb Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences where he graduated in history. He gained his doctorate on the same Faculty in 2009 in the field of history under the supervision of Ivo Goldstein.[7]

Career

Hasanbegović is working as a research associate at the Ivo Pilar Institute of Social Sciences. He is the editor of Pilar journal, member of executive committee of the Majlis of Zagreb's Muslim community,[8][9][10]

He is president of the Supervisory Board of the Honorary Bleiburg Platoon, an organisation which is the main organizer of the commemoration for Bleiburg repatriations, and associate of various initiatives for the determination of victims of communist terror. The subject of his interest is the relation of modern Croatian national ideology, in particular the Party of Rights and its present-day offshoots, Islam in Croatia and Islam in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the 19th and 20th centuries. Hasanbegović researched the Muslim component of Croatian bourgeois culture until 1945 and the political and religious-ethnic relations in Bosnia and Herzegovina since the 1878 Austro-Hungarian rule until the communist takeover in the 1940s.[11][12]

Hasanbegović has published Croatian translations of several essays: Against Democracy and Equality: The European New Right by Tomislav Sunić, The Holocaust Industry by Norman Finkelstein, Intellectual Terrorism by Jure Vujić, Communism and Nazism by Alain de Benoist, and Wahhabism by Hamid Algar.

He entered politics in his youth when he was a member of the Croatian Pure Party of Rights (HČSP).[13] In 2015 he joined the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ).[14] On 8 May 2015[15] during the "Otvoreno" show on Croatian Radiotelevision Hasanbegović stated that anti-fascism is not in the foundations of the Croatian Constitution; "Croatian War of Independence is the only war in the 20th century from which Croats came out as true winners and the only basis on which Croatia should be built. Ghosts and goblins of the past will cause a permanent rift and endless debate. Anti-fascism is not the foundation of Croatia, but a platitude that has no basis in the constitutional text, not being mentioned anywhere."[16]

Deputy Parliament Speaker and professor of constitutional law Robert Podolnjak from the governing Bridge of Independent Lists party, among many others, posited that anti-fascism is founded in the Croatian Constitution.[17]

Hasanbegović said that his remarks about anti-fascism were related to the Yugoslav totalitarian legacy and Titoism:[18] "All who abuse the notion of anti-fascism, which can be fluid, as is well-known to historians, know that various meanings can be attributed to that notion. Stalin, Tito, Pol Pot and also U.S. General Patton were anti-fascists. Everyone knows that those were different persons. We are not talking about abstract anti-fascism but about the particular Yugoslav Communist totalitarian legacy."[19]

His political positions have been described in media as right wing[20] or far-right.[21]

Culture Minister

On 22 January 2016, Hasanbegović was appointed as Minister of Culture by Prime Minister Tihomir Orešković. A part of the cultural workers expressed their dissatisfaction mainly due to his comments about anti-fascism and his lack of experience in management of culture. Civic initiative Platform 112, which brings together 70 NGOs, held a protest in front of the Parliament on the day when the new Government was approved, urging MPs to vote against the Cabinet of Tihomir Orešković because of Hasanbegović.[22] The Croatian Journalists' Association issued a statement in which they strongly opposed the nomination of Hasanbegovic as Minister of Culture.[23]

The Israel-based Simon Wiesenthal Center urged the Croatian government to dismiss Hasanbegović, saying he took a disdainful attitude towards Croatian resistance to fascism during World War Two.[24] The Croatian Helsinki Committee (HHO) and the Initiative EU 1481 of Matica hrvatska dismissed the accusations against Hasanbegović as unfounded.[25][26][27] Hasanbegović stated that the protests against him were not supported by any facts but based on a selective use of his different statements.[19] During this period a video from 2012 appeared in which he openly refers to the ousting of the Nazi Independent State of Croatia, NDH, as the "biggest national tragedy and defeat" for Croatia.[28] Hasanbegović said about the video that he would not apologize for his words.

As one of his first moves as minister, Hasanbegović announced that there is no need for the continuation of government funding of any non-profit media.[29] The International and European Federations of Journalists joined their affiliates in Croatia, the HND and the Trade Union of Croatian Journalists (Sinoh) in condemning this decision, as well as the Hasanbegović's dissolution of the Expert Committee for non-profit media before the end of its mandate.[30]

Under the new budget for 2016, the Croatian government stopped funding certain cultural projects and non-profit media, which Hasanbegović described as "racket money", adding that tax-payers' money will no longer be distributed in a non-transparent way for neither the left-wing nor right-wing media.[31]

In May, he signed a cooperation deal with Hungary's Minister Zoltán Balog.[32] At the 17th electoral convention of the HDZ, Hasanbegović was elected to the HDZ Presidency and received most votes.[33]

After Croatian Parliament supported motion of no confidence against Prime Minister Orešković, his whole Cabinet resigned while the Parliament dismissed itself which led to new election. On 2016 parliamentary election, Hasanbegović was elected to the Parliament as HDZ's candidate. In the aftermath, newly elected president of HDZ Andrej Plenković formed a new government with new culture minister being Nina Obuljen Koržinek and not Hasanbegović for which he expressed his dissatisfaction.

Later political career

In May 2017, Hasanbegović decided to participate in the Zagreb local elections on the independent list of Bruna Esih, who ran against the official HDZ candidate. Hasanbegović also criticized the HDZ leader Andrej Plenković, saying that his path "is wrong and leads to moral quagmire".[34] The HDZ soon announced that Hasanbegović was evicted from the party.[35] The independent list won 8,23% of the vote in the local election and Hasanbegović became a member of the Zagreb Assembly.[36] Following the elections, Hasanbegović and Esih formed a new political party, the Independents for Croatia.[37] The new party formed a majority in the assembly with the incumbent mayor Milan Bandić, on condition that the name of Zagreb’s Marshal Tito Square was changed to Republic of Croatia Square.[38]

In 2019, following a split with Esih, he became the president of the newly founded Bloc for Croatia political party.[39]

Controversy

In 1996, Hasanbegović wrote at least two articles in the magazine "The Independent State of Croatia", named after the fascist Independent State of Croatia (NDH), in which he glorified the Ustashe as heroes and martyrs.[40] The magazine was edited by the far-right Croatian Liberation Movement (HOP) and Hasanbegović was described as a young HOP member in it. Commenting on his texts from 1996 twenty years later, Hasanbegović said that the crimes of the Ustashe were "the biggest moral lapse" of the Croatian people in their history, adding: "Using totally peripheral statements I made as a student more than 20 years ago and taking them out of context is nothing but political manipulation".[41] He also denied that he was ever a member of the Croatian Liberation Movement.[18][19]

In 1993, Hasanbegović posed for a photo in Split at an event of the 9th Battalion of the Croatian Defence Forces (HOS), the Croatian Party of Rights' paramilitary (1991-1992), wearing a cap with what is allegedly an Ustashe Militia badge.[42][43] The photograph's resurfacing in 2016 and its circulation in the Croatian media caused major backlash. Hasanbegović denied he was wearing an Ustashe cap, claiming the photo had been manipulated and that he wore a black cap of the HOS.[44] A similar or identical cap, with an Ustashe badge, was worn by some members of the 9th HOS Battalion during their gatherings in the 1990s.[45]

Publications
  • Muslims in Zagreb, 1878-1945. The Era of the Foundation; Majlis of the Islamic Community Zagreb - Institute of Social Sciences "Ivo Pilar", Zagreb, 2007.
  • Yugoslav Muslim Organisation 1929-1941 (In War and Revolution 1941-1945); Bosniac National Community - Institute of Social Sciences "Ivo Pilar" – Majlis of the Islamic Community Zagreb, Zagreb, 2012.

References
  1. http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/croatian-far-right-draws-strength-from-diaspora-01-04-2018 Croatia's Far Right Draws Strength from Diaspora
  2. Mamić, Tomislav (29 Jan 2016). "'HASANBEGOVIĆ NEĆE SMIJENITI FRLJIĆA, ALI IDE U REVIZIJU UGOVORA S NEVLADINIM UDRUGAMA' Na što su novac trošili H-alter, Muf, Mladi antifašisti...?". Jutarnji list. Retrieved 2 February 2016.
  3. "Hasanbegović: Komunisti su nam uzeli 19 kuća, duhan, alkohol i devize, a djeda Sabriju su ubili'". Jutarnji.hr. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
  4. "'ODUŠEVLJEN SAM PRIZNANJEM, PONOSAN SAM NA NJIH' Izraelci odlučili posthumno dodijeliti najveće državno priznanje baki i djedu Zlatka Hasanbegovića". Jutarnji.hr. Retrieved 11 May 2018.
  5. https://www.total-croatia-news.com/politics/28294-israeli-embassy-and-jewish-community-rescind-invitation-to-hasanbegovic
  6. https://medium.com/@balkaninsight/croatian-minister-joined-1990s-fascist-backed-protests-d39cd1b6f9be
  7. ""TIM'S TEAM": Biografije novih ministara". Nacional.Hr. 20 June 2014. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
  8. "Islamska zajednica u Hrvatskoj – Konstituiran izvršni odbor medžlisa Islamske zajednice Zagreb za period 2010-2014./1432-1436. h. g". Islamska-zajednica.hr. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
  9. "Islamska zajednica u Hrvatskoj – Članovi IOM-a" [Islamic Community of Croatia - Members of the IOM]. Islamska-zajednica.hr. 13 December 2010.
  10. "Bilten" (PDF). Nkc-sisak.hr. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
  11. "ZLATKO HASANBEGOVIĆ Biografija novog ministra kulture". Dnevnik.hr. 21 January 2016. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
  12. "Hasanbegović ide u reviziju ugovora s nevladinim udrugama". Jutarnji.hr. 29 January 2016. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
  13. "Povijest Mladeži HČSP-a". hcsp.hr. Retrieved 4 February 2016.
  14. "Predsjednik Karamarko na sjednici Gradskog odbora HDZ-a Grada Zagreba". hdz.hr. Retrieved 4 February 2016.
  15. "TKO JE KONTROVERZNI MINISTAR KULTURE? 'Hasanbegović je relevantan znanstvenik, a ne nekakav luđak kakvim ga se nastoji prikazati u javnosti'". Jutarnji.hr. 23 January 2016. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
  16. "Hasanbegović, kandidat za ministra kulture: Antifašizam je floskula i nema ga u Ustavu". Hrt.hr. 21 January 2016. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
  17. "Antifašizam jest temelj Ustava, a registar izdajnika je neprihatljiv. Oni će to to morati objasniti javnosti". vecernji.hr. Retrieved 8 February 2016.
  18. "Hasanbegović: Ako na internetu piše da sam ubio Kennedyja, ne znači da je to istina". vecernji.hr. Retrieved 31 January 2016.
  19. "Culture Minister nominee says he is being exposed to an "ideological lynching"". EBL News. Retrieved 31 January 2016.
  20. "A dead dictator, his rusting boat and a fight for history". Reuters. 14 September 2017.
  21. "What were the Ustasa for Minister Hasanbegovic?". balkaninsight. 12 February 2016.
  22. "Pred Saborom prosvjed protiv Hasanbegovića i Crnoje". hrt.hr. Retrieved 8 February 2016.
  23. "HND, Platform 112 against nomination of Hasanbegovic as culture minister". EBL News. Retrieved 14 February 2016.
  24. "Anti-Nazi centre urges dismissal of Croatia's culture minister". Reuters UK. Retrieved 14 February 2016.
  25. "Some associations against, some for ministers of culture, war veterans". EBL News. Retrieved 8 February 2016.
  26. "HHO dismisses accusations against new culture minister". EBL News. Retrieved 31 January 2016.
  27. "Corps of Internet Journalists backs culture minister's decision". EBL News. Retrieved 8 February 2016.
  28. https://balkaninsight.com/2016/02/24/croatian-government-burdened-by-culture-minister-hasanbegovic-02-24-2016/
  29. "Minister says no need for nonprofit media commission". EBL News. Retrieved 8 February 2016.
  30. "Croatia: governmental attacks on Media Freedom". europeanjournalists.org. Retrieved 15 February 2016.
  31. "Culture minister warns Srebrenica genocide negator criticises Croatia". EBL News. Retrieved 10 May 2016.
  32. "Hungary and Croatia ink cultural cooperation deal". EBL News. 24 May 2016.
  33. "HDZ gets new presidency, Milijan Brkic elected Karamarko's deputy". EBL News. 29 May 2016.
  34. ""Path Chosen by Plenković Is Wrong and Leads to Moral Quagmire"". Total Croatia News. 8 May 2017.
  35. "Hasanbegović Evicted from HDZ". Total Croatia News. 8 May 2017.
  36. "Bruna Esih slavi, otkrila hoće li dati podršku Milanu Bandiću". 22 May 2017.
  37. "OSNIVAČI NOVE DESNE STRANKE IZNOSE SVOJ PLAN Hasanbegović i Esih: 'Mi smo autohtona nacionalna platforma, bit ćemo ono što je HDZ trebao biti'". Jutarnji list.
  38. "Milan Bandić pristao je na uvjet Zlatka Hasanbegovića i Brune Esih". Večernji list. 26 June 2017.
  39. "Hasanbegović osnovao novu stranku: "Siguran sam da bez Bloka neće biti moguće formirati buduću vladu"". dnevnik.hr. 9 November 2019.
  40. "Minister say photo yet another attempt to vilify him". EBL News. Retrieved 10 May 2016.
  41. "Hasanbegovic: Ustasha crimes biggest moral lapse in history of Croatian people". EBL News. Retrieved 10 May 2016.
  42. "Croatian Minister of Culture Hasanbegovic's Perceived Past Ustasha Sympathies Dominate National Media". Total Croatia News. 11 Feb 2016.
  43. Hockenos, Paul, "Croatia’s Far Right Weaponizes the Past", Foreign Policy, 6 May 2016.
  44. "Hasanbegović: Na slici sam ja, kapa nije ustaška već HOS-ova". 24sata.hr. 10 Feb 2016.
  45. "HOS-ova kapa". Novosti. 13 Feb 2016.
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