Nikola Pasic was born in Zajecar on the borders of Serbia
and Bulgaria in 1845. He became involved
in radical politics and in 1883 was condemned to death for his part
in the plot against King Milan.
Pasic escaped to Austria and on the
accession of King Peter in 1904 became
prime minister of Serbia and held power
for most of the next twenty years. He was largely responsible for
Serbia's success in the Balkan Wars (1912-13)
but was too moderate for those in the Black
Hand movement.
In May 1914, Pasic was aware of the Black
Hand plot to assassinate Archduke Ferdinand.
He gave instructions for the three men who had been chosen for the
deed, Gavrilo Princip, Nedjelko
Cabrinovic, and Trifko Grabez
to be arrested. However, his orders were not implemented and the three
man arrived in Bosnia-Herzegovina where
they joined forces with fellow conspirators, Danilo
Ilic, Vaso Cubrilovic, Cvijetko
Popovic, Misko Jovanovic and Veljko
Cubrilovic.
Pasic now sent instructions to Jovan Jovanovic, the Serbian
Minister in Vienna, to warn the Austrian government about the possibility
of an assassination threat to Archduke Franz
Ferdinand. On 5th June Jovanovic had a meeting with Leon von Bilinski,
the Minister of Finance. However, Bilinski failed to pass on this
message to the people who could have made the necessary precautions
to prevent the assassination.
On 28th June, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand
and Duchess Sophie were killed by Gavrilo
Princip. Several members of the Black
Hand group in Sarajevo were arrested and interrogated by the Austrian
authorities. Under extreme questioning some of the men claimed that
three members from Serbia, Milan Ciganovic,
Dragutin Dimitrijevic and Major Voja
Tankosic, had organised the plot. On 23rd July, 1914, the Austro-Hungarian
government demanded that the Serbian
government arrested these three men and send them to face trial in
Vienna.
On 25th July, 1914, Pasic told the Austro-Hungarian
government that he was unable to hand over these three men as it "would
be a violation of Serbia's Constitution and criminal in law".
Three days later Austro-Hungarian declared
war on Serbia.
During the first two years of the war the Serbian
Army suffered a series of military defeats. Pasic, who blamed
the Black Hand for the war, decided
to disband the organisation. Dragutin Dimitrijevic,
the chief of the Intelligence Department in the Serbian
Army and the man behind the assassination was arrested and on
23rd May 1917, Dimitrijevic was found guilty of treason and sentenced
to death.
After the Armistice Pisac was Serbia's
representative to the Versailles Peace
Conference and was instrumental in the creation of Yugoslavia.
Pisac was prime minister on two more occasions: 1921-24 and 1924-26.
Nikola Pasic died in 1926.
(1)
Jovan Jovanovic, reported statement to Leon von Billinski (5th June,
1914)
If that is true (Archduke Franz Ferdinand attending military maneuvers
in Bosnia), I can assure Your Excellency that this will cause much
discontent among the Serbs, who will consider it to be a provocative
gesture. Maneuvers, under such circumstances are a dangerous thing.
Some young Serb might put a live rather than a blank cartridge in
his gun, and fire it. That bullet might hit the man who provoked him.
Therefore it might be good and reasonable if Archduke Franz Ferdinand
were not to go to Sarajevo.
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