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Monument to Gavrilo Princip unveiled in Belgrade
B92 / Tanjug ^ | June 29, 2015 | Tanjug

Posted on 06/30/2015 10:24:23 AM PDT by Ravnagora

A monument to Gavrilo Princip was unveiled on Sunday in Belgrade in the presence of Serbian and RS [Republika Srpska in Bosnia] presidents Tomislav Nikolic and Milorad Dodik.

Princip was a member of the Young Bosnia (Mlada Bosna) movement in the early 20th century, who on Vidovdan (St. Vitus Day, June 28) 1914 in Sarajevo assassinated Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand.

“Gavrilo Princip was a hero, a symbol of the idea of freedom, the assassin of tyrants and the carrier of the European idea of liberation from slavery,” Nikolic said at the ceremony.

As far as Germany and Austria-Hungary were concerned, World War I was imminent even without the assassination, he said, and added that "then, as well as now, as always, Serbia opposed the war. We deserved and received the halo of the righteous victors during and immediately after both world wars."

(Excerpt) Read more at b92.net ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: belgrade; princip; serbia; wwi
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1 posted on 06/30/2015 10:24:23 AM PDT by Ravnagora
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To: Ravnagora

Austria-Hungary didn’t have to go to war, but there were those in Vienna who wanted it, so there you are.


2 posted on 06/30/2015 10:25:57 AM PDT by MUDDOG
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To: Ravnagora

I’ve read that other statues of him haven’t lasted very long. While the cauldron was bubbling for something to happen, I don’t think precipitating a world war merits “hero”.


3 posted on 06/30/2015 10:29:18 AM PDT by sigzero
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To: Ravnagora

What a bunch of dumbasses. Of course the assassination started the war. Austria was chomping at the bit to go to war with Serbia. Princip did the Austrians a favor by providing the Reichstag Fire event to allow Austria to declare war. Seeing a monument to Princip is like seeing the monument the Russians erected to honor the kid who informed the NKVD on his own parents.


4 posted on 06/30/2015 10:32:47 AM PDT by Sans-Culotte (Psalm 14:1 ~ The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”)
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To: Ravnagora
Franz Ferdinand was no tyrant. He was actually a reformer. He had plans that, if they worked out, would have dramatically changed Central and Eastern Europe. His restructuring plan was actually a good one for its day. Every major area of the empire was going to be governed by the major ethnicity which held sway there to decrease tensions: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/97/Greater_austria.png Also, when you consider that Franz Ferdinand married for love - meaning his children would never be heirs to the throne - and his family refused to attend the wedding, I don't know, it seems like he was a decent fellow who honestly wanted to do the right thing. Also, Princip murdered Franz Ferdinand's wife. Was she a tyrant too? His fellow assassin Nedeljko Čabrinović wounded 16 bystanders with a grenade. Is he getting a statue too? Franz Ferdinand attended the official reception he was scheduled to attend and then insisted on traveling to the hospital to visit the wounded. His car took a wrong turn. Princip was right there and from five feet away shot into the car twice. One bullet his the archduke in the neck. The other hit his devoted wife in the abdomen. Franz Ferdinand, seeing his wife was wounded, said, "Sopherl! Sopherl! Don't die! Stay alive for our children!" "Sopherl" is a South German/Austrian way of turning the name "Sophie" into an affectionate nick name. Three children were orphaned. Princip deserves no statue.
5 posted on 06/30/2015 10:56:24 AM PDT by vladimir998 (Apparently I'm still living in your head rent free. At least now it isn't empty.)
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To: vladimir998
Every major area of the empire was going to be governed by the major ethnicity which held sway there to decrease tensions

Sounds like a decent solution for the current Mid-East.

6 posted on 06/30/2015 10:58:14 AM PDT by P.O.E. (Pray for America)
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To: MUDDOG

The Serbs gave into virtually all of their demands, but Austria-Hungary wanted to teach them all a lesson even though this was a small group of independent assassins.

But I don’t fault him for what he did for Serbia even though it was reckless and selfish.


7 posted on 06/30/2015 10:59:46 AM PDT by VanDeKoik
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To: vladimir998

This murder was a conspiracy! There was 20 or so of them waiting for their chance at Franz and Franz was pretty much on Princip’s side.

Princip was waiting for his turn on the route, but the grenade had been triggered already, and everything was in chaos, so Princip probably was pretty dejected.

They had failed. He went and grabbed something to eat across town, came out and there was Franz & company (with one additional bodyguard) in a stalled car and Princip shot husband and wife.

Wonderful guy.

Think if that happened with JFK...


8 posted on 06/30/2015 11:04:48 AM PDT by Geoffrey
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To: VanDeKoik

There’s a book that was recently reviewed in the Wall Street Journal, that depicts the small group of Austrian diplomats who wanted and got the war in that summer of 1914.


9 posted on 06/30/2015 11:08:51 AM PDT by MUDDOG
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To: Geoffrey

“Think if that happened with JFK...”

I was thinking about Lincoln. Are there any statues in honor of John Wilkes Booth?


10 posted on 06/30/2015 11:10:52 AM PDT by vladimir998 (Apparently I'm still living in your head rent free. At least now it isn't empty.)
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To: vladimir998

“Franz Ferdinand was no tyrant.”

He was a monarch. Monarchs deserve no respect. Even worse, he was a foreign monarch.
The only reform I would respect is that he relinquish any claim to rule people who did not choose him.

WWI was primed and ready. In truth blaming him for WWI is about like blaming the starter pistol for an Olympic race.


11 posted on 06/30/2015 11:13:17 AM PDT by DesertRhino (I was standing with a rifle, waiting for soviet paratroopers, but communists just ran for office)
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To: vladimir998

The poor guy did not want to go, but Franz Joseph the Emperor made him. You are right that had he lived, he might well have stabilized Austria Hungary and prevented its participation in WW1


12 posted on 06/30/2015 11:19:54 AM PDT by Jimmy Valentine (DemocRATS - when they speak, they lie; when they are silent, they are stealing the American Dream)
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To: MUDDOG
“The Balkans is not worth the bones of a Pomeranian grenadier,” Bismark.
“There's nothing there but plum trees and bandits,” Edward VII.
Alexander III had an intense suspicion of the Balkans and its people.
Yet those who succeeded them were not as wise; and Europe went to war.
13 posted on 06/30/2015 11:22:19 AM PDT by quadrant (1o)
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To: DesertRhino

“He was a monarch. Monarchs deserve no respect.”

So Jesus - King of Kings - deserves no respect?


14 posted on 06/30/2015 11:24:09 AM PDT by vladimir998 (Apparently I'm still living in your head rent free. At least now it isn't empty.)
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To: quadrant

I agree, it was definitely not worth it.

The Austrian empire made another big mistake, in 1784 when the emperor Joseph II changed the empire’s administrative language from Latin to German.

That favored one ethnic group over the others, in a polyglot empire, and led to more disunity.


15 posted on 06/30/2015 11:36:20 AM PDT by MUDDOG
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To: vladimir998

But no matter what he was or wasn’t. The murder was foul, and Princip isn’t someone id want my kid to grow up like.
Europe was simply a cesspool then, with very few real “good guys”. Most were caught up in their personal situation and had very little ability to step out of their set in concrete role.

Ferdinand couldn’t walk away from being a royal. I really can’t imagine how he or any euro monarch could have disbanded an empire without his own aristocrats murdering him or deposing him.

And Princip had an equally bad choice. Live under an Austrian monarch, or fight violently. You couldn’t vote the monarch out, and they did not have freedom to advocate regime change, excepting to grovel and beg for the monarchs mercy. So I see his choices as submit, or fight.

Both were people with no really good choices left. This crap is precisely why America was the beacon to the world then.
A solid argument can be made that Americas purity was lost measure by measure as we closely interacted with Europe. The people are wonderful, but their government and social structures are pure trash.


16 posted on 06/30/2015 11:38:01 AM PDT by DesertRhino (I was standing with a rifle, waiting for soviet paratroopers, but communists just ran for office)
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To: vladimir998
Are there any statues in honor of John Wilkes Booth?

He did start the three-named assassin trend.

17 posted on 06/30/2015 11:40:48 AM PDT by MUDDOG
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To: vladimir998

Bullcrap. Its downright blasphemous to equate Jesus with some European Monarch.
The phrase king of kings expresses his absolute sovereignty over everything, it in no way justifies obedience to every fat, farting, inbred Euro potentate.

Please get serious. Yes, temporal Monarchs deserve no respect whatsoever. If they claim a right to rule over an individual, they should not be surprised if that individual shoots at them or throws rocks at them.
If Jesus ever sits in power as a temporal ruler, I think we can agree that this is a unique exception. And I doubt he will send a swarm of armed jackasses to harass us.


18 posted on 06/30/2015 11:47:38 AM PDT by DesertRhino (I was standing with a rifle, waiting for soviet paratroopers, but communists just ran for office)
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To: Ravnagora


Some of the "hero" Gavrilo Princip's handiwork.
19 posted on 06/30/2015 12:11:21 PM PDT by StormEye
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To: joan; Smartass; zagor-te-nej; Lion in Winter; Honorary Serb; jb6; Incorrigible; DTA; vooch; ...

Ping!


20 posted on 06/30/2015 12:18:20 PM PDT by Ravnagora
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