Darko Tanasković

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Darko Tanasković

Darko Tanasković ( Serbian - Cyrillic Дарко Танасковић ; born January 4, 1948 in Zagreb , Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia ) is a Yugoslav and Serbian orientalist , Islamologist , philologist and diplomat . Tanasković is a leading orientalist in Serbia who has published on neo-Omanism in particular . In the diplomatic service he was the representative of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in Turkey , the Vatican , Azerbaijan and UNESCO . In addition to Latin and ancient Greek, Tanasković is particularly proficient in French , Italian , Russian , Arabic , Turkish and Persian . After completing his diplomatic and academic career, he is currently still a director on the supervisory board of the Serbian National Museum in Belgrade .

Life

He was born in Zagreb in 1948 as the son of the Serbian general Rajko Tanasković . When he was eight years old, his family moved to Belgrade . He grew up in a strict family where his upbringing was dominated by the fulfillment of duties. His mother, Ines Wesley-Tanasković, worked as a doctor for the UN, among others, and was one of the global pioneers in the introduction of computers into biology and medicine. She could only slightly soften the father's strict upbringing. After four years of elementary school at the time, he was able to attend the old-language grammar school in Belgrade, which no longer exists. There he learned Latin for eight years and ancient Greek for six years, as well as two other foreign languages.

After graduating from high school in 1966, Tanasković enrolled in oriental studies against his parents' wishes . The Faculty of Oriental Studies in Belgrade had existed since 1928. It was here in particular Fehim Bajraktarević (1889–1970) who brought him closer to Persian literature. Tanasković graduated in 1970, magistrierte in 1972 and his doctorate also in 1979 at the Faculty of Philology in Belgrade on the topic: Arapski jezik u suvremenom Tunisu - diglosija i bilingvizam . From 1971 he was an assistant, from 1980 lecturer and from 1981 associate professor . In 1989 he was appointed full professor .

In 1970 he made the acquaintance of the then Yugoslav President Josip Broz Tito , for whom he was appointed Turkish interpreter in Brioni on the occasion of Süleyman Demirel's state visit . Tanasković who had no training for interpreters and this task had not been claimed, was when Tito the parade inspected front of the villa, in front of the curious pattern to him Tito, who asked him what he was here for a job. When Tanasković explained to Tito that he only interpreted Turkish, he was asked if he was Turkish himself. After Tanasković denied and said that he had studied it in Belgrade, Tito pointed to the ministers and the Yugoslav head of foreign affairs: “Look, they don't know anything, they don't learn anything, you have to replace them. Diplomacy is done in the corridors, but what can they do if they don't speak a language? "

Scientific career

Tanasković has taught Arabic, Arabic Literature, Turkish, Turkish Literature, Introduction to Oriental Philology, Persian Literature, Basics of Islamic Civilization, Basics of Comparative Grammar of Semitic Languages ​​and Christianity and Islam. In addition to the philological faculty at the University of Applied Sciences, he also taught “Megatrend”

Tanasković is an internationally renowned orientalist who was invited as a guest speaker to Omar Khayyam's millennium celebration in Tehran in 2018 .

Diplomatic career

From 1995 to 1999 Tanasković was Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to Turkey, 1998 to 1999 in Azerbaijan, 2002 to 2008 Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to the Vatican.

From 2014 to 2018 he was Serbia's ambassador to UNESCO.

In his diplomatic work Tanasković got to know in particular the ecclesiastical pastors of the Roman Catholic Church. Tanasković had contact with three popes, John Paul II , Benedict XVI. and Francis . In particular with Cardinal Ratzinger, who was then head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in the Vatican and later Pope, he led several audiences, in particular on issues relating to Islam and Turkey. Tanasković was also in the mixed commission of the Serbian Orthodox Church and the Croatian Bishops with Pope Francis on questions about the possible canonization of Alojzije Stepinac . After the deliberations had ended, Francis stated that some things were still unclear, which was considered to be a provisionally negative evaluation of the canonization by Pope Francis.

Tug of war for Kosovo in UNESCO

As Serbia's ambassador to UNESCO, he was able to avert an application by Albania to admit Kosovo to UNESCO at the General Assembly in Paris by voting in the General Assembly in Paris on November 9, 2015. For his diplomatic success he received the Order of Saint Sava from the Serbian Patriarch Irinej. The success before UNESCO was all the more astonishing as the Western powers USA and Great Britain but also Turkey and Saudi Arabia strongly promoted its acceptance. Tanasković described that this was the first time in the 70-year history of UNESCO that a proposal from the general assembly was not accepted in the main conference. Tanasković said that Serbia would have to continue fighting for the preservation of its cultural assets even after the vote. However, no further attempt by Kosovo to join UNESCO was requested (as of 2020).

Tanasković's greatest diplomatic achievement comes in the months before the vote on the potential inclusion of Kosovo in UNESCO, in which the diplomat opposes the influence of Western countries (USA, Great Britain, France, Great Britain, Germany, Austria and Slovenia) as well as the Islamic community (Turkey, Saudi Arabia) launched a counter-campaign to vote on the admission of Kosovo to a key UN body, which was ultimately successful for him and Serbia. Tanasković reported, among other things, that one day before the vote , Recep Tayyip Erdoğan asked the President of Azerbaijan to vote in favor of it. Although the Western, Turkish and Arab lobbyists and sponsors of the Kosovar side created an atmosphere that the vote would only consist of a purely formal matter, the Serbian leadership at the highest level had used all channels in a coordinated manner to change the predicted result of the vote. Russia, China, India, Zimbabwe, Indonesia, Cuba, Spain, Morocco and others were won. Until the end it was unclear how the balance was. Tanasković reported that all social subjects of Serbia, the government, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Serbian Academy of Sciences and the Serbian Orthodox Church worked together day and night in close coordination. During the campaign, Tanasković himself had several phone calls in the middle of the night with the Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dačić . The result of the vote and the success of Serbia under the leadership of Tanasković set an important and far-reaching precedent in retrospect, as the principles and statutes of the UN were defended, which only allow UN members to be accepted into UN bodies and the western countries under the leadership of the USA had also recorded a major defeat at international level in the vote. For Serbia, it was the most important tactical success over the status issue of Kosovo that it achieved after its unilateral declaration of independence in 2008 at the international level.

Works

  • Arapska poezija (1977)
  • Sufizam (co-authoed with I. Šop)
  • Arapski jezik u savremenom Tunisu (1982)
  • Contrastivna analiza arapskog i srpskohrvatskog jezika (1982)
  • U dijalogu s islamom (1992)
  • Protivrečnosti neobošnjaštva. In: Bosna i Hercegovina od srednjeg veka do novijeg vremena. Istorijski institut SANU, Belgrade 1995. pp. 47-56.
  • Tursko-srpski rečnik (co-author with S. Đinđić i M. Teodosijević, 1997)
  • Na Istoku Zapada (2000)
  • Autonomija mišljenja (2000)
  • Islam i mi. Partenon, Belgrade 2000 (1st edition), 2002 (2nd edition), 2006 (3rd edition), 2010 (4th edition)
  • Jugoistok Srbije: Kontinuitet krize i mogući ishodi (s grupom autora, 2001)
  • Gramatika arapskog jezika (co-authored with A. Mitrović, 2005)
  • Islam: dogma i život (2008)
  • Neoosmanizam - povratak Turske na Balkan: doktrina i spoljnopolitička praksa (2010; 2011)
  • Golub koji nije postao ptica (2012)
  • Belezi vremena. Pojave, događaji, ljudi , 2014, ISBN 978-86-83903-70-2
  • Veliki povratak Turske ?: Neoosmanizam ili Islamizam (2015)
  • Autonomija mišljenja: novi razgovori sa Darkom Tanaskovićem (2016)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Дарко Танасковић
  2. ↑ Vecernje Novosti, February 12, 2020 https://www.novosti.rs/vesti/kultura.71.html:846950-Okoncan-konkurs-za-novog-direktora-Narodnog-muzeja [Okončan konkurs za novog direktora Narodnog muzeja]
  3. ↑ { https://cordmagazine.com/my-life/darko-tanaskovic-professor-and-diplomat-we-have-always-been-europeans-even-without-the-eu/ darko-tanaskovic-professor-and- diplomat-we-have-always-been-europeans-even-without-the-eu
  4. ↑ a b Agape-Darko Tanaskovic- II deo (02/23/2020) on YouTube
  5. ↑ Tehran Times, July 6, 2018 Efficacy is the miracle of Khayyam poetry: Serbian academic
  6. ↑ Danas, May 13, 2019 Tanasković: I bez tajnih dokumenata jasno je da je Stepinac znao za zločine ustaša
  7. ↑ Vatican News, May 7, 2019 Pope inflight press conference: 'I thank the Lord for the energy he gives me!'
  8. ↑ Danas, March 21, 2019 Order of Svetog Save ambasadoru Darku Tanaskoviću
  9. ↑ Novosti, November 9, 2015 Tanasković: Kosovo je presedan u istoriji Uneska; AP: Pobeda Srbije i Rusije
  10. ↑ RTS, 9 November 2015 Tanasković: Kosovo je presedan u istoriji Uneska
  11. ↑ “Taktički manevar koji smo osmislili bio je rizičan, ali, pokazalo se, uspešan”: Darko Tanasković o borbi protiv prijema Kosova u Unesko
  12. ↑ darko-tanaskovic-professor-and-diplomat-we-have-always-been-europeans-even-without-the-eu
  13. ↑ “Taktički manevar koji smo osmislili bio je rizičan, ali, pokazalo se, uspešan”: Darko Tanasković o borbi protiv prijema Kosova u Unesko
personal data
SURNAME Tanasković, Darko
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Танасковић, Дарко (Serbian)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Yugoslav or Serbian orientalist, Islamologist, philologist and diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH January 4, 1948
PLACE OF BIRTH Zagreb , Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia