Ismet Popovac
| Ismet Popovac | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Died | 21 August 1943 Near Trebinje, Independent State of Croatia (present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina) |
| Allegiance |
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| Years of service | 1941–1943 |
| Commands held | Muslim People's Military Organization |
| Battles/wars | |
Ismet Popovac (died 21 August 1943) was a Bosnian Muslim lawyer and physician who led a Muslim Chetnik militia known as the Muslim People's Military Organization (MNVO) in Bosnia and Herzegovina during World War II. He was active in pre-war Yugoslav politics, becoming a member of the Serbian Muslim cultural organization Gajret and serving as the mayor of Konjic, a town in northern Herzegovina. He is also said to have been candidate for Vladko Maček's electoral list, but was left without a job in the Yugoslav state government after the creation of the Banovina of Croatia in August 1939.
Following the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941, Popovac joined the Chetnik movement of Draža Mihailović. Popovac was a proponent of Bosnian Muslim cooperation with the Chetniks and suggested that they recruit Muslims into their ranks. In October 1942, he enlisted Italian aid in fighting the communist Partisans, and later visited Prozor to discourage further bloodshed after a Chetnik massacre that took the lives of as many as 2,500 Muslim and Croat civilians. In early 1943, he led an attack against a Muslim village. Later that year, he was killed in disputed circumstances near the town of Trebinje.
Ismet Popovac was a physician and lawyer by profession. He was a Bosnian Muslim and hailed from the town of Nevesinje. Popovac finished medical school in Belgrade and was a vocal South Slav nationalist throughout the interwar period. Prior to the outbreak of World War II, he was the mayor of Konjic, a town in northern Herzegovina. He was also a member of the pro-Serb and pro-Karađorđević Muslim cultural society known as Gajret, whose members experienced persecution at the hands of non-Serbs in interwar Yugoslavia due to their political inclinations. Popovac is also said to have been a candidate for Vladko Maček's electoral list, but was left without a job in the state government following the creation of the Banovina of Croatia in August 1939.
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