Alija Šuljak

Šuljak belonged to a group of Muslims who supported the establishment of the 13th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Handschar (1st Croatian).

Šuljak belonged to a group of notable Muslims who declared their ethnicity as Croatian and struggled for the Independent State of Croatia. The majority of Bosnian Muslims held this group in low regard by 1943. The main organizer of support of the Ustaše ideology in the region of Gacko was Alija Šuljak, a professor from Trebinje. Šuljak propagated Ustaše ideology in Gacko even before World War II, promoting fascism and disseminating religious and ethnic hatred toward Serbs.

When Axis forces occupied Yugoslavia in April 1941 and Ustaše proclaimed establishment of the Independent State of Croatia, Šuljak visited Ustaše leader Ante Pavelić during the first reception he organized on 24 April 1941 and on behalf of Muslims from Bosnia and Herzegovina held a greeting speech.

He had an important role in the genocidal organization of Ustaše, holding the rank of "poglavni pobočnik". Šuljak became notorious for organizing aggressive Ustaša propaganda. After Treaties of Rome were signed, Šuljak came to Trebinje and hosted a conference of Croats and Muslims, where he tells them decision of Main Ustaša Headquarters and openly called for killing of Serbs and theft of their property. For that purpose, Ustaše camp was opened in Trebinje. On 27 May 1941 Šuljak and Togonal held a speech in a hotel in Gacko emphasizing that all Serbs were to be exterminated, and those who could not be exterminated were to be expelled to Serbia.

At the end of the autumn of 1941, Šuljak went to the region of Borač and organized Ustaše units there who torched the Serb populated villages of Bodenište and Vratlo. Šuljak participated in the Holocaust in Croatia when he participated in the organization of Ustaše transport to Kerestinec camp of Jews on Krešimir Square in Zagreb in October 1941.

Alija Šuljak (1901–1992) was a prominent Bosnian Muslim Croat who was a professor, politician and military officer of Ustaše during World War II, best known as one of the main perpetrators of the genocide of Serbs in Eastern Herzegovina.

Šuljak was born in village Zasad near Trebinje in 1901. He graduated at primary school in Trebinje and commercial secondary school in Sarajevo. He then attended high commercial school in Zagreb and Vienna.