Aćif Hadžiahmetović Aćif Hadžiahmetović ( ) ( 1887 – 21 January 1945 ) was a politician in the Sandžak region of the Kingdom of Serbs , Croats and Slovenes in the interwar period and during World War II . In the interwar period he was mayor of Novi Pazar and a deputy of Džemijet following the 1923 elections . After the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941 , he was appointed mayor of Novi Pazar under the German military government of the Territory of the Military Commander in Serbia and in 1943 – 44 was a deputy of Mitrovica in the Albanian parliament . He was also a member of the central committee of the Second League of Prizren . Towards the end of the war , he was executed by the Yugoslav Partisans for his collaboration with the Axis . Family . His father Emin - aga was of Albanian origin from Đakovica ( ) , while his mother Jalduza was a local of Novi Pazar . He and his wife Mahije had no children of their own but had adopted two orphans from Đakovica , Qamil and Mejreme . Biography . A member of Džemijet since its foundation in 1919 , he was elected mayor of Novi Pazar in 1920 . In 1923 he was elected as a representative of the region in the parliament of the Kingdom of Slovenes , Croats and Serbs . A close collaborator of the party ' s leader Ferhat Draga , his speeches in the parliament focused on the agrarian reform , which he often attacked as a policy that targeted only Albanian farmers . After Ferhat Draga ' s imprisonment and the party ' s dissolution , many of its members faced attacks . Hadžiahmetović himself survived two assassination attempts . In April 1941 German Nazi forces appointed Hadžiahmetović as mayor of Novi Pazar . He established an Albanian committee of 11 members in Novi Pazar and also a Muslim gendarmerie which was pro - Albanian and whose members wore Albanian symbols . He was one of the signatories of the Resolution of Sarajevo Muslims in 1941 . At the same time , with officers like Shaban Polluzha under his command , he organized the defense of the region against attacks by Chetnik forces that targeted Albanian and Muslim civilians and by the Yugoslav Partisans who led the antifascist liberation movement . The principal goal of Albanian forces was the creation of a Greater Albania that would include Novi Pazar in it . As a consequence , efforts were made to albanize the Bosniak population of Novi Pazar - one of the policies that created the greatest revolt among the local Bosniak population was the prohibition of wearing the Muslim hat , fez . During a public speech made when the first Albanian military forces penetrated into Novi Pazar in October 1941 , Hadžiahmetović warned the public present that they are " Albanian , and not Bosniak " , and stated : " Behind us stand three million Albanians , our Pazar is the centre of Albania , and we will create a Greater Albania . " . At another public speech , Hadžiahmetović is recorded to have said that the population which occupies all lands spanning from Raška ( a town in southern Serbia ) to the southernmost point of Albania is Albanian . It was also during his rule , in 1942 , that the entire Jewish population of Novi Pazar - 221 individuals , were imprisoned , sent to the concentration camp Staro Sajmište and killed . In 1943 he joined the Second League of Prizren and was elected a member of its central committee . A few months later , after the incorporation of Mitrovica into Albania he became a representative of the region in the Albanian parliament along with Ferhat Abidi , Hysen Hysnija and Shaban Mustafa . He was considered a collaborator with the Axis powers during World War II and was executed in 1945 by the Yugoslav government , after he was found guilty of the murder of c . 7 , 000 Serbs . Legacy . In the late 2000s the Bosniak National Council initiated the process of his historical rehabilitation in Serbia . Among others Muamer Zukorlić has praised him as a " hero of Bosnian people " . The campaign culminated in the inauguration of a memorial dedicated to Hadžiahmetović on August 3 , 2012 in Novi Pazar . This event was attended by Sulejman Ugljanin ( Minister Without Portfolio of Serbia ) , Esad Džudžević ( president of the Bosniak National Council ) and Ahmedin Škrijelj ( deputy mayor of Novi Pazar ) . The Ministry of Justice and State Administration of Serbia instructed the local administration to remove the memorial . There is also an initiative to name the City Stadium of Novi Pazar after him . Opponents of the rehabilitation of Aćif Hadžiahmetović emphasize that he fought for Greater Albania project , that his aim was to Albanize the Bosnian population of Sandžak , that he collaborated with occupying forces of the Third Reich in the whole period of occupation during World War II , sent a number of communists from Novi Pazar into concentration camps , as well as allowed the elimination of Jewish , Roma and Serbian population of Novi Pazar . For his collaboration he was awarded with Iron Cross by Nazi Germany .