Press release on intrusion into the protected zone of the Visoki Dečani monastery

President Vučić announced that, at the next meeting in Brussels, Serbia would ask the representatives of Priština and European mediators to urgently and permanently suspend construction works in the protected zone of the Visoki Dečani monastery.

 

"Protection of Serbian cultural and religious heritage in Kosovo and Metohija remains a priority of our state policy, and we are ready to form a special team together with the Serbian Orthodox Church to protect our shrines - Serbian and Christian spiritual, cultural and historical heritage," said President Vučić. He emphasised that Serbia perceives the works in the vicinity of Visoki Dečani as a means of pressure against our side and as a message that our cultural and religious heritage is a hostage of Albanian highhandedness.

 

President Vučić stated that Serbia maintains that for a productive dialogue, a minimum relationship of trust and a peaceful atmosphere for talks between the participants is necessary, and that road works around the monastery - which unambiguously represents an attack on Visoki Dečani - do not contribute to such an atmosphere. He added that a large number of our churches and monasteries have suffered in the last two decades due to the destructive rage of Albanian extremists and that Serbia will not allow even a hint of the possibility that such a fate could befall any of the Serbian holy places.

 

"I expect the EU to put explicit and strong pressure on Priština to stop the campaign of jeopardising Serbian shrines in Kosovo and Metohija, because they are, in addition to being our shrines, at the same time invaluable monuments of European Christian culture, and any attack on them implies an attack on the very foundations of European values", pointed out President Vučić.

 

Belgrade,

15th August 2020