It is difficult to be absolutely sure
about when the plot to assassinate Archduke Ferdinand was hatched and whether
there were others (apart from those who were tried) who were operating from
behind the curtain.
It can be concluded with some
certainty that many of the conspirators such as Trifko Grabez, Cvjetko Popovic,
Mehmed Mehmedbasic, and at least one of the Cubrilovic brothers, Vaso, were either recruited or got involved only in the preceding few weeks or, at most,
months of the assassination. The other Cubrilovic brother, Veljko, maintained
throughout his trial that he had no idea about the plot and had run into Gavro
and Trifko Grabez in Priboj purely by accident.
With the exception of Ilic,
Mehmedbasic and Veljko Cubrilovic, all the conspirators were young (less than twenty years of age); and
even these three were only in their 20s.
So, was the assassination of Archduke
Ferdinand an unfortunate consequence of an amateur conspiracy hatched by
schoolboys, one of the many that were being cooked up on an almost daily basis,
in the fervid anti-Austrian atmosphere in Sarajevo? Was it so that a series of
haphazard circumstances and chance and (above all) the cavalier attitude of the
Heir-Apparent towards his own safety that led to the moment in Sarajevo on the
morning of 28 June 1914, when Ferdinand’s car turned into the street named
after his uncle? Or was the assassination organized by other players, in particular
Serbian secret societies that had mushroomed during the Austro-Hungarian rule
of Bosnia and Hercegovina?
The conspiracy theorists gain credence
from the involvement of two men in the plot: Vladimir Gacinovic and Major Vojislav
Tankosic.
These two men, in turn, were linked
with two pro-Serbian organizations: Young Bosnians and The Black Hand.
There was another Serbian ‘cultural’ organization, Narodna Odbrana (in effect a Serbian Nationalist organization,
created around 1908, as a reaction to the annexation of Bosnia and Hercegovina
by the Austrians) of which some of the plotters (Veljko Cubrilovic and Misko
Jovanovic) were members. Narodna Odbrana
was rumoured to have links with The Black
Hand.
Young Bosnians
Almost all the plotters were members
of the ultra radical Young Bosnian
association, of which Vladimir Gacinovic was the guiding spirit. His stature among the
revolutionary young Serbs was very high because of his association with BogdanZerajic who, in 1909, had attempted to assassinate general Marijan Varesanin, the
predecessor of Oskar Potiorek, the hated governor of Bosnia and Hercegovina.
(Zerajic fired at Varesanin from a close range five times, and missed every
time.) Gacinovic, who was a friend of Zerajic, wrote several pamphlets
eulogizing Zerajic, which served the twin purpose of accentuating the halo of
martyrdom surrounding Zerajic (who was executed) and enhancing his own status
among the young Serbs.
As we have seen in earlier postings,
one of the plotters (the only one who got away) Mehmed Mehmedbasic attended ameeting in Toulouse in January 1914 in which Gacinovic spoke. The target chosen
for execution in that meeting was Oskar Potiorek. Two months later, in March
1914, Danilo Ilic wrote to Mehmedbasic that Potiorek was no longer the target; the
target now was Heir-Apparent himself. Since Mehmedbasic remained unconvinced
the two wrote to Gacinovic who gave the go-ahead for the assassination of
Archduke.
This suggests that Ilic was in touch
with Gacinovic and one can then hypothesize that Gacinovic was in the know and
had participated in the planning of the assassination.
But there is a problem with this hypothesis.Young Bosnians, while rigid
and fervid in its beliefs, morality and code of conduct, was essentially a
loose network of several secret organizations that proliferated in various
towns and cities in Bosnia. The members were mostly young men of peasant
background and the common thread that bound the societies together was their
hatred of the Austrians. Young Bosnians
had no leader although Gacinovic was the guiding spirit.
It is probable that Gacinovic gave his
blessings to several assassination plots targeted at some or the other luminary
of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the hope that one of it would succeed.
It is also probable that Gacinovic was
only the spiritual guide of the assassins and, beyond giving his blessings, played no active role in the
plotting itself.
Vladimir Gacinovic
The Black Hand
The other person who had more than just
spiritual involvement in the assassination plot was Major Vojislav Tankosic. He
was the one who provided the plotters with weapons and also arranged their
training in shooting.
Originally from a village not very far
from Gavro’s village, Tankosic was an influential figure in Komite (the volunteer Serbian army from
Bosnia and Hercegovina). A small, frail man, he was reputed to be fierce and
barbaric, and not just in a battle.
Major Vojislav Tankosic
Tankosic had a bodyguard by the name
of Djuro Sarac, who had known Gavro Princip from Sarajevo. When Gavro arrived
in Belgrade for the first time, in 1912, Sarac was there. The friendship
between the two men became closer during Gavro’s stay in the city.
It was Sarac who introduced Gavro to
Milan Ciganovic when Gavro arrived in Belgrade at the beginning of 1914. Who
was Ciganovic? A Bosnian Serb like Gavro, Ciganovic, by that time, had become a
heroic figure amongst the Komites,
having awarded a gold medal for bravery in battle. Ciganovic was a close
colleague of Tankosic.
Milan Ciganovic
When Gavro met with Ciganovic, he
explained what he was proposing to do (i.e. assassinate Ferdinand) and requested
Ciganovic to provide him with the bombs, saying that he would find the revolver
himself. Ciganovic was quiet for a while and then replied, ’we’ll see’. He
further said that he would have to speak to a gentleman. That ‘gentleman’ (in
the loose sense of the term) was Major Tankosic.
Ciganovic supplied Princip with the
bombs warning that they were not reliable, as they exploded only after a delay
of several seconds. And, as ‘Princip was poor’, he gave him a few revolvers.
Altogether, Tankosic supplied four
pistols and six bombs to the plotters.
The involvement of Tankosic gave rise,
over the years, to another conspiracy theory. The assassination was allegedly organized
by a notorious Serbian secret society of the time, Union of Death, better known
as The Black Hand.
The man who planned the assassination,
according to this theory, was a close ally of major Tankosic and a senior
figure in The Black Hand: Colonel
Dragutin Dimitrijevic, nicknamed Apis.
In 1914, 37 years old Apis, formally the Head of the Serbian Intelligence Service, was a formidable figure, not least because of his alleged role in the 1903 killings of the Serbian King Alexander Obrenovic and his wife, Queen Draga.
After the 1908 annexation of Bosnia
and Hercegovina by the Austrians, the relationship between the Hapsburgs and
Serbia had worsened. Austria gave an ultimatum to Serbia to demobilize its
forces and be a good neighbour. The Serbian government capitulated. The retreat
of the Serbian politicians was greatly resented by the military elites of
Serbia. Since 1909, full two years before The
Black Hand came into existence, rumours were rife that a secret society
with Dimitrijevic at its centre would be formed. Soon after its formation The Black Hand started publishing its
own newspaper, Pijemont, which was
generally known as the mouthpiece of Serbian army.
It has been alleged by some historians
(e.g. Luigi Albertini) that all the main conspirators of the 28 June plot were
members of The Black Hand, notably
Ilic and Princip. There is however no real evidence to back this up other than
what an ex-member of the society, one Oskar Tartalja, told Albertini. Several
different lists of the members of The
Black Hand have been produced over the years; none contained the names of
any of the conspirators. None of the conspirators ever admitted that he was a
member of The Black Hand. It might be
argued that they felt duty bound not to divulge their membership given the secretive
nature of the The Black Hand and the
involvement of the top Serbian army figures. That does not seem likely either. Vaso
Cubrilovic, who was intimately involved in the 28 June plot and lived into a
grand old age, always insisted that none them was a member of The Black Hand.
The theory that The Black Hand was behind the Archduke’s assassination received
credence following the Salonika trial in 1917. Colonel Dimitrijevic and other
military officials (who might have been members of The Black Hand) were charged with plotting to assassinate the
Prince Regent of Serbia, Alexander.
Dimitrijevic, by this time, had fallen
out of favour with Alexander, who had become the Prince Regent. He was
dismissed as Chief of military Intelligence. His powerbase had begun to erode
after the death of his close ally, Major Tankosic, in 1915, on the battlefield.
‘Apis’ and his ‘associates’ were
arrested at the end of 1916 and stood trial in the spring of 1917 on the
French-controlled Salonika front. The charge was: ‘Apis’ had planned the
assassination of the Prince Regent. The consensus amongst the historians is
that this was essentially a show-trial and the charges were trumped up; there
had been no plot to assassinate the Prince Regent.
There were 11 defendants at the
Salonika trial. One defendant died during the trial and charges were dropped.
The remaining 10 were found guilty. 8 of them including ‘Apis’ were sentenced
to death; the remaining two were sentenced to 15 years in prison. The Serbian
high court reduced the number of death sentences to 7 and Alexander commuted
four more death sentences. But there was no mercy for Apis and two of his close
aides (colonel Ljuba Vulovic and Rade Malobabic, who was a Serbian spy).
Dimitrijevic, Vulovic and Malobabic were executed by a firing squad (after they
were made to stand by a ditch for two hours while all the charges against them
were read).
One of the two who was sentenced to 15
years in prison was Mehmed Mehmedbasic who was involved in the assassination of
Franz Ferdinand but had escaped trial, and, later, had fought for Komite in the First World War.
While Dimitrijevic was in prison,
awaiting his trial, he put his name to a full confession that he had organized
the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, in 1914. Dimitrijevic also sent
pleading letters to the Price Regent and his father, Peter.
One can only speculate as to why Dimitrijevic
agreed to put his signature to the confession which linked him to the
assassination of the Archduke. We do not of course know, but can guess the
tactics that might have been used to obtain Dimitrijevic’s ‘confession’.
The politics of the Balkans in general
and Serbia in particular had become very murky during these times, pullulate as
it did with intrigues, plots and subterfuge, not dissimilar to the atmosphere
that prevailed in the first few years of French Revolution, when there was an
intense and ruthless power struggle amongst different factions which were
struggling to gain control and were ever ready to denounce and guillotine
members of the rival factions.
Prince Regent Alexander was the second
son of Peter, the King of Serbia. In 1909 Alexander became the Crown Prince
when his elder brother George was forced to renounce his claim to the throne
after he kicked a servant to death in a fit of rage.
In the aftermath of the Second BalkanWar in which Alexander had won battle victories for Serbia, a vicious and
complicated power struggle ensued as regards how Macedonia should be
administered. King Peter chose to retire due to ‘ill-health’ and passed on the
executive power to Alexander.
On 24 June 1914, just five days before
the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, Alexander became Regent of Serbia.
Within a month of Archduke’s
assassination, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which had sensed that there was
Serbian involvement in the assassination, sent an ultimatum to Serbia, with a
list of 10-near-impossible demands. The then Serbian prime-minister, Nicola Pasic, agreed to 9 out of 10 demands. This was still unacceptable to the
Austrians who declared war against Serbia, which of course was the beginning of
the destructive First World War.
As there was little doubt that at
least three members of The Black Hand
(Ciganovic, Dimitrijevic and Tankosic) had played a crucial role in the
assassination of Franz Ferdinand (they had provided the plotters with weapons
and training), The Black Hand was
officially disbanded.
Alexander’s position as Prince regent
was, at least to his mind and probably in reality, too, not secure. His elder
brother, George (who fought in the First World War and was severely wounded),
was trying to claim back his right to the throne. There was great enmity
between the two brothers and rumours were rife that Alexander had even tried to
poison George.
Dimitrijevic had not endeared himself
with Alexander because of his haughty attitude and what Alexander saw as a lack
of respect and humility towards the throne. Alexander must have been aware of
the role played by Dimitrijevic in the assassination of another royalty (the
Serbian King Alexander Obrenovic and his wife, Queen Draga). He had to be
eliminated.
It is not beyond the realms of
credulity that Dimitrijevic was removed by the cabal of Prince Regent Alexander
and Prime Minister Pasic, as he was a threat to them. The charges against him
were made up: there was no assassination
plot against Alexander; and, while he was incarcerated in prison, his fate
sealed, a decision was probably made to offer him as the mastermind behind the
assassination of Ferdinand (in which he had probably some involvement at any
rate). All that was needed was obtaining Dimitrijevic's confession, which, one
might assume, was obtained by methods that were not beholden to flabby concepts
of liberality.
Dimitrijevic died in 1917 under a
shower of machine gun bullets for an assassination he did not plot. Time, as
they say, is a great equaliser. 17 years later, in 1934, Alexander would be
assassinated while on a state visit to the Third French Republic by a member of
Bulgarian Revolutionary organization. (This was the first political assassination filmed live, as it happened right in front of a cameraman.) After
the Second World War, his family would be declared as the enemy of people by
Marshal Tito’s communist Yugoslavia. In 1953 the Serbian Supreme Court would
rehabilitate Dimitrijevic and his co-defendants, finding them not guilty, as
there was no proof of their participation in the so-called assassination plot
of Alexander.
There is no conclusive proof that The Black Hand, the secret Serbian
organization, masterminded Archduke’s assassination, although there is little
doubt that it supplied the plotters with the weapons and offered some of them
training: Milan Ciganovic almost certainly was a Black Hand Member.
The available evidence suggests that Gavro
Princip and Nedjo Cabrinovic approached Ciganovic for weapons. Did they know
that Ciganovic was a Black Hand
member? Or did they know him only as a prominent member of the Komite with easy access to bombs? Was
the idea of assassinating Ferdinand thought up by the young Bosnian
conspirators on their own, or were they approached by The Black Hand?
The account Dimitrijevic himself gave,
a year after Archduke’s assassination was as follows:
One day Major Tankosic came to
Dimitrijevic’s office and told him that some Young Bosnians were going to make an attempt on Archduke Ferdinand.
Dimitrijevic thought that such an attempt would be impossible, as he imagined
Franz Ferdinand would be well protected. At best, he thought, there might be an
incident, which would be a warning to the Austrians that an attack on Serbia
(which was what the Serbians feared the Austrians were planning) would be
dangerous. However, so Dimitrijevic claimed, after he gave the matter some more
thought, he tried to call the youths back—by this time Gavro, Grabez and Nedjo
had crossed the Serbian border—via Djuro Sarac. He was too late. The
perpetrators would not give up.
The above version seems more plausible
that the confession Dimitrijevic signed in prison in 1917.
