User:Birzee/sandbox/Massacre in Šahovići

The Massacre in Šahovići was a massacre that occurred between 9-10 November 1924. The massacre was targeted toward Muslim civilians living in Šahovići and Pavino Polje (present-day Montenegro).

Annexation of Sandžak
The territory now known as Sandžak originally belonged to the Ottoman Empire, known as the Sanjak of Yenibazar (Novi Pazar). Ethnically Bosniak Muslims formed the majority of the territory's population. During the First Balkan War, the Kingdoms of Serbia and Montenegro annexed the Sanjak of Yenibazar from the Ottoman Turks, dividing the territories among themselves. Faced with a large influx of Muslims into their respective countries, both Serbs and Montenegrins experienced a wave of nationalistic sentiment that promoted Islamophobia, adopting an anti-Bosniak attitude. A series of massacres against the Muslim populations throughout Sandžak occurred between the 1910s and 1920s, namely in Plav-Gusinje (see Massacres in Sandžak).

Boško Bošković
Boško Bošković was a Montenegrin irregular soldier who was a staunch supporter of Montenegrin unification with Serbia. Following unification, he was appointed Head of the District of Kolašin (Kolašinski okrug). During his tenure, an uprising of Montenegrin irregulars occurred in the tribal region of Rovca. Rovca was located within the borders of the district, and Bošković was tasked to quell the rebellion. Bošković's forces suppressed the rebellion in blood, consequentially taking inhabitants of several houses of the Bulatović family into custody and killing them.

Travelling from Mojkovac on 7 November 1924, Boško Bošković was accompanied by his relative, Mileta Bošković, and the duo headed toward Šahovići. While en route, the duo had been ambushed by unknown assailants. Upon opening fire, Boško was killed while Mileta was wounded. Two days later, on 9 November 1924, a funeral was held for the deceased Boško Bošković. Rumors spread among the guests at the funeral, with several falsely accusing local Muslim beys Jusuf Mehonjić and Husein Bošković as the unknown assailants who targeted Boško Bošković. However, subsequent research shows that neither Jusuf Mehonjić nor Husein Bošković were near the scene of the crime when it occurred. Furthermore, it was believed that the true assailants were Radoš Bulatović and Drago Bulatović, both Montenegrin irregulars from Rovca. These two were presumed to have been hired by Dimitrije Bulatović, a teacher from Rovca who was one of Boško Bošković's largest political opponent at the time.

Regardless of the truth, the funeral guests were convinced that the aforementioned Muslim beys committed the crime. The acting head of the district called forth all guests at the funeral to bring the perpetrators to justice within the following 24 hours after the funeral. Following the funeral, a mob of over 2000 men travelled to Šahovići to demand justice for the murder (see blood revenge).

Massacre
Prior to the funeral, Montenegrin authorities ordered all Bosniaks to surrender their arms to the government. It was assumed that these weapons would later be distributed among the Orthodox population. Left unarmed, the Bosniaks in the Vraneš Vally (i.e. Šahovići, Pavino Polje, etc.) were defenseless against what was to come.

While en route to the funeral, District Head of Bijelo Polje, Nikodim Cemović, ordered a sentry scribe to capture all notable Bosniaks from Šahovići before he returned from the funeral. The scribe managed to convince 32 Bosniaks from the region that their lives were in danger and were told to return to district headquarters in Bijelo Polje for their safety. Upon arrival, the scribe imprisoned these Bosniaks without due cause. Cemović returned from the burial later that day and was enraged to see that the scribe had only imprisoned 32 Bosniaks. He demanded more hostages be imprisoned immediately, so another 20 Bosniaks were brought in by the guardsmen; they were falsely told that they were not in danger but needed to report to the district office. Later that day, the guardsmen surrendered the 52 Bosniaks to the funerary mob. These Bosniaks were later taken to a graveyard near Šahovići and slaughtered. Their feet were severed to prevent them from rising if they were to resuscitate.

Of the imprisoned Bosniaks, only two managed to ransom themselves from death. Another Bosniak, a teenager aged 13, was saved from death by a Montenegrin soldier who himself was almost killed as a result of saving the teenager. According to Bahra Salihbegović, the daughter of the contemporary mufti of Bijelo Polje, Mustafa Salihbegović, sixty people were identified among the slaughtered Bosniaks.

Later that evening, surprise raids were conducted in Šahovići and Pavino Polje, and other surrounding villages. Milovan Đilas described the massacre in a grotesque manner. Some Bosniak villagers were burned alive. Others, such as Muslim religious leaders (imams), had their beards ripped from their face and crosses "carved into their foreheads" after they had been slain. Infants were ripped from their mother's hands and slaughtered before their mothers' eyes. The perpetrators later clarified that they had not slaughtered the babies, rather they would have shot them in the chest if their mothers' were not in presence. One Bosniak villager had been skinning a lamb on a plum tree, unaware of the massacre. The assailants noticed this villager, initially intending on killing him and burning his home. Having been "inspired" by the skinning of the lamb, the assailants hung the villager upside down off the same plum tree (by his heels) instead. Among the assailants was a butcher who took an axe and split the villager's head open without damaging the torso. The villager's chest was opened, and the assailants ripped his still-beating heart from his chest and fed it to their dog. However, the dog refused to eat the heart, so the assailants joked that not even a dog would eat "Turkish meat".

Milovan Đilas estimated that over 350 Muslims lost their lives, with countless acts of rape, theft and arson committed against the Muslims. However, the official report from the contemporary District Head of Pljevlja stated that approximately 120 Muslim civilians were killed, and about 45 houses were razed.

Aftermath
According to the Census of 1921, Šahovići and Pavino Polje had a combined total of 2,755 Muslim inhabitants, of which 1,559 lived in Pavino Polje and 1,195 in Šahovići. Following the massacre, the Muslim inhabitants feared for their lives and ran. Known as muhedžiri (muhajirs), the majority of Muslims from these villages migrated to Turkey, while others migrated to Pljevlja, Sarajevo and Eastern Bosnia. In the District of Brčko, specifically in the Municipality of Gornji Rahić, 140 families enumerating to about 400 people had immigrated there from Šahovići and Pavino Polje. Moreover, of the Muslim inhabitants that lived in Šahovići and Pavino Polje, only one Muslim household remained after the massacre; this family later converted to Eastern Orthodoxy.

The 5947th issue of Belgrade-based newspaper Politika, released 13 November 1924, reported that villagers from Bijelo Polje pursued bandits (i.e. Jusuf Mehonjić) responsible for the death of Boško Bošković. This pursuit lasted a full two days, 10-11 November 1924. Supposedly the populace were fed up with Mehonjić, who had become comfortable in his position, thanks in part to his accomplices.

On 14 November 1924, Ferhad-beg Draga, president of the political party Džemijet, submitted an interpellation to the Ministry of the Interior of the Kingdom of SHS in response to the horrifying crimes that occurred in Sandžak. Sarajevo-based newspaper Pravda published the interpellation in issue 262, released on 18 November 1924, which read: "Dear Minister! This massacre, as a joint act between local police authorities and the Vasojević [tribe] must be borne, as much as the others but firstly on police authorities, who were well acquainted and warned of the danger and they did not want to stop it. This occurrence is charged with more power than the bandits themselves because no one has [as of yet] been detained..."