Miodrag Perišic - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Miodrag Perišić was one of the founders and a former vice president of the modern-day Democratic Party

Democratic Party (Serbia)

The Democratic Party is a political party in Serbia. It is described as a social liberal or social democratic party.-Pre-war history:The Democratic Party was established on 16 February 1919 from unification of Sarajevo parties independent radicals, progressives, liberals and the Serbian part of...

(DS) in Serbia

Serbia

Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...

and a former FR Yugoslavia's ambassador in Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. He was a prominent member of the modern democratic movement in Serbia

Serbia

and author of several books.

Perišić died of a heart attack on a treadmill during workout at the University of Ottawa

University of Ottawa

The University of Ottawa is a bilingual, research-intensive, non-denominational, international university in Ottawa, Ontario. It is one of the oldest universities in Canada. It was originally established as the College of Bytown in 1848 by the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate...

, while carrying out his duty, a month short of his two year mandate. He was married to Žaneta Đukić-Perišić, with whom he has twin daughters. He is buried in the Novo Groblje

Novo groblje

Novo groblje is a cemetery complex in Belgrade, Serbia. It is located in Ruzveltova street in Zvezdara municipality. The cemetery was built in 1886 as the third Christian cemetery in Belgrade. The newly developed cemetery in that period had no chapel or church...

, in Belgrade, Serbia

Biography

Though born in Subotica

Subotica

Subotica is a city and municipality in northern Serbia, in the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina...

, Miodrag Perišić completed primary and secondary school in Belgrade

Belgrade

Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...

. He received a BA

Bachelor of Arts

A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...

degree in philosophy

Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...

at Belgrade University's Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Department of Philosophy. During his studies he participated in editing and publishing of the journals Student and Vidici, and later worked as editor of the journal Književna reč (Literary Word). Perišić freelanced until 1978 when he started to work as Secretary of the Ivo Andrić Foundation in Belgrade

Belgrade

until 1984. In the period from 1984 to 1992 he was editor-in-chief of the journal Književne novine (Literary Gazette).

Perišić was also an active member in the Serbian PEN Centre and a vice president of the International PEN

International PEN

PEN International , the worldwide association of writers, was founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere....

, the worldwide association of writers.

In fall 1991, Perišić was a guest of the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace at the University of Stanford, California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

. In fall and winter 1991/92 he was a guest at several universities in United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

and gave lectures about roots of Yugoslav crisis, role of the intellectuals, and causes of SFR Yugoslavia

Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia

The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the Yugoslav state that existed from the abolition of the Yugoslav monarchy until it was dissolved in 1992 amid the Yugoslav Wars. It was a socialist state and a federation made up of six socialist republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,...

's disintegration. In November and December 1999, Perišić visited the seminary at the John F. Kennedy School of Government

John F. Kennedy School of Government

The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University is a public policy and public administration school, and one of Harvard's graduate and professional schools...

and gave lectures at the Taft University.

Perišić authored several books, and published anthology of modern Serbian poetry. His latest book title is 1995's Razvaline ideološkog raja (The Ruins of Ideological Paradise).

Political career

With a group of like-minded persons, including Zoran Đinđić and Vojislav Koštunica

Vojislav Koštunica

Vojislav Koštunica is a Serbian politician, statesman and the president of the Democratic Party of Serbia. He was the last President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, succeeding Slobodan Milošević and serving from 2000 to 2003...

, Miodrag Perišić re-established the Democratic Party

Democratic Party (Serbia)

in Serbia in 1989. In summer 1992 he was elected as a member of the first Federal Government of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia as the Minister of Information in the Cabinet of Milan Panić

Milan Panic

Milan Panić or Milan Panic is a Serbian American multimillionaire, a Newport Beach and Pasadena, California-based business tycoon. He served as Prime Minister of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1992-1993...

. In the same year, he was elected as the Democratic Party

Democratic Party (Serbia)

representative in the Federal Parliament. From 1994 to 2000 he was a Vice President of the Democratic Party

Democratic Party (Serbia)

, and in the period from 1996 to 2000 he was a federal representative elected by the Coalition "Zajedno" ("Together").

Perišić is one of the founders of the Council for Democratic Changes in Serbia

Serbia

, a non-governmental organization where he was the president of the Political Committee until December 2000. On October 5, 2000, he was amongst the citizens who welcomed the liberation from the oppressive regime of Slobodan Milošević

Slobodan Milošević

Slobodan Milošević was President of Serbia and Yugoslavia. He served as the President of Socialist Republic of Serbia and Republic of Serbia from 1989 until 1997 in three terms and as President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1997 to 2000...

on the great stairway of the Federal Parliament building. He was appointed an Ambassador of FR Yugoslavia in Ottawa

Ottawa

Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...

, Canada

Canada

in 2001 where he was highly appreciated by the Serbian immigration, working steadily on greater interconnectedness of the diaspora and its integration into political and social life of Serbia and Montenegro

Serbia and Montenegro

Serbia and Montenegro was a country in southeastern Europe, formed from two former republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia : Serbia and Montenegro. Following the breakup of Yugoslavia, it was established in 1992 as a federation called the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia...

. Former Foreign minister Goran Svilanović

Goran Svilanovic

Goran Svilanović is a Serbian politician, the Chairman of Working Table I of the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe....

emphasized that Perišić "with his dignity of an intellectual, had opened many doors which for others had been closed, in such a way succeeding to bring one small country, as it is Serbia and Montenegro, into the society of the great".

Biography

Political career

External links

Further reading