Deçan, Kosovo, October 11, 2022
eparhija-prizren.com
Kosovo authorities must implement a 2016 Constitutional Court ruling granting 24 hectares of land to Visoki Dečani Monastery if they want to be received as guests, the monastery said on Monday.
“The Serbian Orthodox Diocese in Kosovo has always been open to dialogue with Kosovo institutions but not about the legality of the 2016 Kosovo Constitutional Court decision which confirmed the Dečani Monastery’s ownership of the 24 hectares,” the monastery tweeted yesterday.
The 2016 decision put an end to 16 years of legal battles, though authorities now refuse to implement it, claiming it would provoke a “chain reaction in which the Church would have to be granted compromises in other issues as well.”
“Both the President & the Prime Minister of Kosovo publicly confirmed refusal to implement the 2016 Kosovo Constitutional Court decision to recognize 24 hectars of Dečani Monastery land,” the monastery also tweeted.
The 2016 Court decision is supported by the EU/OSCE/UN and the leading Western Ambassadors, the monastery notes.
At the same time, Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti says he’s open to dialogue with the Church, and complains that he hasn’t visited the monastery yet, reports Balkan Insights.
“I’m the first Kosovo prime minister who hasn’t been received for a meeting by Orthodox priests at Dečani Monastery,” Kurti told the audience in a NATO Parliamentary Assembly conference in Priština.
The issue with PM Kurti has been going on for more than a year. The monastery initially denied his request to visit in May of last year until Kosovo agrees to implement the Court decision and officially grant the 24 hectares to the monastery.
The Diocese of Raška and Prizren and All Kosovo and Metohija also issued a statement on the matter in February, saying the refusal to implement the Court decision “reveal[s] open discrimination against the Serbian Orthodox Church.”
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