Drljević, Sekula

Autor: Drljević, Sekula
Rok: 1884-1945
Oblast působnosti: právníci, politici

Biogr./Hist. údaje: Černohorský právník, politik a publicista.
Zdroj: Autoritní databáze Národní knihovny ČR

Sekula Drljević (7 September 1884 – 10 November 1945) was a Montenegrin politician and lawyer. Born in the town of Kolašin, he earned a doctorate degree in law and became the Minister of Justice and Finance in the Kingdom of Montenegro before the outbreak of World War I. During the interwar period, he was a leading member of the "Greens" (zelenaši), a Montenegrin separatist movement. A proponent of the theory that Montenegrins were an ethnic group distinct from Serbs, he also founded and became the leader of the Montenegrin Federalist Party.Following the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941, Drljević began cooperating with the Italian authorities occupying Montenegro. In July, he proclaimed the re-establishment of the Kingdom of Montenegro, but his attempt to establish an Axis-aligned puppet triggered an immediate uprising. That September, Italian authorities sent him to an internment camp in Italy after the oubreak of an anti-fascist revolt. Drljević escaped the camp several months later and made his way into the German-held half of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH). In the summer of 1944, he created the Montenegrin State Council in Zagreb. Drljević moved back to Montenegro in 1945 and agreed to the formation of the Montenegrin National Army with Chetnik commander Pavle Đurišić. Đurišić and other Chetnik leader were later ambushed and murdered on behalf of Drljević and the NDH. Đurišić's men later joined Drljević's Montenegrin National Army and withdrew with him towards the Austrian border. In mid-1945, Drljević crossed over into Austria with his wife and ended up in a camp for displaced persons in Judenburg. Three Chetnik agents discovered them there in November 1945 and killed them by slitting their throats.