Serbian Patriarch Banned From Visiting Kosovo Which is Serbian Jerusalem

✞ የሰርቢያ ፓትርያርክ የሰርቢያን እየሩሳሌም ኮሶቮን እንዳይጎበኙ ተከለከሉ ✞

✞ The authorities in Pristina have decided to ban His Holiness Patriarch Porfirije of the Serbian Orthodox Church from making his planned visit to Kosovo today through Wednesday.

The Serbian primate had planned to visit the ancient Patriarchate of Peć, Visoki Dečani Monastery, and other holy sites. The ban was announced yesterday evening.

Both the Patriarchal office and the Diocese of Raška and Prizren in Kosovo have issued responses.

The office of Pat. Porfirije states:

His Holiness the Serbian Patriarch Porfirije received with astonishment the news that the authorities in Pristina today forbade him to travel to the Peć Patriarchate, which is the first and centuries-old seat of the Serbian Orthodox Church and the monastery in which the Patriarch is the abbot, in the days before the great feast of the Nativity of Christ, which is being celebrated by the entire Christian world.

Patriarch Pofririje does not give up his intention to serve the Divine Liturgy in the Patriarchate of Peć and expects that this extremely discriminatory decision will be repealed and that the trampling of the human rights and religious freedoms of Orthodox Serbs living in the Province, on the land of their ancestors, where the Serbian people have lived continuously for at least fifteen hundred years, will be stopped.

His Holiness Patriarch Porfirije prays to God for peace and goodwill among all people, and especially prays for peace to prevail between Serbs and Albanians in Kosovo and Metohija, where they have lived together for centuries.

And the Diocese of Raška and Prizren states:

The Serbian Orthodox Raška-Prizren Diocese with its clergy, monks and faithful people received with astonishment and deep disappointment the news that the authorities in Priština today did not approve the planned visit of His Holiness the Serbian Orthodox Patriarch to Kosovo and Metohija in the period between 26-28. December. It was planned that in addition to his patriarchal monastery (in Peć), the Patriarch planned also visit Visoki Dečani Monastery, our faithful people in Orahovac and Gračanica.

As stated in the Communique of the Cabinet of His Holiness, this is a discriminatory decision that once again confirms the threat to the human and religious rights of our people in this region, because the Serbian Patriarch is also the Archbishop of Peć and he wanted to make a pastoral visit in order to visit his people and holy places in the days before the joyous Feast of the Nativity of Christ. Our Patriarch has repeatedly appealed on peoples of all faiths to live in peace and mutual respect and during his recent enthronement in Peć, he once again called for peaceful coexistence of Serbs and Albanians in Kosovo and Metohija.

Unfortunately, the authorities in Priština have been continuing for weeks with rhetoric aimed at criminalizing the entire Serbian people, and even harassing the Church, although the Church only went public with calls for peace and demands for the respect of its rights. Recent interviews of Mr. Kurti in which he openly attacked and unfairly accused the Serbian Orthodox Church, various proscription lists published by members of the Kosovo Assembly in which the Serbian Orthodox Church is mentioned as a kind of extremist organization, as well as constant attempts to drag our Church into the political narrative, cause serious concern. During the time of the current Kosovo Government, inter-ethnic relations have worsened considerably, the relations between Kosovo institutions and our Church, on which we have worked for years in the spirit of cooperation and dialogue, have never been at a lower level. Rhetoric displaying open ethnic hatred towards everything Serbian and Orthodox deeply threatens to take us all twenty years back. This situation does not lead to a better future not only for the Serbs, but also for the Kosovo Albanians and other communities in Kosovo and Metohija.

In recent weeks, while the latest crisis in the north of Kosovo has emerged, the SOC has not made any political statements because we are not a political organization, and our Diocese has publicly called for peace, restraint and solving of all problems through dialogue. This is what we are doing this time too by appealing to everyone to show responsibility in this situation and preserve peace and restraint, not using any form of violence or aggressive rhetoric. We especially expect the international representatives to do everything in their power to prevent the current crisis from escalating and to stop what the Serbs in Kosovo rightly perceive as open persecution.

The rights of all citizens, regardless of their origin, must be adequately protected, which unfortunately has not happened in Kosovo and Metohija, where for the last 23 years we have been continuously facing with discrimination on an ethnic basis, belligerent political rhetoric which threatens the safety of our believers as well as the SOC religious and cultural heritage. This happens amid the open disrespect for court decisions, laws and selective application of justice by the Kosovo institutions. It is unfortunate that this behavior continues and even intensifies during the Christmas holidays. The latest illegal and utterly uncivilized action against the Serbian Patriarch represents the culmination of arrogance, which threatens further deterioration of inter-ethnic relations.

Therefore, we pray to Christ, the only true Peacemaker, that in these days when we prayerfully observe and celebrate His Birth, reason and peace prevail over madness and cries for violence, so that all citizens in Kosovo and Metohija may live peacefully and safely and that all existing problems may be solved in spirit respecting the basic human and religious rights of all people living here.

👉 Courtesy: OrthoChristian.com

💭 History of Kosovo up to 1918

In medieval times, Kosovo was part of the original Serbian kingdom. Together with some neighboring areas, Kosovo entered the annals of history as Stara Srbija, or Old Serbia. The Serbian rulers from the 12th century onward built churches, monasteries, and fortresses in the area, such as those at Gracanica, Decani, Pec, and Prizren. These kings also competed for territory with the neighboring Byzantine and Bulgarian Empires.

Kosovo is called the cradle of Serbian civilization because an important battle took place there in 1389. The Nemanja dynasty had died out shortly after its peak during the impressive reign of Emperor Dusan (r. 1331-1355). When the Ottoman Turks continued their push north and west from their foothold in Europe, they still faced determined resistance, however, from Serb forces and their allies, led by a prince named Lazar Hrebeljanovic.

The battle on June 28, 1389, at a site known as the Field of Blackbirds just outside today’s Pristina, brought disaster to the Serbs. Although a semi-independent Serbian state would survive for another seventy years, this battle was the beginning of a long period of occupation and foreign domination for the Serbs.

The date of the battle has, paradoxically, become the single most important red-letter day in Serbian history. The Serbs grew increasingly proud of their tradition of resistance to the Turkish invaders, who were Muslim. As memorialized and mythologized–to this day–in Serbian epic poetry, folk songs, and nationalist histories, the Serbs saw themselves as the bulwark of Christendom that had blunted the force of the Ottoman invasion. The Ottomans went on to capture Bosnia, Hungary, and much of Croatia, and they besieged the great central European city of Vienna twice. But the significance of the Serbian pride in resistance to the Ottomans is more than just military and nationalist; it also reflects the “crusading” mentality so common in Europe in the Middle Ages. Christian Europeans often cooperated in land and sea campaigns against the Turks, whom they regarded as infidels. The Europeans had also mounted bloody invasions of the Holy Land a few centuries earlier during the Crusades, ostensibly fighting a holy war to liberate the area from the rule of Muslims.

It is important to note that in 1389 the Serbs were assisted by the Albanians in the Battle of Kosovo. The Albanians were also Christians. After suffering defeat by the Ottoman army, many Albanians gradually converted to Islam, as did other Europeans in Bosnia and Bulgaria.

This famous battle symbolizes the survival of the Serbian culture and language during the centuries of Ottoman rule. This survival was due in part to the Ottoman style of rule, which was usually rather indirect and did not aim at the assimilation of its conquered peoples. But it was also due to the structure and intellectual feats of the Serbian Orthodox Church. The church played an important administrative role under the Ottomans and kept alive a sense of Serbian identity, unity, and territorial claims. Thus, the Battle of Kosovo stands in Serbian history and culture as a symbol of suffering, of the struggle against invaders, and of cultural survival against the odds.

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