Blagoje Jovović ( sr-cyrl, Благоје Јововић; 1922 – 2 June 1999) was a
Montenegrin Serb
Serbs of Montenegro ( sr, / ) or Montenegrin Serbs ( sr, / ),, meaning "Montenegrin Serbs", and meaning "Serbs Montenegrins". Specifically, Their regional autonym is simply , literal meaning "Montenegrins",Charles Seignobos, Political Histo ...
hotel owner, and participant of
World War II in Yugoslavia initially as a member of the
Partisan
Partisan may refer to:
Military
* Partisan (weapon), a pole weapon
* Partisan (military), paramilitary forces engaged behind the front line
Films
* ''Partisan'' (film), a 2015 Australian film
* ''Hell River'', a 1974 Yugoslavian film also know ...
and later the
Chetnik
The Chetniks ( sh-Cyrl-Latn, Четници, Četnici, ; sl, Četniki), formally the Chetnik Detachments of the Yugoslav Army, and also the Yugoslav Army in the Homeland and the Ravna Gora Movement, was a Yugoslav royalist and Serbian nationa ...
movement. He is credited with mortally wounding
Croatian Ustaše leader
Ante Pavelić in
Argentina.
Biography
Jovović was born in Kosić near
Danilovgrad in today's
Montenegro. During World War II, he initially fought for the
Yugoslav Partisans and then the
Chetniks
The Chetniks ( sh-Cyrl-Latn, Четници, Četnici, ; sl, Četniki), formally the Chetnik Detachments of the Yugoslav Army, and also the Yugoslav Army in the Homeland and the Ravna Gora Movement, was a Yugoslav royalist and Serbian nationa ...
,
as a member of the Bjelopavlić Chetnik brigade.
At the time when World War II started, he was serving in
Strumica
Strumica ( mk, Струмица, ) is the largest city[2002 census results](_blank)
in English and Macedon ...
, near the Yugoslav border with
Greece. When war broke out, Jovović reportedly came back to his birthplace, Kosić in
Bjelopavlići.
In July 1941, he took part in an
antifascist uprising against
Italy and later participated in the
battle of Pljevlja
The Battle of Pljevlja (1-2 December 1941), was a World War II attack in the Italian governorate of Montenegro by Yugoslav Partisans under the command of General Arso Jovanović and Colonel Bajo Sekulić, who led 4,000 Montenegrin Partisans agai ...
as a member of the Partisans.
He later switched allegiances and fought for the
Chetniks
The Chetniks ( sh-Cyrl-Latn, Четници, Četnici, ; sl, Četniki), formally the Chetnik Detachments of the Yugoslav Army, and also the Yugoslav Army in the Homeland and the Ravna Gora Movement, was a Yugoslav royalist and Serbian nationa ...
, under the command of
Bajo Stanišić. In September 1944, he was part of the delegation led by Dušan Vlahović and Jakov Jovović, that was sent from
Kotor across the
Adriatic Sea to
Taranto to negotiate with the British.
There they were informed about the
Allied
An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
change of support in favor of Partisans as a result of the
Tehran Conference and they stayed in Italy until the remainder of the war.
Jovović spent his time in Italy in several refugee camps. For a brief period, he worked in the Secret Intelligence Service of Britain. On one such occasion, he met
Randolph Churchill, of whom he reportedly did not hold a very high opinion.
In 1948, Jovović emigrated to
Argentina with the help of Jakov Jovović, a naval officer of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
Attempted assassination of Ante Pavelić
In Argentina, Jovović was known as the founder of the
Serbian Orthodox community “
Saint Sava”, and one of the founders of the Organisation of Fighters “
Draža Mihailović
Dragoljub "Draža" Mihailović ( sr-Cyrl, Драгољуб Дража Михаиловић; 27 April 1893 – 17 July 1946) was a Yugoslavs, Yugoslav Serb general during World War II. He was the leader of the Chetniks, Chetnik Detachments ...
” as well as the member of the Board of the “
Njegoš” association. While living in
Argentina and running a successful hotel enterprise that he owned, he received tips about Pavelić's whereabouts in Argentina. In the assassination attempt, Jovović received assistance from several people including Jakov Jovović and Milo Krivokapić, an associate of Blagoje.
The assassination was scheduled to take place on 9 April 1957, on the eve of the
Independent State of Croatia's anniversary celebration, but they decided to delay the attack by a day.
On 10 April at 21:00, 16 years after the founding of the Independent State of Croatia, Pavelić suspected someone was following him as he walked down a street, so he turned back and fired several shots towards Jovović, who started running after Pavelić and fired five shots, two of which hit Pavelić who then, according to Jovović, staggered, bent and begged for mercy.
There are however, differing versions of how the attempted assassination unfolded.
Jovović described the assassination attempt in the following excerpt from the book ''Two Bullets for Pavelić'' („Два метка за Павелића”) by Tihomir-Tiho Burzanović:
Pavelić required hospitalization following the attempt. As he recovered, the government of Argentina reached an agreement with Yugoslavia to extradite Pavelić.
As a result, he fled to Chile before landing in
Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco Bahamonde (; 4 December 1892 – 20 November 1975) was a Spanish general who led the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalist forces in overthrowing the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War ...
's Spain.
He died on 28 December 1959 in
Madrid, Spain from complications as a result of the wounds.
By Jovović's own account, he acted on his own, independent of the Yugoslav or any other secret services.
Most Croat émigrés believed that the Yugoslav state was behind the assassination attempt. Jovović stated that he wanted to kill Pavelić in order to "avenge
Serbian victims" from the "greatest butcher of Serbs".
Final years and legacy
In 1999, Jovović visited
Yugoslavia for the first time since he left and visited
Ostrog, where he met
Metropolitan Amfilohije. It was there that he first publicly confessed that he was the person responsible for the attempted assassination of Ante Pavelić.
Jovović died on 2 June 1999 in
Rosario, Argentina.
Memorials
In 2020, a street in Belgrade was renamed after Blagoje Jovović. A memorial plaque was also installed.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jovovic, Blagoje
1922 births
1999 deaths
People from Danilovgrad
Serbs of Montenegro
Yugoslav assassins
Yugoslav emigrants to Argentina
Date of birth unknown
Argentine people of Montenegrin descent