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Post by Beach Police on Oct 9, 2009 11:32:17 GMT -5
Commemoration of the anniversary of the assassination in Marseilles October 9, 2009
Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic and Prince Aleksandar Karadjordjevic laid in Marseilles wreaths on monuments to Serbian King Alexander Karadjordjevic I and French Foreign Minister Louis Bartould, who were assassinated on this day 75 years ago, on October 9, 1934 in Marseilles, by Croatian Ustasha and Macedonian VMRO members. The commemoration was attended by the Karadjordjevic family and Serbian Ambassador to France Dušan Batakoviæ. King Alexander was assassinated after arriving for a visit to France, aimed at strengthening the defence alliance against the Nazi Germany.
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Post by SKORIC on Oct 10, 2009 11:19:52 GMT -5
The AssassinationOn account of the deaths of three members of his family on a Tuesday, Alexander refused to undertake any public functions on that day. On Tuesday 9 October 1934, however, he had no choice, as he was arriving in Marseille to start a state visit to the Third French Republic, to strengthen the two countries' alliance in the Little Entente. While being driven in a car through the streets along with French Foreign Minister Louis Barthou, a gunman, Chernozemski, stepped from the street and shot the King and the chauffeur. Barthou was accidentally shot by a French policeman and died later.
It was one of the first assassinations captured on film; the shooting occurred straight in front of the cameraman, who was only feet away at the time. The cameraman captured not merely the assassination but the immediate aftermath; the body of the chauffeur (who had been killed instantly) became jammed against the brakes of the car, allowing the cameraman to continue filming from within inches of the King for a number of minutes afterwards.
The assassin, Chernozemski, was a bulgarian nationalist, member of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) and an experienced marksman. Immediately after assassinating King Alexander, he was cut down by the sword of a mounted French policeman, and then beaten by the crowd. By the time he was removed from the scene, he was already dead. The IMRO was political organization that fought for secession of Vardar Macedonia from Yugoslavia.[1] According to the UKTV History program Infamous Assassinations-King Alexander, IMRO worked in alliance with the Croatian Ustaše group led by Ante Paveliæ, under the secret sponsorship of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.
The film record of Alexander I's assassination remains one of the most notable pieces of newsreel in existence, alongside the film of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia's coronation, the funerals of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Emperor Franz Josef of Austria, and the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
King Alexander I was buried in the Memorial Church of St. George, which had been built by his father. As his son Peter II was still a minor, Alexander's first cousin Prince Pavle Karadjordjevic took the regency of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
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Post by leshte on Oct 11, 2009 1:13:40 GMT -5
STAY ON TOPIC
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