Sandžak (Bosnian language: Sandžak pronounced [sǎndʒak], Serbian, Montenegrin Cyrillic: Санџак pronounced [sǎndʒak], Turkish: Sancak)), , is a region lying along the border between Serbia and Montenegro. Тhe name Sandžak derives from the Sanjak of Novi Pazar, a former Ottoman administrative district that existed until the Balkan Wars of 1912.

The region is referred to as either Novopazarski Sandžak (Sandžak of Novi Pazar), or simply Sandžak by local ethnic Bosniaks. Official administrative name of the region, however, is Raška District Raška Oblast (Рашка Област). Internationally, during the Ottoman and Habsburg rule, the area was formerly known as the Sanjak of Novi Pazar meaning the Sanjak (district) of Novi Pazar. In medieval Serbia and the latter independent nation-state the region became increasingly referred to by its pre- Ottoman name (Raška).

Sandžak is the local Bosnian transcription of the Turkish word sancak, which means "flag" or "national ensign" which was used as a term representing the "province" or district". Sanjaks originally were the first level subdivisions of the Ottoman Empire. They arose in the mid-14th century as military districts that were part of a military-feudal system. In addition to the paid professional army, the Ottoman army had corps of cavalry soldiers (called spahis or sipahi) who performed military service in return for estates granted by the Sultan (larger estates were called zaim or zeamet, smaller ones timar). Spahis gathered for war according to the Sanjak in which they lived, and were led by an official called a Sanjak-beg or Sanjakbey (roughly equivalent to "district governor").

Miroslav Lazanski (born 1950) is a politico-military commentator for the Belgrade daily Politika.

Born in Karlovac (at the time PR Croatia, FPR Yugoslavia) to a Slovenian father and Serbian mother, he graduated from the University of Zagreb's Faculty of Law. His first jobs in journalism were for the Vjesnik daily newspaper and the Danas and Start weekly news magazines in Zagreb.

In February 1991 Lazanski moved to Belgrade and worked at Politika, where he was a commentator until fall 1995.

While he was writing for different Balkan publications, Lazanski's articles were also published in the Greek newspaper Katimerini and the Japanese newspapers Diamond Weekly and Securitarian.

He reported on armed conflicts such as the Soviet war in Afghanistan, the Iran–Iraq War, the Lebanese Civil War, the Gulf War during Desert Storm, Chechnya, Slovenia, Bosnia, and Kosovo. He interviewed Bernard W. Rogers, John Galvin, Sergei Akhromeyev, Viktor Kulikov, Dmitry Yazov, Vladimir Chernavin, Vladimir Kryuchkov, Igor Radionov, Bennie L. Davis, Paul Sper, Crosbie E. Saint, Huntington Hardisty, Sir John Woodward, James Alan Abrahamson, Johan Jørgen Holst, Ferenc Kárpáti, Vasile Milea, Dobri Dzhurov, Shahnawaz Tanai, Maher Abdul Rashid, Helmut Willmann, Guido Venturoni, Joe Modise, Georg Meiring, and others. He has authored several books.

Sefer Halilović (6 January 1952) is a former general and commanding officer of the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina during the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 2001, he was indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and eventually acquitted. Today he is a prominent politician in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Halilović was born in Taševo, a hamlet in the Prijepolje municipality in the Sandžak region of Serbia, then Yugoslavia. He attended the military academy in Belgrade in 1971 for three years and in 1975 he attended the military school in Zadar where he became an Officer in the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA). From 1980 until the war he served in Vinkovci as Army security officer. On August 31, 1990 he went to Belgrade and attended a two-year course at the school for commanders. When he left the People's Army in September 1991 he was a professional military officer and held the rank of Major. He returned to Bosnia-Herzegovina, created the Patriotic League and planned the defense of the country.