Prizren, Kosovo, June 2, 2021
Photo: decani.org
The Serbian Orthodox Diocese of Raška and Prizren has declined to respond to a letter from Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti asking to visit Visoki Dečani Monastery.
Until Kosovo authorities agree to implement court decisions that protect Serbian Orthodox Church property, it is “absolutely pointless” to respond to “such letters,” the Diocese stated in an announcement published on May 27, thus effectively rejecting the PM’s request.
The diocese states:
Regarding the letter which Mr. Albin Kurti has sent to the Serbian Orthodox Monastery of Visoki Dečani, the Diocese of Raška and Prizren, remains on its previously clearly stated position that if Kosovo Albanian institutions want to show the minimum of good will for respecting the rights of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Kosovo and Metohija, they are obliged to fully implement the decision of the Kosovo Constitutional Court from 2016 which recognized the monastery property. This decision has been persistently ignored for five years despite requests for its implementation by the Monastery and the international representatives.
The statement also notes that the Kosovo government publicly rejected the decision from November on the construction of a bypass road around the monastery, thus “practically calling for the violation of the law on Special Protected Zones.”
Last summer, local authorities in Dečani, with the support of the authorities in Priština, restarted intensive construction work on a highway within Visoki Dečani Monastery’s Special Protective Zone, despite a law specifically forbidding such construction. An internationally-facilitated decision was then reached in November, which was then publicly rejected by the Minister of Spatial Planning.
“In this situation, answering such letters without previous respect of judicial decisions and the rule of law is absolutely pointless,” the diocese concludes.
Kosovo authorities were very upset after the Europa Nostra included the monastery in its list of the 7 most endangered cultural heritage sites in April and began to make malicious accusations against the monastery and its abbot Archimandrite Sava (Janjić). The Albanian Kosovo authorities have demanded that Europa Nostra remove the monastery from its list, and also that UNESCO stop referring to Orthodox sites there as Serbian, but rather as Kosovar cultural sites.
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