The Zelensky Regime continues its war against Orthodox Christian Church in Ukraine.
Zelensky cut off access to the sacred Kiev Caves Lavra National Reserve, additional caves and three other Orthodox churches.
The Caves are where the relics of hundreds of saints are located. Access to the Churches of the Elevation of the Cross, the Conception of St. Anna, and the Synaxis of All Saints of the Caves has also been suspended, reports the Ukrainian Church’s Information-Education Department.
“The abbot and brothers of the Lavra received this news with extreme pain,” commented His Eminence Metropolitan Kliment of Nezhin, head of the Information-Education Department.
The Church has already been kicked out of the main churches in the Upper Lavra, and has been informed that it will be entirely evicted from its monastery on March 29.
In another incident last week a Christian man lost his fingertip when raiders tore open the doors of his Orthodox Church with a crowbar.
Massive Closeout Sale On MyPillow All Season Slippers And Moccasions – Was $149.98, Now Only $25.00!
And an Orthodox Church in Western Ukraine was raided during mass and the priest was arrested.
Chernivsti is in Western Ukraine.
💭 Selected Comments from Readers of The Gateway Pundit:
– Huh, isn’t that what nazis’ did in Germany? (s/)
– So was Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, and FDR. All were Dictators For Life!
Biden’s and Zelensky democracy at its finest…
– This started in 2014 with Obama.
– In the USA it was the Christian churches backing the Ukraine with extra collections and fund raising, don’t we feel like fools.
– Get rid of Zelensky. He’s a growly little tyrant who demands that other countries finance him, and has no tolerance for Christians. Gee. Where have we seen that before? Oh, right. Ancient Rome, and more recently during the Iron Curtain days of the USSR.
– We’re supporting a godless pos
– Whether it’s Vietnam, Afghanistan or Ukraine the US always picks the wrong side.
🔥 Three years into the 21st Century’s most brutal genocidal war in Ethiopia, but the ICC remained silent on the tragic and devastating situation in Ethiopia.
😈 The evil monsters Abiy Ahmed Ali and Isaias Afewerki (Abdullah Hassan) have massacred over a million Orthodox Christians, and have allowed up to 200.000 Women to be raped.
The response to the situation in Ukraine has shown what the ICC is capable of.
It shows that the ICC’s budgetary excuses for inaction on Ethiopia, Eritrea, Afghanistan, Nigeria and others can no longer be maintained.
We now call on the Office of the Prosecutor, and on states parties, to ensure that all investigations receive the same standard of treatment, so that all victims of international crimes have equal access to justice.
Criminal complaints against high-profile Western politicians: CIA agents involved in the rendition of terror suspects as well as former US Presidents, evils like Henry Alfred Kissinger, Zbigniew Kazimierz Brzeziński etc. should be filed by African and Asian countries.
💭 I Expect a Charge Posthumously For:
– Ronald Reagen over the raid on Grenada (1983)
– George Bush sen. for the raid on Liberia (1990)
– Bill Clinton for the invasion and bombing of Serbia (1999)
– George W. Bush for the raid on Afghanistan (2001)
– George W. Bush for the invasion of Iraq (2003)
– Tony Blair for Iraq war crimes (1 million dead) (2003)
– Barack Obama, David Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy for committing war crimes in Libya (2011)
– Donald Trump for giving a green light to the fascist Oromo regime of Ethiopia, to the brutal regime of Eritrea, to the United Arab Emirates, to Turkey to open a genocidal war against Orthodox Christians of Northern Ethiopia. (US Presidential election day, 4 November 2020 till today)
– Abiy Ahmed Ali of Ethiopia & Isa Afewerki (Abdullah Hassan) of Eritrea and Debretsion of TPLF for massacring and starving to death over a million Orthodox Christians of Northern Ethiopia.
😈 Evil Debretsion of TPLF was replaced this week with another criminal called Getachew Reda by the CIA / Blinken, who were there in Addis Ababa this week to give the usual orderes. They have been doing it since they killed the great ChristianEmperor Yohaness lV of Ethiopia in 1889 and replaced with an evil Anti-Christian Oromo Emperor Menelik II, who also massacred over a million Christians of Ethiopia. The next evil Oromo leaders like Emperor Haile Selasie and Mengistu Hailemariam did the evil.
So, Menelik II , Haile Selassie, Mengistu and Abiy Ahmed have massacred and starved to death altogether over 60 million Orthodox Christians of Northern Ethiopia. This is a fact now!
But now, no cheap replacement will deceive The Almighty Egziabher God. No, more! No One Escapes God’s Judgment.
❖❖❖[Proverbs 22:8]❖❖❖
Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity, and the rod of his fury will fail.
👉 Egypt 9 June 2018
The traitor in-chief in front of Egypt president Abdiaziz Sisi and international media, just three months after he assumed the power, that he will work for the interest of Ethiopia’s historical enemies (Arab Muslims), Egypt, Arabia and Turkey.
How on earth have Ethiopians allowed the evvvil Oromo warlord Abiy Ahmed Ali responsible for countless horrendous crimes and atrocities happen to remain in power to this day.?
😈 But they will never think of issuing an arrest warrant against the brutal fascist Oromo Abiy Ahmed Ali and Eritrea’s Isa Afqorki (Abdullah Hasan) who together with their Western, Arab, Turkish and Iranian brothers massacred more than a million Orthodox Christians of Northern Ethiopia. The reason is that the two servants of Waqeyo-Allah-Lucifer are their brothers in arms who will finish off ancient orthodox Christians and reduce the number of Africans for them.
Note that the court only issues arrest warrants against ex-Yugoslav/Serbian Orthodox Christians and Africans who are not members of their luciferian club. This world is unjust, evil and dark!
😈 War criminal US secretary of state Antony Blinken was there in Ethiopia two days ago:
💭 To Rehabilitate The Genocider Black Hitler Ahmed, SoS Antony Blinken Departs For Ethiopia
💭 Jill Biden and Antony Blinken Awarded a Transgender & an Ethiopian Muslim with International Women of Courage Award
♀️ Cold and Empathyless Female European Ministers Meet Black Hitler – whose Oromo soldiers brutally raped up to 200.000 Christian Women – and Massacred Over a Million Orthodox Christians.
👉 The Franco-German visit, 12 and 13 January 2023
Mme Catherine Colonna, French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs pay a joint visit to Ethiopia with Mme Annalena Baerbock, the German Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs.
☆ Yesterday Nazi Ukraine – 🐺 Today Fascist Oromo of Ethiopia
😲 Just Unbelievable – Reel Mockery! What a wicked world!
😈 The Genocider Oromo-Jihadist PM of Ethiopia Who Masscared Over a Million Orthodox Christians is Now in the USA
⚖ The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin for war crimes because of his alleged involvement in the abduction of children from Ukraine.
Putin “is allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population (children) and that of unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation,” the court said in a statement.
It also issued a warrant Friday for the arrest of Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, the Commissioner for Children’s Rights in the Office of the President of the Russian Federation on similar allegations.
😈 But they will never think of issuing an arrest warrant against the brutal fascist Oromo Abiy Ahmed Ali and Eritrea’s Isa Afqorki (Abdullah Hasan) who together with their Western, Arab, Turkish and Iranian brothers massacred more than a million Orthodox Christians of Northern Ethiopia. The reason is that the two servants of Waqeyo-Allah-Lucifer are their brothers in arms who will finish off ancient orthodox Christians and reduce the number of Africans for them.
Note that the court only issues arrest warrants against ex-Yugoslav/Serbian Orthodox Christians and Africans who are not members of their luciferian club. This world is unjust, evil and dark!
❖❖❖[Proverbs 22:8]❖❖❖
Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity, and the rod of his fury will fail.
😈 War criminal US secretary of state Antony Blinken was there in Ethiopia two days ago:
💭 To Rehabilitate The Genocider Black Hitler Ahmed, SoS Antony Blinken Departs For Ethiopia
💭 Jill Biden and Antony Blinken Awarded a Transgender & an Ethiopian Muslim with International Women of Courage Award
♀️ Cold and Empathyless Female European Ministers Meet Black Hitler – whose Oromo soldiers brutally raped up to 200.000 Christian Women – and Massacred Over a Million Orthodox Christians.
👉 The Franco-German visit, 12 and 13 January 2023
Mme Catherine Colonna, French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs pay a joint visit to Ethiopia with Mme Annalena Baerbock, the German Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs.
☆ Yesterday Nazi Ukraine – 🐺 Today Fascist Oromo of Ethiopia
😲 Just Unbelievable – Reel Mockery! What a wicked world!
😈 The Genocider Oromo-Jihadist PM of Ethiopia Who Masscared Over a Million Orthodox Christians is Now in the USA
💭 Tucker Carlson: No One Seems to Care That Zelensky Is Closing Down Churches and Throwing Christians in Jail “So, in order to support Joe Biden’s policy in Ukraine, you have to support what the government of Ukraine is doing with American tax dollars, including cracking down on faithful…
🔥 Global War against Orthodox Christians and Indigenous Peoples
The Luciferians used the Europeans to exterminate native Americans, Australian Aborigines. And then they used the Arabs, Turks and Iranians to exterminate native North Africans, Assyrians, Armenians, Kurds and Greeks of Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Georgia and Armenia (Azerbaijan). Later, they used Albanians and Turks to wage Jihad on native Orthodox Christians of Serbia, Bulgaria. And now, they use Muslims of the Caucasus to wage Jihad on Orthodox Christians of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, again. The Neo-Luciferian Europeans, Arabs and Turks used the heathen Galla-Oromos of Madagascar to exterminate 28 indigenous tribes of Southern Ethiopia. The Protestants of Europe and America + Muslim Arabs, Turks and Iranians are today using the very same non indigenous heathen Oromos to wage Jihad on indigenous Orthodox Christians of Northern Ethiopia.
Those who hate us Ancient Christians abound. We Orthodox Christians are othered, shamed, ridiculed and slaughtered for our religious practices — by non-Orthodox-Christians and non-Christians alike.
Of course, that no one cares about about violence and genocide Against Orthodox Christians – except The Almighty Egziabher God Jesus Christ – became obvious when over a million Orthodox Christians of Ethiopia were slaughtered by the Islamo-Protestant Oromo regime of evil Nobel Peace laureate Abiy Ahmed Ali.
As a matter of fact, rehabilitation of genocider Abiy Ahmed Ali now is a choice by Biden to sweep Abiy’s genocidal Jihad under the rug. It is a choice to reward the Oromo despot for genocide.
The United States is founded upon two principles: Republicanism and Protestantism, Material success and moral degeneracy. Protestantism is heretical, so it is far from a stable foundation.
A Protestant group who is supposed to serve persecuted Christians Worldwide is bringing North Korea to the top of the Christian persecutor’s list. every year to protect the vicious Christian persecutors of the Muslim world.
Two years ago, in The Holy city of Axum, Ethiopia, where 1000 Orthodox Christians were brutally massacred while defending The Biblical Ark of The Covenant. Open Doors was very quick to dismiss this gruesome and tragic massacre as ‘fake News’, and came with the following statement:
„The organization Open Doors has received feedback from its own network that such a massacre is “very unlikely”: “The more we dig for evidence, the less we find.”
The reality of the massacre was proven beyond doubt by many organizations and individuals, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. Yet, Open Doors didn’t retract that shameful statement – never apologized or showed interest to investigate the Axum Massacre.
Open Doors was/is trying to shield genocider Abiy Ahmed Ali and save the face of his Islamo-Protestant fascist Oromo regime.
No wonder, even after it’s known that over a million Orthodox Christians were massacred in under two years, America, Europe, Arabia, Turkey, Iran, even Israel are cozying with the criminal fascist Oromo regime of Ethiopia.
😈 War criminal US secretary of state Antony Blinken was there in Ethiopia two days ago:
💭 To Rehabilitate The Genocider Black Hitler Ahmed, SoS Antony Blinken Departs For Ethiopia
💭 Jill Biden and Antony Blinken Awarded a Transgender & an Ethiopian Muslim with International Women of Courage Award
♀️ Cold and Empathyless Female European Ministers Meet Black Hitler – whose Oromo soldiers brutally raped up to 200.000 Christian Women – and Massacred Over a Million Orthodox Christians.
👉 The Franco-German visit, 12 and 13 January 2023
Mme Catherine Colonna, French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs pay a joint visit to Ethiopia with Mme Annalena Baerbock, the German Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs.
☆ Yesterday Nazi Ukraine – 🐺 Today Fascist Oromo of Ethiopia
😲 Just Unbelievable – Reel Mockery! What a wicked world!
😈 The Genocider Oromo-Jihadist PM of Ethiopia Who Masscared Over a Million Orthodox Christians is Now in the USA
💭 Is America Committing Suicide?
💭 ‘Bolshevist’ Congressman Jamie Raskin Calls to Destroy ‘Orthodox Christian’ Russia by Jihad
💭 Tucker Carlson: Why is Neo-Bolshevik President Zelenskyy Banning Orthodox Christianity in Ukraine?
💭 Anti-Orthodox Conspiracy: NATO ‘Ready to Act’ in KOSOVO if Tensions with SERBIA Escalate. US/NATO Kosovo created State to protect Muslims good. After Ukraine they’re preperaing to attack Orthodox Serbia, again!
💭 Ethiopia: The Next Phase of Genocide of Christians | Protestant + Islamic Jihad by The Heathen Galla-Oromos
💭 On February 23, 2023, Al-Arabiya Network (Saudi Arabia) aired an interview with Russian anti-liberal philosopher Aleksander Dugin.
Dugin said that Russia cannot afford to lose the war in Ukraine because this would lead to domestic unrest, a civil war, and its ultimate collapse, and he asserted that the Russians will “fight to the end” and will only be satisfied once Ukraine is “fully liberated from the pro-NATO political elites.”
He also said that if Russia starts losing the war, it may use nuclear weapons, and he explained that “allowing” Russia to win in Ukraine would actually constitute a victory for the West because it would prevent nuclear war. He said that Ukraine is destined to disappear, whether through a Russian victory or in a nuclear apocalypse that would destroy all of humanity, and he lamented the dissolution of the Soviet Union, which led to Ukraine’s independence.
Moreover, Dugin said that the West is the “Antichrist”, the “source of absolute evil”, and that it uses artificial intelligence to “destroy the family, sex, and the nature of human beings”. He explained that Muslims understand that this is true, and that Russian President Vladimir Putin disagrees and rather sees the West as a partner that is behaving aggressively.
In August, Dugin’s daughter, Darya, died after a car her father was due to travel in exploded.
💭 My Note: Yes, the Edomite West is Antichrist. The Ishamaelite East, The Chinese and many others are Antichrist nations too. If Russia doesn’t quit geopolitical game-playing by cuddling with the Muslim Arabs, Turks and with Antichrist Islamic Regimes s like in Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, Azerbaijan, Kosovo, Iran etc. it will also join the group of these Antichrist nations like it did during the Communist era.
💭 ‘All of a sudden’, protests erupted after lawmakers gave initial backing to legislation that critics say represents an authoritarian shift.
A major rally against Russian bills is held in front of the Parliament.
The Shame Movement and Tbilisi Pride, two NGOs at the forefront of promoting LGBT in Georgia, will likely be forced to shut down with the passing of the law against foreign agents.
Both organisations receive much of their funding from the US, Britain and the Netherlands.
Flags of the Georgian Legion and Sherekilebi + USA are present at today’s anti-Russian rally in Tbilisi.
Both Georgian volunteer units are currently fighting against Russians in Ukraine.
Border protection on emergency mode in Russian-occupied Tskhinvali region.
De facto admin. of Abkhazia claims that the US will attempt to stage a coup in Georgia in March.
💭 Georgian Political Scientist Reports:‘CIA Is Behind Riots In Georgia And Is Stirring Up A Civil War, This Is Another Maidan. Georgian Mercenaries Have Returned From Ukraine To Back The Overthrowing Of The Government.’
😈 Let’s remember; Freemason agent and traitor Joseph Stalin was Georgian.
Between the early 1930s and his death in 1953, Joseph Stalin had many millions Orthodox Christians killed. Millions more fell victim to forced labor, deportation, famine, bloody massacres, and detention and interrogation by Stalin’s henchmen. Stalin’s Genocides is the chilling story of these crimes.
The Holodomor Genocide by Famine from 1932 to 1933
The Ukrainian famine—known as the Holodomor, a combination of the Ukrainian words for “starvation” and “to inflict death”—by one estimate claimed the lives of 3.9 million people, about 13 percent of the population. And, unlike other famines in history caused by blight or drought, this was caused when dictator Stalin wanted both to replace Ukraine’s small farms with state-run collectives and punish independence-minded Ukrainians who posed a threat to his totalitarian authority.
😈 Another Freemason agent, another Stalin, Hitler and Mussolini in one, evil Abiy Ahmed Ali of hijacked Ethiopia is repeating the same exact genocidal Jihad on Orthodox Christians of Ethiopia.
💭 The Ukrainian Famine Genocide Repeated Today in Ethiopia
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on December 23, 2020
😈 Ukraine’s Nazi leader, Zelensky comes with a new plan for world peace: “It’s OK! to nuke Moscow to warn Russia what happens if it is going to nuke Ukraine. Russia should not respond with retaliation with nuke in this case. If so we should nuke more”
👉 Someone commented:
I hate his f****** voice I hate his f****** face and I hate his short f****** Napoleon Blownapart complex.
Turkish sources are reporting that up to one million Turks died in the earthquake. Some cities have lost many family members in their belongings in the quake. Houses, apartments, etc collapsed. Some cities practically ceased to exist and that some Turks are sure that there are 1 Million Dead. Too bad, if true!
But, we can’t be surprised. The reason is that in the last two years alone, Turkey has massacred more than one million Northern Ethiopian Orthodox Christians through the fascist Oromo regime. A hundred years ago, Up to 1.5 million Armenian Orthodox Christian brothers and sisters were wiped out by the Ottoman Empire beginning on April 24, 1915. Even today, Turkey is ready to repeat history and wipe out Armenians from the world vía Azerbaijan. No wonder Turkey remains adamant in its refusal to recognize the Armenian genocide. They don’t want to learn from history because they want to repeat it.
🛑 WW1 and WW2 both started in the year of the Tiger (just like Russia and Ukraine) and got the kickoff in the year of the Rabbit.
☆ Both times, the deadliest earthquake in 1914 (7.0) was in Turkey.
☆ The deadliest earthquake in 1939 (7.8) was Turkey
☆ The deadliest earthquake in 2023 (7.8) is Turkey.
😈 The Elite loves to live in a constant loop of repeating events over and over
And About HAARP: Diana Sosoaca’s Shock Statement: ‘PEOPLE Had To Die, and It’s Not Over Yet
👉 Courtesy: Diana Sosoaca – Romanian Senator
🐯 The year of Tiger – Tigray region of Ethiopia. WW3 started on when the whole world decided to attack the seat of The ARK OF THE COVENANT in Axum, Tigray Ethiopia.
World War III started on Nov 4, 2020 (as America’s presidential election hogs the international media spotlight) after the fascist Oromo regime of Ethiopia supported by Eritrea, the UAE, Turkey, Somalia, China, Iran and many other Eastern and Western nations waged a coordinated Jihad against Christian Ethiopians of Tigray. Even Jewish Israel, to some extent, supported the genocidal Islamic-Protestant Oromo regime of Ethiopia.
😈 Baal Loon | Communist China + Atheist West + Islamic East All Worship Satan-Samael (Baal-Beelzebub)
“The gift of mental power comes from God, Divine Being, and if we concentrate our minds on that truth, we become in tune with this great power. My mother had taught me to seek all truth in the Bible; therefore I devoted the next few months to the study of this work”
Did the US and NATO have a hand in the earthquake that hit turkey? Is NATO and the CIA trying to replace Turkey’s president Erdogan with Cleric Fethullah Gulen, who is currently protected by the CIA in the US?
💭 “Turkey’s Two-Faced ‘Sultan’ is No Friend of The West. It’s Time to Play Hardball” Guardian
President Erdoğan’s increasingly hostile stance towards Nato and democratic principles can no longer go unpunished
That Turkey is a “vital strategic ally” of the west is the sort of truism on which people such as Joe Biden and Jens Stoltenberg, Nato’s secretary general, are raised. Yet what if the old saw no longer holds true? What if Turkey’s leader, exploiting this notion, betrays western interests in a pretence of partnership? Should not that leader be treated as a liability, a threat – even ostracised as an enemy?
Geography doesn’t change. Turkey wields significant influence at the crossroads of Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Yet the increasingly aggressive, authoritarian and schismatic policies pursued at home and abroad over two decades by its choleric sultan-president have upended long-cherished assumptions. Turkey’s reliability and usefulness as a trusted western ally is almost at an end.
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on December 27, 2022
✞ 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.
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.
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.
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.