It’s hot again in Montenegro: the Serbian Church fell under the rink of repression
Despite the threats of the ruling regime, last Sunday protest religious processions of the Serbian Orthodox Church took place in many cities of Montenegro. For the seventh month now, believers have continued to protest against the new law, which allows the confiscation of churches and monasteries of the SOC in favor of schismatics. The authorities did not hesitate to take repressive measures in response, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
Protest prayers and religious processions took place in many cities of Montenegro. In a similar way, the SOC in this country is protesting against the discriminatory “Law on Freedom of Religion,” which allows for the confiscation of property—monasteries and churches—from the Church. The ruling regime of the pro-Western dictator Milo Djukanovic in the country does not hide the desire to establish its own “Montenegrin Orthodox Church” (an unrecognized public organization with a similar name already exists in the country), wanting to receive a tomos for it from the Patriarchate of Constantinople on the Ukrainian model.
In the capital Podgorica, the protest march was led by Metropolitan Amfilohije of Montenegro and Primorye.
“The police cried when they took me in for questioning, and now we see that some people gave up their badges and uniforms after that,” Amphilohius said during the sermon. “It’s not the fault of the police, but of those who ordered them to do this.”
If they continue to commit such lawlessness over the Constitution, then the question arises: who is this madman who will vote for such a government? To whom should we give the shrines? To those who build their history on lies?
The Metropolitan recalled that the authorities of Montenegro, which separated from Serbia, treacherously recognized the independence of the region of Kosovo captured by Albanian separatists.
“They betrayed the blood and lives of our people in Kosovo. They betrayed Visoki Decani (legendary Serbian monastery on the territory of Kosovo - ed.) and the Pec Patriarchate (The first Serbian Patriarchate was located on the territory of Kosovo in the city of Pec - ed.), when they recognized a criminal creation - the false state of Kosovo,” Amfilohije said.
Today, the Metropolitan of Montenegro and Primorsky was summoned for questioning and appeared at the Podgorica Security Center to testify. Similar actions were taken by the authorities against priests in Mojkovac, Žabljana, Bijelo Polje, Nikšić, Beran, and in Pljevlja eight members of the parish council of the Church of St. Petka (Paraskeva of Serbia) were summoned for questioning. All of them are accused under Article 287 of the Criminal Code of Montenegro for “failure to comply with measures to combat infectious diseases.”
At the same time, the authorities sent a notice of deportation to the abbot of the Zlatesh monastery in the vicinity of Tomashev, according to the same scheme in which a similar decision was made rendered in relation to the Serbian priest, citizen of BiH, Stavrofor Archpriest Saša Janjic in Pljevlja.
In turn, the opposition pro-Serbian and pro-Russian “Democratic Front” condemned not only the police repression, but also the decision of its leadership not to participate in the protection and coordination of Orthodox protest marches.
The Democratic Front strongly condemns the unconstitutional and illegal actions of the Director of the Montenegro Police Department, Veselin Veljović, who, on the direct orders of President Milo Djukanovic and his deputy (Prime Minister - ed.) Dusko Markovic decided not to ensure or regulate traffic during services organized by the Church and believers, the party said in a statement. “By doing this, Veljović grossly violated his powers and endangered the safety of tens of thousands of Montenegrin citizens, among whom, as always, were small children. Thus, Veljović confirmed what everyone in Montenegro knows, and every day more and more the world learns, that this is a private state of lawlessness, ruled by one person (Djukanovic – ed.). "
DF also called on all Orthodox police officers to “leave the private police run by smugglers and bandits” and go over to the side of “the people who resolutely and courageously defend their shrines, their homes, families, religion, traditions and the Serbian Orthodox Church.”
“Dear brothers and sisters in uniform, you swore an oath to the people and the state, and not to thieves, criminals, smugglers who now want to destroy Orthodox Christianity from Montenegro,” the message says.
At the same time, the references to “smuggling” in this address are not accidental; since the early 90s, Milo Djukanovic has had a bad reputation as the leader of an organized crime group, who rose financially from smuggling, for which criminal cases were initiated against him in neighboring Italy.
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