Dragutin Dimitrijević

Uncommon card · No. 192254

Dragutin Dimitrijević (Serbian Cyrillic: Драгутин Димитријевић; 17 August 1876 – 26 June 1917), better known by his nickname Apis (Апис), was a Serbian army officer who was the main leader of the Black Hand, a paramilitary secret society devoted to South Slav irredentism that organized the 1903 overthrow of the Serbian government and assassination of King Alexander I of Serbia and Queen Draga. Many scholars believe that he also sanctioned and helped organize the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand on 28 June 1914. This led directly to the July Crisis and the outbreak of World War I. In 1916, the government in exile of Serbian prime minister Nikola Pašić, who considered Dimitrijević's refusal to compromise on South Slav irredentism to represent a serious threat to the secret peace negotiations taking place with Vienna during the Sixtus Affair, filed charges of high treason against the leadership of Unification or Death. Dimitrijević was tried in Thessaloniki before a Serbian Army court...

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