Edhem Bičakčić

Edhem Bičakčić
12th Mayor of Sarajevo
In office 1935 – c. March 1939
Preceded by	Ibrahim Šarić
Succeeded by	Muhamed Zlatar
9th Mayor of Sarajevo
In office October 1928 – 1929
Preceded by	Ibrahim Hadžiomerović
Succeeded by	Asim Mutevelić
Personal details
Born	c. 1884 Sarajevo, Condominium of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Austria-Hungary
Died	31 December 1941 Sarajevo, Kingdom of Yugoslavia
Political party	Yugoslav Muslim Organization
Spouse(s)	Razija

Edhem Bičakčić (c. 1884 – 31 December 1941) was a Bosnian politician who became the only Mayor of Sarajevo to serve two nonconsecutive terms, first from 1928 to 1929, then again from 1935 to 1939. He was a close associate of Mehmed Spaho and a member of the Yugoslav Muslim Organization. Bičakčić died suddenly of a heart attack, aged 57.

Bičakčić was born in Sarajevo, Austria-Hungary, in what is today Bosnia and Herzegovina, to a Bosniak merchant family. His paternal uncle Salih Bičakčić was an Ottoman statesman and one of the leaders of the resistance against the Austro-Hungarian Empire. For his involvement in the resistance, Edhem's uncle was tried before the court-martial of General Josip Filipović, and eventually acquitted due to lack of evidence. Following the acquittal, Salih returned to Sarajevo where he and his brother, Edhem's father, established several banks in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Young Edhem worked on the construction of a small hydropower plant in Hrid, near Sarajevo, on the banks of the Miljacka river.

CBS News and the Associated Press reported in 2010 that a postcard sent by Bičakčić, dated 13 June 1915, was discovered by a retired jeweler who purchased it at an antique fair in Long Beach, California. Bičakčić had sent a black-and-white photograph as a postcard to his wife Razija, parents and daughters Zekija and Čamka while serving in Hungary during World War I from the town Villány. The Bosnian American jeweler who discovered the postcard after 95 years, was visiting his native Sarajevo in June 2010 when he coincidentally met Bičakčić's grandson while looking around a local antique shop in downtown Sarajevo. Because the grandson had the same last surname as Edhem Bičakčić, the jeweler presented the postcard to the grandson, who immediately recognized his grandfather on the photograph.

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