/ world today news/ The authorities in the partially recognized Republic of Kosovo expelled a priest from the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC). Experts qualified this as an act of pressure on the Orthodox Church and an attempt to create an independent religious structure. What will this lead to?
Response measures
The other day, the leaders of Germany, France and Italy met in Brussels with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and the Prime Minister of the self-proclaimed Kosovo, Albin Kurti.
However, another attempt by Europe to take a step towards solving the Balkan problem was not crowned with success. The mediators proposed a return to the March conditions – creation of an Association of Municipalities with a Serbian majority. In particular in Northern Kosovo (ethnic Serbs here make up about 90% of the population).
Vucic agreed to the proposal. But not Kurti. According to him, Brussels “left no choice” and put on the table the only option for consensus. The prime minister’s refusal is not surprising. His government pursues a completely different policy in the northern part of the region.
Only in the last few weeks have news arrived from here showing cases of discrimination against Serbs. Thus, the administration of the city of Kosovska Mitrovica, in order to build a new road, decided to donate a Serbian cemetery. The ancient churchyard was simply razed to the ground.
And in Kamenica, a group of unknown persons attacked several Serbian schools: they threw stones at the buildings and hung banners with offensive statements. The police said only that they were looking for the culprits.
The Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC) was also attacked by the nationalists. Her Diocese of Raško-Prizren is located in Northern Kosovo. The reason is an accident in the village of Banska. At the end of September, several dozen armed fighters barricaded themselves on the territory of a local monastery. A few hours later, the Kosovo police brought the situation under control.
Later, Prime Minister Kurti said: an impressive arsenal of weapons was confiscated from the monastery. And the authorities had documents which claimed that Belgrade was planning to take over Banska and several other settlements.
The answer came a month later. Without any explanation, on October 20, the police of the self-proclaimed republic arrested the abbot of the Devinovod Monastery, Protosinkel Fotius (Kostovsky).
The priest, a citizen of North Macedonia, arrived at the department for foreigners that day to renew his residence permit. In response, however, he received a deportation notice and an additional ban on entering Kosovo.
“The document provided to him contained articles of the law related to ‘national security considerations’ without indicating criminal or other liability, as Father Fotius had no problems with the law,” the Rashko-Prizren Diocese said.
The police then temporarily seized the priest’s passport and mobile phone and searched the car. They were also not allowed to take personal belongings from the monastery. After a few hours, the abbot is at the border with Macedonia.
Phantom believers
“With this cruel act, the Kosovo institutions began to openly persecute the clergy and monks from the Orthodox Church. This is unacceptable and worsens the inter-ethnic and inter-religious situation”, the diocese commented on what happened.
In addition, they pointed to violations committed by state authorities during the deportation of the superior.
First, his old residence permit only expired on November 11 – the cleric was allowed to stay in Kosovo for another 20 days. Second, under the local Freedom of Religion Act, the arbitrary ban on the presence of priests, monks, nuns and pilgrims is prohibited.
The Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church called the deportation a “dangerous precedent”. And he noted with regret that Pristina is trying at all costs to present the church as a participant and even a culprit in the current conflict – with the aim of “completely expelling the Serbian people and creating an ethnically Albanian Kosovo.” Kosovars (Kosovo Albanians) are the majority in the country.
Serbian experts spoke in a similar spirit. Member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts Slavenko Terzic and chief researcher at the Belgrade Institute of Modern History of Serbia Aleksandar Rakovic suggested that the expulsion of Father Fotij would be a “prelude” to the creation of the “Kosovo Orthodox Church”.
According to Rakovic, the separatists will not leave the SOC alone, as it is the cultural link that unites the various ethnic groups.
The idea of creating an “independent church” has been floating in the intellectual and political space of Kosovo for almost ten years. It was first proposed by members of the nationalist Albanian Party for Self-Determination. And the corresponding bill was introduced in the parliament.
“The principle position is that the Orthodox Church in Kosovo should not be called Serbian, but Kosovar,” one of the party activists, Mutaher Haskuka, wrote on social networks at the time.
Supporters of the creation of an independent religious organization explained their position by saying that it is necessary to protect the rights of “Orthodox Albanians”. According to them, the word “Serbian” in the name of the church would mean that all believers in Kosovo must be Serbs.
However, there is one problem with this program: the number of Orthodox Christians among the Kosovars, according to various expert estimates, is insignificant. The question arises whose rights to protect.
“They decided to watch”
The former municipal deputy from “Self-determination”, the writer Avni Rudaku, in one of his articles shed light on another aspect of autocephaly – material. According to him, the emergence of “Kosovo Orthodoxy” would facilitate the republic’s entry into UNESCO.
The fact is that if a church is established in the area, all the property of the Rashko-Prizren Diocese of the Serbian Orthodox Church will automatically go to it – about 160 parishes and 14 monasteries.
In recent years, Kosovo historians have published many scientific materials that supposedly prove that the local sanctuaries did not belong to Serbia – it acquired them in the Middle Ages from local monarchs.
“If the authorities in Kosovo really go on the path of church independence and start confiscating churches, then under threat will be not so much the buildings of the Rasko-Prizren Diocese, where believers will actively protect their heritage, but the cult buildings of the Serbian Orthodox Church on the territory of the Serbian enclaves,” says Vice President, President of the Center for Political Technologies Alexei Makarkin.
But, he continues, such incursions are currently unlikely, as is the autocephaly project itself. Ultimately, a sharper reaction from the Serbian Church and the international community will inevitably follow.
“Meanwhile in Kosovo, they decided to see what would happen after the expulsion of the abbot of the monastery. And then they will act according to the situation,” explains Makarkin.
Subsequent attempts to achieve spiritual independence are not excluded, the expert believes. But most likely, the authorities of the self-proclaimed republic will involve “persons from marginal circles” in this. No canonical structure would want to participate in such a scam. So far, there are no people willing to take on the “Kosovo Church”.
Translation: V. Sergeev
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