Lot of awards to a Yugoslav diplomat and ambassador

[Drugo]

I'd like to present you a nominative lot that I just acquired and that belonged to Osman Đikić, a career diplomat of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

The biographical information comes mainly from a 2004 online article (and a rather nice one for those of you who speak the local language).

Osman Đikić was born in Mostar, Bosnia, on 7 September 1921. His father, Ahmed, was a teacher, and Osman got his first name in remembrance of his uncle, who died of tubercolosis at the age of 33, in 1912. He was a famous poet and dramatist at the time of the occupation of Bosnia by the Hasburgic Empire, and a political activist struggling for an indipendent, multi-ethnical Bosnia.

After finishing high school, in 1940, Osman enrolled in the Faculty of Law of the University of Belgrade, but by April 1941 the country is invaded by the Axes forces and he rushes back to native Mostar. There, he joins the youth antifascist movement and, later in the same year, the partisan movement. During the war he is soon noted as being very smart and knowledgeable, and he gets involved in political and cultural activities in several batallions' headquarters and partisan units. 

Witnessing this period are the documents for his Spomenica 1941. Unfortunatelly, the original booklet and the decoration are lost, but we have the related transport ID and two later booklets, from 1985 and 1990.

It is during the final days of war, on 3 May 1945, that he is awarded with an Order for bravery. Unfortunately, while the box bears his name the serial number on the order is not matching the one on the certificate. 

Soon after, Đikić starts his career at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

On 15 November 1947, he is awarded with an Order for Brotherhood and Unity II Class and an Order for Merit to the People II Class. Fortunately, this time they are both preserved with their certificates.

By 1950 he is finally sent abroad, as a diplomat at the Embassy to Finland. From that period, we have a diplomatic ID issued by the Finnish authorities:

Five years later, and he's in Budapest. Again, a diplomatic ID from the Hungarian authorities, from Januar '55 to April '57. He must had been a witness of the Hungarian Revolution and Soviet repression. I shall remind you here that in November of 1956, Imre Nagy spent 18 days at the Yugoslav Embassy in Budapest, in a desperate and unfortunatelly unsuccessful run for his life.

At some point, it seems, Osman Đikić was employed also in Paris and New York, but I don't have any documents to support that. No matter what, in 1965 he is back in Yugoslavia, and gets elected as a deputy at the Parliament of the Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He will again hold this position in the '80s, after definitely retiring from the diplomatic life.

On 14 June 1965 he gets another award, an Order of the Republic with Silver Wreath. It is still of the first type, with five torches, while the matching certificate has a 6-torches coat of arms.

It is in the 1970s that he reaches the peak of his career. First, he is appointed Ambassador of the SFRY in Algeria, than Ambassador in Finland. A series of diplomatic passports recall his period in Finland, the first one expiring in 1982, then a civilian one, and finally another diplomatic passport when he was already retired, in the early 1990s:

In 1979 he got an Order of Brotherhood and Unity with Golden Wreath, which is unfortunatelly missing, except for the box and certificates. Given that this one had no serial number, it should be relatively easy to replace, with no real harm to the integrity of the lot.

Osman Đikić was a fine polyglot. Among less spoken languages, he was very fluent in Finnish, up to being the first person to translate some Finnish poems and literature to Serbo-Croatian. Furthermore, he was a fine Albanian speaker, serving in one occasion as interpreter for Tito and Enver Hoxha. 

Here's a photo portraing Tito, Osman Đikić, Lazar Koliševski (general of the JNA/YPA and National Hero) and Jure Bilić (famous Croat politician at the time):

Here's with his wife Vojka Smiljanić-Đikić, also a translator and poetess, in the company of Jovanka Broz and Josip Broz Tito:

Osman died somewhere in the mid-90s in Sarajevo. Vojka in 2016.

 

Edited May 11, 2019 by Drugo

[922F]

Fascinating group!  You must feel quite lucky to have obtained it!   Both the French and U.S. publish annual lists of accredited diplomats so it may be possible to consult those directories.  I tried a quick google search for these lists from the 1950's-'60's without success.    

[BalkanCollector]

Drugo, thank you so much for sharing this with the community! 

[Drugo]

9 hours ago, 922F said:

Fascinating group!  You must feel quite lucky to have obtained it!   Both the French and U.S. publish annual lists of accredited diplomats so it may be possible to consult those directories.  I tried a quick google search for these lists from the 1950's-'60's without success.    

Hello 922F,

I feel very lucky indeed. I am only sorry I was not able to recover the missing bits and pieces.

As for additional information about Đikić's career, I am sure that digging thoroughly online more could be found.

For example, here are the minutes from the XIX Congress of of the International Federation of Film Archives, held in Belgrade in 1963:

And more important, a letter proving his residency in New York as Charge d'Affaires of the Permanent Mission of the SFRY to the United Nations, in 1960:

Quite a fellow, our Đikić. 

[922F]

Thank you Drugo!   I tried a quick search of online U.N. diplomatic lists without success but with a June 1960 date may have better luck later.  

[Wilsson02]

Here is a proof that the gentleman could speak pretty good finnish:

https://yle.fi/aihe/artikkeli/2015/08/10/osman-dikic-suomenkielinen-aani-piiritetyssa-sarajevossa

[Drugo]

Thank you for this link, Wilsson02, it adds another piece to the puzzle!

 

Cheers,

Drugo