Sulejman Ugljanin

Sulejman Ugljanin (sulějman ǔɡʎanin; Сулејман Угљанин; born 20 November 1953) is a Serbian politician. An ethnic Bosniak, he has led the Party of Democratic Action of Sandžak since its establishment in 1990. Ugljanin was previously the president of the Bosniak National Council and a deputy in the National Assembly. He was the Mayor of Novi Pazar, and the former Minister without portfolio in the Government of Serbia between 2008 and 2014. Ugljanin holds a doctoral degree in stomatology from the University of Sarajevo. He is married and has four children. Sulejman Ugljanin was born in Titova Mitrovica in the Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo, which was part of the People's Republic of Serbia in the FPR Yugoslavia. His parents were from Novi Pazar, but moved to Mitrovica after his grandfather bought a house there. He had three sisters and three brothers. His father worked as a carpenter, and mother as a tailor. He started going to school at an early age of six, assuring his parents and school principal that his sisters and brothers taught him how to read and write. He grew up in somewhat conservative surrounding, as his cousins objected to his father for letting his oldest daughter to attend a high school. Ugljanin's oldest sister later became a chemical engineer and first highly educated family member. Although religion was discouraged in the communist Yugoslavia, his family maintained a religious life. Ugljanin recalled that he feasted since his early childhood for every Ramadan. His parents sent him to a dental high school in Priština. Ugljanin soon started to train boxing for the Radnički boxing club. After the high school, he joined the University of Sarajevo, where he studied dentistry. He continued to box in Sarajevo as well. He quit boxing after a match in Bijeljina in 1979. In Sarajevo he also started biking with his colleagues. Later, he specialised prosthetics in Sarajevo. After finishing his studies, Ugljanin started working as a children dentist in Novi Pazar. There he taught first aid and civil protection.