![]() Link provides full background info including their constitution listing Colonel Dimitrievitch (Apis) as a member. See also: ø Information on "Ujedinjenje ili Smrt" This is the Serbian "Black Hand". ![]() The assassins returned to Sarajevo on Jun-3 with pistols, bombs and cyanide to await the visit of the Archduke. This faction of the Serbian "Black Hand" was under the leadership of a "Colonel Apis" (the bee), whose real identity was Colonel Dragutin Dimitrievitch, no less than the head of Serbian military intelligence. ![]() ![]() Their training and arms came from Belgrade's "Union or Death" terrorist league. All had tuberculosis, a death sentence in 1914. They were all members of the secret Serbian nationalist movement Mlada Bosna ("Young Bosnia"). Only one had a police record which was only for striking a teacher. The group of seven ranged in age from 19 to 27. "The Narodna Odbrana proclaims to the people that Austria is our first and greatest enemy." To seven tubercular Bosnian Serb youths, 2 would be the day they made their mark for the Serbian cause - a mark that would ultimately be left on the entire world. The Duchess of Hohenburg would most certainly ride in the car with her husband today. Here, on their anniversary, she would be afforded all the royal treatment of which she was deprived at home. In Vienna she, not being of royal enough blood, was not allowed to ride in the same car with her husband during high affairs of state. He would make it a special day for his wife Sophie. It was also a special day for Archduke Franz Ferdinand - it was his 14th wedding anniversary. The Serbs would mark the day with a feast. It memorialized the Battle of Kosovo in 1389 where the Serbs were defeated by Turkey. It seems fate had decided the act.ġ While this may sound contradictory, it should be noted the common belief was that if the Slavs within the Austro-Hungarian empire were appeased, the chance of an insurrection would be greatly reduced, and consequently, the goal of a greater Serbia would never be realized.Ģ in Sarajevo was a typical summer day in the Balkans - blistering. The summer maneuvers would bring him into the area and diplomacy would ordain a visit to Sarajevo on June 28th, St. 1 The Archduke was also Inspector General of the Austrian army. The heir to the Hapsburg throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, was in favor of giving an equal voice to the Slavs of the empire - a belief counter to the very core of the Serb cause. He was well respected throughout the empire and his heir's politics were even worse for Serbian cause than his own. Maybe an act of supreme defiance would convince Vienna otherwise maybe the dream of a greater Serbia could be realized by such an act.Īn assassination of Emperor Franz Josef was out of the question. Austria-Hungary, having officially annexed Turkish Bosnia-Herzogovina in 1908, was not about to let go of it. The Bosnian Serbs inhabiting the southern Austro-Hungarian provinces of Bosnia-Herzogovina wanted to be united with their brothers living across the Drina (Dunav) in Serbia proper. The Balkans of 1914 were a hotbed of nationalistic intrigue. He had hit the nail directly on the head. This was Bismarck's prophecy as to what would set off the seemingly unavoidable European war. "Some damn foolish thing in the Balkans," The Archduke and Sophie arriving in Sarajevo Trenches on the Web - Timeline: Assassination in Sarajevo
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