page_title: Bosniaks
section_title: Yugoslavia and World War II
hierarchical_section_title: Bosniaks / History / Yugoslavia and World War II
caption_attribution_description: English: War memorial/eternal flame in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. July 2007.
context_page_description: The Bosniaks or Bosniacs are a South Slavic nation and ethnic group native to Southeast European historical region of Bosnia, which is today part of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
  A native minority of Bosniaks live in other countries in the Balkans; especially in the Sandžak region of Serbia and Montenegro, and in Croatia and Kosovo. Bosniaks are typically characterized by their historic tie to the Bosnian historical region, traditional majority adherence to Islam since the 15th and 16th centuries, common culture and Bosnian language. As of 2017 Bosniaks are also recognised as a national minority in Albania.English speakers frequently refer to Bosniaks as Bosnian Muslims or simply as Bosnians, though the latter term can also denote all inhabitants of Bosnia and Herzegovina or apply to citizens of the country.
  Over two million Bosniaks live in the Balkans, with an estimated additional million settled and living around the world. Ethnic cleansing and genocide during the Bosnian War have had an effect on the territorial distribution of the population.
context_section_description: After World War I, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later known as the Kingdom of Yugoslavia) was formed. In it, Bosniaks alongside Macedonians and Montenegrins were not acknowledged as a distinct ethnic group. However; the first provisional cabinet included a Muslim.
  Politically, Bosnia and Herzegovina was split into four banovinas with Muslims being the minority in each. After the Cvetković-Maček Agreement 13 counties of Bosnia and Herzegovina were incorporated into the Banovina of Croatia and 38 counties into the projected Serbian portion of Yugoslavia. In calculating the division, the Muslims were discounted altogether which prompted the Bosniaks into creating the Movement for the Autonomy of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Moreover, land reforms proclaimed in the February 1919 affected 66.9 per cent of the land in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Given that the old landowning was predominantly Bosniak, the land reforms were resisted. Violence against Muslims and the enforced seizure of their lands shortly ensued. Bosniaks were offered compensation but it was never fully materialized. The regime sought to pay 255,000,000 dinars in compensation per a period of 40 years with an interest rate of 6%.  Payments began in 1936 and were expected to be completed in 1975; however in 1941 World War Two erupted and only 10% of the projected remittances were made.
  During World War II, Bosniak elite and notables issued resolutions or memorandums in various cities that publicly denounced Croat-Nazi collaborationist measures, laws and violence against Serbs: Prijedor (23 September), Sarajevo (the Resolution of Sarajevo Muslims of 12 October), Mostar (21 October), Banja Luka (12 November), Bijeljina (2 December) and Tuzla (11 December). The resolutions condemned the Ustaše in Bosnia and Herzegovina, both for their mistreatment of Muslims and for their attempts at turning Muslims and Serbs against one another.
  One memorandum declared that since the beginning of the Ustaše regime, that Muslims dreaded the lawless activities that some Ustaše, some Croatian government authorities, and various illegal groups perpetrated against the Serbs. At this time several massacres against Bosniaks were carried out by Serb and Montenegrin Chetniks. It is estimated that 75,000 Muslims died in the war, although the number may have been as high as 86,000 or 6.8 percent of their pre-war population. A number of Muslims joined the Yugoslav Partisan forces, "making it a truly multi-ethnic force". In the entirety of the war the Yugoslav Partisans of Bosnia and Herzegovina were 23 percent Muslim. Even so, Serb-dominated Yugoslav Partisans would often enter Bosniak villages killing Bosniak intellectuals and other potential opponents. In February 1943 the Germans approved the 13th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Handschar (1st Croatian) and began recruitment. Muslims composed approximately 12 percent of the civil service and armed forces of the Independent State of Croatia.
  During the socialist Yugoslav period, the Muslims continued to be treated as a religious group instead of an ethnic group. In the 1948 census, Bosnia and Herzegovina's Muslims had three options in the census: "Serb-Muslim", "Croat-Muslim", and "ethnically undeclared Muslim". In the 1953 census the category "Yugoslav, ethnically undeclared" was introduced and the overwhelming majority of those who declared themselves as such were Muslims. Aleksandar Ranković and other Serb communist members opposed the recognition of Bosniak nationality. Muslim members of the communist party continued in their efforts to get Tito to support their position for recognition. The Bosniaks were recognized as an ethnic group in 1961 but not as a nationality and in 1964 the Fourth Congress of the Bosnian Party assured the Bosniaks the right to self-determination. On that occasion, one of the leading communist leaders, Rodoljub Čolaković, stated that "our Muslim brothers" were equal with Serbs and Croats and that they would not be "forced to declare themselves as Serbs and Croats." He guaranteed them "full freedom in their na
caption: The Eternal flame (Bosnian: Vječna vatra) in Sarajevo, is a memorial to the Serb, Muslim (i.e. Bosniak) and Croat military and civilian victims of the Second World War.
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