Serb Democratic League

Not to be confused with Serb Democratic Party (disambiguation).

The Serb Democratic League in the Ottoman Empire (Serbian: Српска демократска лига у Отоманској царевини) was an Ottoman Serb political organisation established on August 13, 1908, at the First Serb Conference (August 10–13), immediately after the Young Turk Revolution.

It included the Serb elite of Old Raška, Kosovo and Metohija, and Vardar Macedonia and Aegean Macedonia. It included many members of the Serbian Chetnik Organization.

Establishment

Immediately after the outbreak of the Young Turk Revolution, the Serbs decided to organize themselves in a different way. The First Serbian Conference in Skopje was attended by 26 of the most respected Serbs in the Ottoman Empire. A central committee was elected, headed by Bogdan Radenković. Serbian Democratic League in the Ottoman and its members of the Central Committee included: Bogdan Radenković, Đorđe Hadži-Kostić, Sava Stojanović, David Dimitrijević, Aleksandar Bukvic, Jovan Šantrić, Milan Čemerikić, Velimir Prelić, Vasa Jovanović and Gliša Elezović. A proclamation was sent to the Serbs in the Ottoman Empire, in which

• announces the abandonment of the revolutionary organization and announces the constitutionally permitted form of political action
• the integrity of the Ottoman Empire is recognized
• the Serb Democratic League was created, with the aim of political, economic and educational progress of the Serbian people.

Assembly

The First Assembly of Serbs in the Ottoman Empire was held from 2 February -11 February 1909 in Skopje At that assembly, resolutions were passed on political, economic and church school opportunities. They demanded that the laws be respected, and in particular the freedom and equality of citizens, and that the Serbian name be freely used. They also condemned the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the second resolution, they demanded that the Serbian metropolitans receive the same privileges as the Greek metropolitans. They also demanded that the Serbs have rights even in dioceses where there are no Serb metropolitans and that the villages be left with the right to receive a Serbian or Bulgarian priest as they wish. In the third resolution, they demanded that they be returned to the Serbs. stolen properties, as well as to enable peasants to buy their properties from landowners.

Choices

In the elections 1909. The Serbian Democratic League won 3 deputies and one senator. She repeated the same success in 1911.

• 
  Temporary Central Board of the Organization of Ottoman Serbs, July 1908
• 
  First Assembly of Ottoman Serbs in Skoplje on Sretenje, 1909

Literature

• Serbian Democratic League in the Ottoman Empire (Wikisource)
• Jagodić, Miloš (2008). "The Nufu question: The problem of official recognition of the Serbian nation in Turkey 1894-1910" (PDF). Historijski časopis (57): 343–353. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 March 2018. Retrieved 22 August 2017.
• Jagodić, Miloš (2009). Serb-Albanian relations in the Kosovo Vilayet (1878—1912). Belgrade: Zavod za sdukbiče.
• Mikić, Đorđe (1983). "Under the Young Turks". History of the Serbian People. Vol. book. 6, St. 1. Belgrade: Srpska književna zadruga. pp. 330–348.

See also

• Serb People's Radical Party, political party in Austria-Hungary
• Serb Independent Party, political party in Austria-Hungary
• Narodna Odbrana, Serbian nationalist group

References

Sources

• Јован М Јовановић (1941). Јужна Србија од краја XVIII века до ослобођења. Г. Кон. p. 177. ... „Привремени централни одбор српског народа" са седиштем у Ско- пљу, а организација је добила име „Српске демократске лиге", ... Сама Лига имала је у програму „широке слободе, истинску једнакост и искре- во братство". ... припремио је правилнике, на основу којих је извршен иэбор чланова за прву српску Народну скупштину „Срба Османлија". ... црквено-школска и привредна питања која се тичу Срба у отоманској царевини — у 14 редовних седница.