Narodna Odbrana
Narodna Odbrana ( Serbian - Cyrillic одбрана Народна , literally "people's protection") was a Serbian nationalist organization in 1908 in response to the annexation of the hitherto under international law to the Ottoman Empire dependent territories of Bosnia and Herzegovina by Austria-Hungary was founded in 1908 . The aim was to protect the ethnic Serbs in the areas that now belong to Austria-Hungary. The organization pursued its goals publicly through propaganda as well as secretly through the establishment of paramilitary armed groups and the establishment of a spy network along the borders with Austria-Hungary. It propagated Greater Serbian ideas or a Greater Serbian Empire and also operated under the guise of a youth organization. The leading head of Narodna Odbrana was Major Vojislav Tankosić , who was also responsible for training the recruits. The organization was based in Belgrade .
When Serbia renounced its claims against Bosnia and Herzegovina on March 31, 1909, the Narodna Odbrana was transformed into a peaceful, rather non-profit organization that outwardly limited itself to distributing Serbian nationalist propaganda among young people. She worked with gymnastics clubs and other groups, such as B. the Prosveta and Prirednik .
Relationships through joint members existed with the Black Hand secret society , from whose ranks the Sarajevo assassins were recruited. In 1913 the organization finally fell completely under the control of the Black Hand. At that time the well-known Serbian secret service and military officer Apis was a leading member. During the July crisis after the assassination attempt in Sarajevo in 1914, the Austro-Hungarian government officially assumed that Narodna Odbrana would participate in the assassination in an ultimatum to Serbia :
“It is clear from the testimony and confessions of the criminal perpetrators of the June 28 attack that the Sarajevo murder was hatched in Belgrade, that the murderers received the weapons and bombs they were equipped with from Serbian officers and officials belonged to the "Narodna Odbrana", and that ultimately the transport of criminals and their weapons to Bosnia was organized and carried out by leading Serbian border organs. "
However, this suspicion could not be confirmed.
Among the founders and well-known members of the Narodna Odbrana were
literature
- WA Dolph Owings (ed.): The Sarajevo Trial. Digitization of the i-xvi pages as seminar material (English)
- Christopher Clark: The Sleepwalkers - How Europe Drew into World War I; Munich, 2013.
Web links
- Statutes of Narodna Odbrana from 1911 at WWI Document Archive (in English translation)