He was active in pre-war Yugoslav politics, becoming a member of the Serbian Muslim cultural organization Gajret and serving as the mayor of Konjic, a town in northern Herzegovina.

He is also said to have been candidate for Vladko Maček's electoral list, but was left without a job in the Yugoslav state government after the creation of the Banovina of Croatia in August 1939.

In October 1942, he enlisted Italian aid in fighting the communist Partisans, and later visited Prozor to discourage further bloodshed after a Chetnik massacre that took the lives of as many as 2,500 Muslim and Croat civilians.

[8] Popovac is also said to have been a candidate for Vladko Maček's electoral list, but was left without a job in the state government following the creation of the Banovina of Croatia in August 1939.

[7] The Axis invasion of Yugoslavia was ordered by Adolf Hitler in late March 1941, in response to a palace coup that deposed the country's regent, Prince Paul, and placed his teenaged nephew Peter on the throne.

"[12] With weeks of its establishment, the NDH authorities initiated a campaign of genocide against the Serbs, Jews and Roma living within its borders.

[17] He quickly became one of the most prominent pro-Chetnik Muslims, alongside Mustafa Pašić and former Sarajevo police chief Fehim Musakadić.

[1] In late September or early October 1942, Popovac met with Chetnik leaders Dobroslav Jevđević and Petar Baćović.

[21] According to Marko Attila Hoare, a historian specializing in the Balkans, the MNVO was part of a greater Muslim autonomist movement.

[7] In October 1942, during Operation Alfa, a joint Chetnik–Italian attack against the Partisans, the Chetniks killed between 543 and 2,500 Bosnian Muslim and Croat civilians in Prozor.

[5] On 31 December, in the face of widespread Muslim opposition, Popovac and his MNVO drafted a resolution vowing allegiance to Yugoslavia's exiled King Peter and to Mihailović, claiming Bosnian Muslims as "an integral part of Serbdom" and the MNVO as "part of the Chetnik movement led by Draža Mihailović, Minister of the Army, Navy and Air Forces.

"[27] In January 1943, Popovac led the MNVO in an attack which resulted in the capture of a communist village predominantly inhabited by Muslims.

[28] That same month, the Chetniks carried out a number of massacre against the Muslims, especially in Eastern Bosnia, in the areas of Koraj, Bijeljina, Srebrenica, Višegrad, Foča, Goražde, and Vlasenica.

[29] Between January and March 1943, Popovac's Chetniks fought the Partisans as part of the Axis-led military operation known as Case White, but did not distinguish themselves.