Bisera Turković (; born 8 December 1954) is a Bosnian diplomat and politician who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2019 to 2023. She was the first female foreign minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Born in Sisak in 1954, Turković holds a degree in law from the University of Sarajevo and a bachelor in Criminal Justice Administration from the Phillip Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Australia. She also holds a Ph.D. in international relations from the Pacific Western University, now known as California Miramar University. Following her studies, Turković worked as chief editor for Hayat TV. Her first assignments as ambassador were to Croatia, Hungary, and at Bosnia and Herzegovina's Permanent Mission to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.
From 2000 to 2001, Turković was Minister for European Integration. From 2004 to 2005, she served at Bosnia and Herzegovina's Permanent Mission to the United Nations as well as an ambassador to a few international organizations. Following that, Turković was the Bosnia and Herzegovina Ambassador to the United States from 2005 until 2009. She has been a member of the Party of Democratic Action since 1991.
Following Zoran Tegeltija's appointment as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, Turković was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs in Tegeltija's cabinet in December 2019. She served as foreign minister until January 2023, when a new cabinet led by Borjana Krišto was formed.
Early life and education
Turković was born in Sisak, present-day Croatia, on 8 December 1954 to a Croat mother and a Bosniak father. Her mother Katarina Kraus hails from Slovenia and her father Muharem Rešić hails from Prijedor. Her paternal grandfather Mehmedalija Rešić lived in the United States from 1909 to 1926, when he returned to Prijedor and married Bahta Mušić, her paternal grandmother. Mušić's family hailed from Užice, present-day Serbia, and resettled to Bosanska Kostajnica. Turković's parents separated when she was still a child and her mother moved to Australia. Turković lived with her paternal grandmother in Bosanska Kostajnica until she started school, when she moved to Zagreb where she lived with her father, simultaneously visiting her maternal grandparents Blanka Korez and Stefan Kraus, and her mother in Australia.
Turković holds a degree in law from the University of Sarajevo and a bachelor in Criminal Justice Administration from the Phillip Institute of Technology in Melbourne. She undertook postgraduate studies in Criminology at La Trobe University in Melbourne and holds a Ph.D. in international relations from Pacific Western University (now California Miramar University).
Career
In the early 1990s, Turković worked as chief editor for Hayat TV. She was the first bilateral ambassador appointed in the history of independent Bosnia and Herzegovina. Her first assignment as ambassador was in Zagreb, Croatia (1993–1994). During Turković's tenure, her Party of Democratic Action organised a massive weapons shipment, through Croatia from Iran to the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, during the Bosnian War, although the United States had imposed a weapons embargo on Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Turković later served as an ambassador to Hungary (1994–1996), and at Bosnia and Herzegovina's Permanent Mission to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe in Vienna (1996 to 2000). From 2000 to 2001, he was appointed Minister for European Integration in the governments of Spasoje Tuševljak and Martin Raguž.
From 2001 to 2004, Turković worked as an executive director of the Centre for Security Studies in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as a lecturer at the Faculty of Criminal Justice, University of Sarajevo. She has also given lectures at the University of Sarajevo, Webster University, the International University of Sarajevo and the University of Travnik as well as at George Washington University and at other major international universities. From 2004 to 2005, she served at Bosnia and Herzegovina's Permanent Mission to the United Nations in Vienna and as Ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization. From 2005 until 2009, Turković served as Bosnia and Herzegovina's ambassador to the United States, Mexico and Brazil.
Her next diplomatic postings were in Brussels as a bilateral ambassador to Belgium and Luxembourg, as well as in Qatar from 2018 to 2019.
Minister of Foreign Affairs (2019–2023)