The Orthodox Church “hurts the eyes” of the Albanian authorities of Kosovo
Professor of the University of Pristina in exile (after the persecution of 1999, Serbian professors and students of this university were forced to move to Kosovo (Serbian) Mitrovica, and in Pristina there is a university exclusively with Albanian teachers and students) Dusan Čelic explained why Albanians are seeking conversion of the unfinished Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Pristina into the “Museum of Serbian Aggression”
Celic told the Serbian edition of Sputnik radio about this, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“It is absurd that some self-appointed authorities in Pristina are suing the church, the Rasko-Prizren diocese for usurpation, in fact usurping church land,” Celic said. – Tens of thousands of hectares of church land in Kosovo and Metohija were usurped, although the authorities of Pristina committed themselves to implementing the plan of Ahtisaari (the ex-president of Finland, who developed a settlement plan in Kosovo, allowing for the independence of the region - ed.), in which there is an obligation of restitution, but they haven't implemented it for 12 years."
Dusan Celic.
Professor Celic also explained the absurdity of the claims of the now Albanian University of Pristina to the land on which the temple was built.
“When we talk about the Cathedral of Christ the Savior and the place in the city center near the Faculty of Philosophy where it is located, in fact a much larger area of this part of the city and a much larger number of plots in this part of the city belonged to the Serbian Orthodox Church. As far as I know, in the 90s, since there was no legal framework for restitution, after a petition signed by almost all Serbian citizens in Pristina, more than 40 thousand of them, the city decided to partially return the land to the church that was confiscated from it after World War II “, noted the teacher.
Thus, Celic recalled that the administration of Pristina in 1990 decided to return to the church what belonged to it before 1945. He also explained what is behind the current lawsuit by the University of Pristina.
“The reason for what happened is that the temple is disturbing the Albanian authorities in Pristina. It is located in the city center, it is an impressive building, which, unfortunately, is not completed. That is, the construction, but the interior is not completed, the church is not painted, but it still “hurts the eyes” because it is located in the center and because it testifies to the existence in the past of 40-50 thousand Serbian inhabitants of this city. Thanks to the abuses of this quasi-judicial system in Pristina, there are systematic attempts to appropriate property in this area,” the expert noted.
Calic recalled that construction of the temple was stopped in 1998 when the war began, and that after Kosovo declared independence, the church was repeatedly vandalized, and in 2016 it was set on fire and then turned into a public toilet and garbage dump.
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.