Mehmed Spaho

Early life

Spaho was born in Sarajevo to a coppersmith family. His father Hasan was an expert of the Sharia law, and before the Austrian-Hungarian occupation, he was a judge in Jajce, Sofia, Damascus and Cairo. His mother was Fatima (nee Bicakcic). Spaho had also three sisters, Behija, Aisa and Habiba, and two brothers, Fehim and Mustafa.

Spaho attended elementary school in Sarajevo, where he was a good student. In 1906 graduated from the Faculty of Law at the University of Vienna. At the end of 1907 he passed the doctoral exam and on 7 February 1908, he was officially named dr. iur. In Vienna, Spaho was a member of an organization called "Zvijezda" (The Star), an organization that gathered Muslim students. This organization promoted a closer cooperation between Serbs and Bosnian Muslims. Pro-Croat oriented Hakija Hadzic claimed that he challenged Spaho to a duel, while both of them were in Vienna, but Spaho refused to appear.

When he returned from Vienna in 1906, Spaho worked as a court clerk until 1908. In 1910 he become a lawyer clerk for Josef Fischer. When the Commercial Chamber was established in Sarajevo in 1910, on its session held on 11 November 1910, Spaho was elected to be its secretary with an annual payment of 6,000 kronas; he started to work on 1 January 1911. During that time, he had an ambition to enter the Diet of Bosnia, along with other group of Muslims educated outside Bosnia and Herzegovina. His group eventually failed to enter the Diet. In 1914, Spaho was elected to Sarajevo City Council, after his political associate and friend, Esad Kulovic, stepped down. By this, Spaho dealt with both, economics and politics.

World War I

At the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, Bosnian Muslim leadership was divided. One part supported the autonomy of Bosnia and Herzegovina within Austria-Hungary, another part saw Bosnia and Herzegovina as part of the Hungary, while others saw it united with Croatia. The idea about Yugoslavism was not yet present, for the Bosnian Muslim political elite had not even entertained such thoughts until the final months of the Great War. It was Spaho who first articulated the pan-Yugoslavist sentiment in the Bosnian Muslim community. Interestingly enough, Mehmet Spaho was not a significant politician at this point. On 15 February 1918, he stated in the Novosti magazine that the salvation of Bosnian Muslims was only within the "unity of all Serbs, Croats and Slovenes".

During the war, Spaho entered a mission of the Council of Nutrition of Bosnia and Herzegovina, led by Governor Stjepan Sarkotic. As a member of the mission, Spaho traveled on 4 March 1918 to meet the Prime Minister of Hungary, Sandor Wekerle, to whom Spaho explained the hard food situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina. This mission was also received by the Minister of War, Rudolf Stoger-Steiner von Steinstatten, to whom Spaho explained the Memorandum of Peoples of Bosnia and Herzegovina in which it was explained that the requests made on requisition of cattle, hay, straw, wool etc. were undue. The next day, the mission was received by Ernst Seidler von Feuchtenegg, the Prime Minister of Austria. Spaho asked von Feuchtenegg to approve more potatoes for planting to be sent in Bosnia and Herzegovina. On 10 March, the mission was received by the Emperor, Charles I, whom Spaho asked to help to the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina with the food problem. He ended his request by praising the soldiers from Bosnia and Herzegovina who fought "heroically, on all fronts".

Because of his loyalty towards the monarchy, Spaho was decorated with the Order of Franz Joseph with a Knight Cross on 2 May 1918 in Sarajevo. During the time, Spaho still didn't supported the Yugoslavism, but only in Sarkotic's telegram to the Emperor from 23 September 1918, Spaho was marked as a supporter of the Yugoslavism. Sarkotic's motive to made such telegram occurred after Istvan Tisza, Hungarian Prime Minister visited Sarajevo. While in Sarajevo, Tisza spoke with the President of Diet of Bosnia, Safvet beg Basagic, and Spaho, as with Secretary of the Commercial Chamber, and a lawyer, Dr. Halid Hrasnica. In that conversation, Basagic claimed that it would be the best for Bosnia and Herzegovina to unite with other Croatian lands, or if that wouldn't be possible, at least to gain autonomy; Spaho and Hrasnica both disagreed and claimed ti would be the best if Bosnia and Herzegovina would become a part of Yugoslavia. Spaho complained to Tisza about Austrian-Hungarian treatment of Bosnian Muslims during the war, as they recruited, he claimed, elderly and the children and he complained about the procedure conducted in the requisition. He also stated that the differences between the religious groups in Bosnia and Herzegovina had faded during the war, and claimed that the majority of population supports the unification within the Yugoslavia. After Tisza ended the meeting with Bosnian Muslim delegation, he met with the representatives of Serbs who gave him the Memorandum in which was stated that Croats, Serbs and Slovenes demand united Yugoslav state. Three years later, Spaho complained to the Parliament in Belgrade that he was bypassed when this Memorandum was signed, even though he supported the same idea.

State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs

In the October 1918, Spaho, nevertheless, supported the Memorandum which was given to Tisza by Croat and Serb representatives. On 13 October 1918, Spaho called the session of Bosnian Muslim intellectuals to discuss their support for the Yugoslav state, but instead of a session, a group of Muslim intellectuals, among which was Spaho also, stated that they won't make any announcements without the approval of the National Assembly of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs. This statement made Spaho to enter the Plenum of the National Council of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs. Spaho was one of the two Bosnian Muslims to be a member. Even though other Bosnian Muslims later supported the Yugoslav state, Spaho was the one to be prioritized.

On 3 November 1918, when the first National Government of Bosnia and Herzegovina was formed, Spaho was named Commissioner for Trade, Post and Telegraph. As a Commissioner, Spaho was very active, especially with helping Bosnian Muslim families that were victims of violence before the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs united with the Kingdom of Serbia. Some ministers in the National Government demanded that the help must be offered to all victims, however, Spaho insisted that the victims that were victims of violence after 1 November 1918 must be prioritized, mainly Bosnian Muslims in East Bosnia.

Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes

When the first government of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was formed on 22 December 1918, whose president was Stojan Protic, Spaho was named Minister of Forestry and Mining. Spaho entered the Government as a representative of the Muslim religious group, and stayed in it until 23 February 1919, when he resigned.

Political gathering of Bosnian Muslims was mostly around the political newspapers that were published after the war. There were two major newspapers, the Vrijeme (the Time) and the Jednakost (the Equality). The political group that gathered around the Vrijeme was called the "Muslim Organization", to which Spaho belonged. They emphasized their programme on 8 January 1919, advocating democracy, constitutionality, justice and harmony, and moreover, they announced their readiness to cooperate with everyone with the construction of the "unique state of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes", on the concept of equality of all three nationalities. The Yugoslav Muslim Organization (JMO), as it will be named, demanded protection of Islamic religious rights and protection of Muslims by the Constitution. The JMO was more a religious group, then a political party. They also demanded that all land must be given to each in order to secure one's existence and to protect large landowners, as that is, according to them, the interest of the state. Not just they demanded the protection of large landowners, who were the Bosnian Muslim beys, but they also requested retention of the serfs. The JMO also favoured decentralization of the state. As opposed to the JMO, the political group that gathered around the Jednakost newspaper, the Yugoslav Muslim Democracy (JMD), did not deal with either religious or agrarian questions, but only demanded that the power must be transferred more to the local level; nevertheless, they also supported the Karadordevic dynasty and Belgrade centralism. The Yugoslav Muslim Organization was officially established on 16 February 1919. All Bosnian Muslim organizations were united within it, except the Jednakost group, which joined the Svetozar Pribicevic's Yugoslav Democratic Party. At its foundation, Spaho wasn't member of the JMO, even though he was a member of the Vrijeme political group, even though, he wasn't among the key persons. As a minister in the first government, Spaho couldn't influence the founding of the JMO. The JMO's first president was a mufti from Tuzla, Ibrahim Maglajlic. Spaho became a member of the JMO in May 1919.

In the same year, Spaho entered the Provisional National Office (PNO) in Belgrade. He was among 10 Bosnian Muslim representatives. Before the first session of the PNO, Spaho resigned from Ministry of Forestry and Mining due to his disagreement with the decisions of the Government, as the Government only took away the land of the Muslim landowners. As a member of the PNO, Spaho spoke about the injustice made towards the Bosnian Muslims. In the PNO, Spaho also cooperated with the Croat representatives, and was supported by his party, the JMO, with that. Spaho was very active in the PMO and spoke out about the inequality when it comes to Bosnian Muslims.

In 1920, Spaho was involved in a political campaign before the election of the Constituent Assembly. The election was held on 28 November 1920, and Spaho entered the Assembly. This time, Spaho joined the opposition. Again he was very active, especially around the questions which involved the Bosnian Muslim equality and their representation within the Government. Most of the time, Spaho and the JMO were in the opposition in the Constituent Assembly, however, as the time passed, they eventually deferred to the Government. The Government of Nikola Pasic wanted to get the JMO on their side for the vote of the new Constitution. In order to gain their reliance, he promised them the territorial compactness of Bosnia and Herzegovina, instead of its regional self-government, which was advocated by the JMO.

Pasic's proposal was accepted by some members of the JMO. In the letter which was sent by the JMO to Pasic which included the requests for their support to the new constitution, the proposal about the territorial compactness wasn't even mentioned, but only improvements around the treatment of Bosnian Muslims. The JMO club in the Assembly was divided, one part supported the negotiations with the government, while other was against the negotiations. Eventually, Spaho became a member of the JMO's delegation to negotiate with the Government, along with Hamdija Karamehmedovic and Osman Vilovic. On 15 March 1921, they made an agreement with Pasic. In this agreement, Pasic promised to secure the Muslim religious authonomy, make certain changes with the lands of beys, secure the payment of damages to the Bosnian Muslim landowners of some 255 millions of Yugoslav dinars and to secure the territorial compactness of Bosnia and Herzegovina based on its territorial boundaries. The JMO club accepted the agreement and chose Spaho and Karamehmedovic to be their ministers in the Government; Spaho would take certain economic ministry while Karamehmedovic would take the Ministry of Health.

On 26 March 1921, Spaho entered the Pasic's Government as Minister of Trade and Industry. However, his second ministrial position didn't lasted for long. The JMO representatives often clashed with the Radicals of Nikola Pasic, accusing them for trying to trick the JMO by not respecting the agreement they made. The speech made by the member of the Radical Party, Milan Srskic, in which he stated that Bosnian Muslim landowners shouldn't get the payments for damage, but the social help, and that only the ones who were really poor, made the JMO leave the Government. Spaho and Karamehmedovic resigned on 1 June 1921. Both of them accused the Pasic's Government of not respecting the agreement. However, the Government had a meeting the next day and decided that they would pay for the damage and that the JMO ministers should return to their posts, which they did the very next day. Eventually, the whole JMO club decided to support the new Constitution, while Spaho himself stated that he would only oppose the 135th Article of the Constitution, in which was stated that municipalities of the banovinas will be able to defect to other banovinas if a majority agreed to do so, as this could damage the territorial commpactnes of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Soon, the whole JMO was again divided into factions, one that supported the 135th Article, the other that opposed it; among those who opposed it was Dzafer-beg Kulenovic. Those who supported the 135th Article were marked as a pro-Serb faction, while those who opposed were marked as the pro-Croat faction, even though the party's official newspaper denied the existence of any faction. Because of the problem with the 135th Article, on 26 June 1921, Spaho made an irrevocable resignation, while Karamehmedovic resigned four days later. The new Vidovdan Constitution was accepted on 28 June, while both, Spaho and Karamehmedovic, nevertheless, remained on their ministrial posts. On 3 September, while Spaho was on his way to Ljubljana to open a fair, a communist activist tried to assassinate him by planting a 14 kilos weighting naval mine, as he thought Spaho would travel by sea; however, Spaho took the train and avoided the assassination. The perpetrator was arrested and admitted his guilt.

Leader of the Yugoslav Muslim Organization

After voting the Vidovdan Constitution, part of the JMO thought that the party should break up the relations with Nikola Pasic; this part, led by Spaho, left Ibrahim Maglajlic, the President of the JMO. On 8 October 1921, the party elected the new Central Committee, electing Maglajlic as an honorary president and Spaho as its president. Spaho's election was seen as the party's turn towards left and basing on the autonomist policy. The Radicals and the Democrats argued for the ministerial posts, while the JMO, in this struggle, tried to secure better position of Bosnian Muslims. In JMO itself, the turmoil escalated between the leftists, led by Spaho, and rightists, led by Maglajlic; it is also thought that this turmoil was caused by the Radical Party in order to weaken the political strength of the JMO.

Death

On the evening of 28 June 1939, Spaho departed Sarajevo for Belgrade by train, after receiving an invite from Prince Paul of Yugoslavia. With him was his personal secretary Mehmed Hadzihasanovic, son of prominent Sarajevo dealer and then-senator Uzeir-aga Hadzihasanovic. They arrived early the next morning at a train station, greeted by Dzafer Kulenovic, among others. Spaho arrived by car to the "Srpski kralj" (The Serbian King) hotel, where he stayed when in Belgrade, and sat down at a desk to inspect some letters which had built up in his absence. Around that time, the hotel room received a phone call, an invite to take part in a "police celebration". Spaho declined to attend, saying he was overloaded with work. He took something to write and, at that moment suddenly grabbed his chest and fell off his chair. Hadzihasanovic rushed over to his side, but it was too late, Dr. Mehmed Spaho was deceased. His funeral on 30 June 1939 was attended by an estimated crowd of 30,000 mourners.

Several versions of his death have circulated since that morning in 1939. One says that, while preparing an outfit for Spaho, Hadzihasanovic heard a shout coming from the bathroom, rushing over, only to find Dr. Spaho deceased by the faucet. Another claims that he fell onto a bed on his way to the bathroom, others state that he died in the bathroom. Spaho's daughter Emina specified in March 2013 that he was served poisoned coffee upon leaving the bathroom, dropping almost immediately after his first sip. On 5 July 1939, Mehmed Sulejmanpasic, a reporter for the Turkish newspaper Cumhuriyet published a story claiming that Spaho had been poisoned and that his death was not a natural one, arguing that the attitude of Belgrade police chief Dragi Jovanovic, who "spent the entire time in the room with the Spaho's body, chasing out anyone who lingered for more than half a minute," was suspicious.

On the occasion of the 130th anniversary of his birth in 2013, his 91-year-old daughter Emina Kadic spoke to the newspaper Oslobodenje about her belief that her father had been poisoned when she was 17. She reiterated her theory in 2014, on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of her fathers death, stating that Prince Paul was the one who ordered her fathers assassination.

Kadic added that the Prince saw her father as a nuisance due to his fight for Muslim rights in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, and for being against the Cvetkovic–Macek Agreement, believing it to be an attempt by Serbs and Croats to divide Bosnia, and having it become part of Serbia and Croatia, disappearing from existence. She claims her father's disapproval of the Cvetkovic–Macek Agreement and the division of Bosnia amongst the Serbs and Croats as the main motive behind the assassination on the Serb holiday Vidovdan. Kadic said that her brother Zijah went back to Belgrade years later and spoke to the waiter who served their father the coffee that morning. She said that the waiter, named Dragan Vujic, admitted that he personally poured the poison into the cup of coffee. She said "Why this was never investigated is another story." Kadic described her father as a kind man, who, although spending a lot of time working in Belgrade, would relax in his garden upon returning to Sarajevo.

Less than two months after Spaho's death, the Cvetkovic–Macek Agreement was signed, temporarily dividing Bosnia and Herzegovina until World War II and the creation of Communist Yugoslavia.