crucified kosovo
TRANSCRIPT
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Crucified Kosovo & Metohija
The region of Kosovo & Metohija was a political center of mediaeval Serbia and makes thevery essence of Serbian spiritual and cultural identity and statehood since the Middle Ages
up today. The biggest and the most important number of Serbian Orthodox mediaeval
monasteries and churches (for instance, Graanica, Peka Patrijarija, Bogorodica Ljevika
and Visoki Deani) are built exactly in Kosovo & Metohija and the headquarters of the
Serbian Orthodox Church -
Patriarchate established in 1346 was
located (till 1766) in the city of Pe
in the western portion of the region
called Metohija. The capital ofSerbian Empire proclaimed in 1346
was also in Metohija in the city of
Prizren which is known in Serbian
history as the Imperial city or
Serbian Constantinople. The term
Metohija means the land in
possession of the Serbian Orthodox
Church and according to the
archival documents c. 70% of the
territory of Kosovo & Metohija wasin the legal possession of the
Serbian Orthodox Church till 1946
when the new Serbophobic
Communist authorities, lead by
non-Serb party cadre,
nationalized the land of the
church under the policy of agrarian
reform and delivered it to the
Albanian peasants.
However, contrary to the Serbian
case, for Albanians Kosovo & Metohija is not central national land: moreover it is just
peripheral for the very reason they started to settle Kosovo & Metohija from the northern
Albania only after the First Great Serbian Migration from Kosovo & Metohija in 1690
during the Austrian-Ottoman War (Vienna War) 1683-1699. That the Albanians, contrary to
the Serbs, are not aboriginal people in Kosovo & Metohija is clearly showing the first
preserved Ottoman census (defter) related to Kosovo & Metohija done in 1485, i.e. only 30
years after this province became occupied by the Turks and included into administrative
system of the Ottoman Empire (in 1455). By analysing the personal names and place namesfrom this document already ex-Yugoslav linguists claimed that it is obvious that only 2% of
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them are of Albanian origin. However, after the First (when c. 100.00 Serbs emigrated from
Kosovo & Metohija to the Southern Hungary) and the Second (during the new Austrian-
Ottoman War in 1737-1739) Great Serbian Migrations from Kosovo & Metohija, the ethnic
composition of the region gradually was changed for the reason that the Ottoman
authorities invited neighbouring loyal Muslim Albanians (in Turkish language Arnauts)
from the Northern Albania (the speakers of the Geg dialect of the Albanian language) to
settle this region. Consequently, according to the Austrian historiography and statistoics,
only at the end of the 19th c. a tiny Albanian majority became reality at Kosovo & Metohija:
in 1899 it was 47,9% of Albanians compared to 43,7% of the Serbs, while in 1871 Serbian
majority was clear with 63,6% of the Serbs vs 32,2% of the Albanians. According to official
Serbian statistics made immediately after the Balkan Wars 1912-1913 when Kosovo &
Metohija became re-included into the state territory of Serbia, it was 50% of all non-
Albanians and 50% Albanians living in this region.
There are three reasons forsuch population change:
1) constant Albanian
immigration to Kosovo &
Metohija from Northern
Albania after 1699,
2) permanent Albanian
terror against and ethnic
cleansing of the local
Orthodox Serbs (for
instance, 150.000 Serbs are
expelled from Kosovo &
Metohija in the years 1878-
1912), and
3) a higher Albanian
natural birth-rate in
comparison to the Serbian
one.
Differently to the Serbian
case, Kosovo & Metohija
(except during the WWII) was never part of Albanian state that was, by the way, established
for the first time in history only in 1912. Thus, undoubtedly, Serbs have pure historical and
legal rights on Kosovo & Metohija in comparison to the Albanians (like Lithuanians on
Vilnius and Trakai areas in comparison to the Poles).
Kosovo and Metohija is very fertile and clement plane (differently from mountainous
Albania that was the main reason for ethnic Albanian migrations from Albania to Kosovo
& Metohija) with mild climate, reach in water resources, with high mountain chains
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bordering with Albania. It has been God-blessed environment for a fruitful development of
the highest achievements in all cultural fields in medieval Serbia. The cultural and
demographic strength of the Serbs is best illustrated by the presence of c. 1.500 monuments
of Serbian culture. Numerous outstanding noble Serbian families used to live in this
province (known as Old Serbia), as families Brankovi, Hrebeljanovi, Musi, Vojinovi,
some of which were the
inceptors of Serbian dynasties.
In addition, a great number of
Serbian noble castles existed all
over Kosovo with rich
aristocratic life going on inside
their walls. They were also
meeting places of Serbian
nobility and centers where
important political and otherdecisions have been taken and
places attended by foreign
envoys and outstanding guests
from the noble foreign ruling
families. In Svrin castle, for
example, the famous Serbian
Emperor Duan (1331-1355)
was firstly crowned king in
1331, and Pauni, famous for itsbeauty, were favoured place of
Serbian king Milutin (1282-
1321) a founder of monastery
of Graanica. In Pauni in 1342
Serbian Emperor Duan had
received Jovan VI Kantakuzin,
one of the pretenders to the
Byzantine throne at that time.
Nerodimlja, with the strong
fortress over the castle, wasfavourite residence of Serbian
king Stefan Deanski (1321-
1331) who built up the famous monastery of Visoki Deani in Metohija a meeting place of
western (Roman Catholic) and eastern (Byzantine Orthodox) architecture styles.
However, for the mediaeval Albanian history Kosovo & Metohija is of no importance: no
one Albanian feudal lord or dynasty originated in Kosovo & Metohija, no Albanian religious
shrines (churches) in Kosovo & Metohija, and mostly important, no Albanian place-names
in the province. Even today, 90% of place-names in Kosovo & Metohija are of Serbian-Slavic
origin even in Albanian language the name for the province (Kosova) has Serbian-Slavic
root/origin: Kos (=blackbird).
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Serbian elite and minor nobility has built in the Middle Ages in this region hundreds of
smaller chapels and several dozens of monumental Christian monasteries and churches.
Some of them have been preserved to date, such as Patriarchy of Pe (since 1346 site of the
Serbian Patriarch), Deani, Graanica, Bogorodica Ljevika, Banjska, Sveti Arhaneli near
Prizren and others. Serbian churches and monasteries had been for centuries owners of
great complexes of fertile land. As it is said, Metohija, the name originated from the Greek
word metoh, means church land (administratively, Kosovo province is divided by Serbian
authorities into Kosovo covering the eastern part and Metohija covering the western part).
Highly developed economic life was an integral part of a high level of civilization attained in
the medieval Serbia. The city of Prizren, for example, was a famous economic and
commercial center, with developed silk production, fine crafts, and numerous settlements
where the merchants from Kotor (today in Montenegro) and Dubrovnik (historically
independent
republic) had their
houses, and in the14th c. Prizren was
the site of the
consul from
Dubrovnik for the
whole Serbian
state. And many
other commercial
centers such as
Pritina, Pe, Hoa,Vuitrn, are
testifying the
strength of highly
developed
economic life in
this region. The
region of Kosovo &
Metohija was also
famous in Europe after its very rich silver-mining centers as Trepa, Novo Brdo and
Janjevo, out of which in the 15th c. Novo Brdo had become one of the most importantmining centers of the Balkans and Europe. Mainly silver, but in certain extent and gold,
were exported to the big European centers in great quantities especially during the first half
of the 15th c. However, the Ottoman authorities totally neglected mine exploitation in
Kosovo & Metohija (likewise elsewhere in the Ottoman Empire) and at such a way this very
rich province did not contribute to the economic prosperity of the Ottoman citizens.
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Turkish-Ottoman invasion from the mid-14th c. (1354) means a fatal turning point in the
Balkan and Serbian history during the second half of the 14th c. The military advance of the
Turks towards the Central Europe via the Balkans was a rather slow process. Serbian ruler
prince (known in Serbian epic songs as the emperor) Lazar Hrebeljanovi (1370-1389)
and Serbian nobility in the famous Kosovo Battle on June 28th, 1389 did everything to
stop the Turkish invasion towards the South Eastern Europe. It was not only a clash of two
armies led by their rulers Serbian prince Lazar and Turkish sultan Murat I (1362-1389),
who both are killed during the battle, but also a clash of two civilizations, one Christian-
European and one Islamic-Asiatic. During the Ottoman yoke in Serbian national conscience
the Kosovo Battle has acquired a mythical dimension of a crucial historical event (even
today chronology of Serbian national history is divided into two periods: before and after
the Kosovo Battle), greatly affecting the national identity of the Serbs. The Serbian epic
poetry is very rich and the cycle of poems devoted to Kosovo & Metohija are a pearl of that
treasure and moral and psychological support to Serbian people during the centuries of
slavery under the Turks till the19th c. Kosovo & Metohija have
been longest under the Turkish
lordship in comparison to all other
ethnic and historic Serbian lands
as this region became finally
liberated from the Turks only in
1912. On the opposite side, in
Albanian national epic poetry
there are no examples of devotionto the Kosovo & Metohija land and
history. However, even the
father of Albanian national pride
the feudal lord Georgie Kastriot
Skanderbeg (1405-1468, ruler of
Central Albania from 1443 to
1468) was in fact of Serbian origin. Contrary to Albanian case, in Serbian national poetry we
find such a great number of representatives of Serbian nobility, of Serbian castles and
outstanding Serbian monasteries from Kosovo & Metohija.
The Turkish-Ottoman invasion of the South Eastern Europe including and the Serbian
lands, have not only brought about the fall of Christian civilization, but is also responsible
for the destruction of all social structures, the elimination of the Serbian elite and the
destruction of the most outstanding cultural achievements. One part of Serbian nobility was
killed, one part expelled to Asia, one part took Islam (mainly voluntarily), and one part
managed to emigrate north, west and to across the Adriatic Sea to Italy. Average people (the
peasants) deprived from its national leaders had no option but to stick to the traditional
national values. It is thanks to the Serbian Orthodox Church which managed to revive its
work in 1557 (renewal of the Patriarchy of Pe by thesultans decree), that Serbian people
kept alive the awareness of the mediaeval national state and high achievements of its
civilization. Many mediaeval castles and towns were destroyed, many churches were raised
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to the ground, and even some of them turn into the mosques. For example, at the beginning
of the 17th c., the church of the Holy Angels (Sveti Arhandjeli), where Serbian emperor
Stefan Duan was buried, that was in fact the monumental mausoleum of Emperor Duan,
was totally destroyed, and the stone of which the church was built was used for building the
Sinan-paa mosque, still existing in the city of Prizren today. Bogorodica Ljevika, the
monumental church of King Milutin, in 1756 was turned into the mosque and only after the
WWI it was again restored into the Christian church. Contrary, there is no one example of
conversion of the Muslim mosque into the Christian church in the 20 th c. when the
Christians (Serbs) ruled the province.
Turkish invasion and the consequences of their conflict with Christian Europe, particularly
since the siege of Vienna in 1683, had considerably changed the ethnic and demographic
picture of that part of Serbia. The Orthodox Serbs were the absolute majority population
until the end of the 17th c., and before the First Great Migration of the Serbs in 1690, due to
the defeat of the Christian Europe (the Habsburg army) in the conflict with the Turks andthe participation of the Serbs in that
conflict on the side of the Christian
Europe. After 1690 the Turks have
been settled in Kosovo & Metohijas
towns and cities, but the turning
point in history of Kosovo &
Metohija was the fact that the
Albanians have been coming from
the mountains of Northern Albania
to both (firstly) Metohija and (later)Kosovo. The colonisation of Kosovo
& Metohija by Albanias Albanians
has been continued after 1941 up
today. Surely, until the 18th c. there
are no Albanians in Kosovo &
Metohija in bigger agglomerations. In addition to the newly settled Albanians who were
mostly Muslims, i.e. originally the Christians converted to Islam already in Albania or soon
after settling in Kosovo & Metohija, it was also and the process of Islamization of the Serbs
that brought about great changes in the cultural environment of the province. Many ofIslamized Serbs (the Arbanasi) gradually fused with predominantly Albanian Muslims
and adopted their culture and language. Thus, a great number of today Kosovo Albanians
are in fact of Serbian ethnic origin. The process of Islamization and a change of ethnic
structure of Kosovo & Metohija further continued at the beginning of the second half of the
19th c. when the Turks settled the Cherkeses in this province which at that time enjoyed a
status of a separate Ottoman administrative unit (Kosovo vilayet) but with a bigger
territory in comparison to Kosovo & Metohija are today (including and Northern Macedonia
and parts of present-day South West Serbia). Consequently, due to of all these artificial
demographic changes, but also and due to high birth-rate of Kosovo Albanians, the
Orthodox Serbs decreased for almost 50% of the total population living in Kosovo &
Metohija c. 1900.
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In the second half of the 19th c. and at the beginning of the 20th c. the Serbian middle class
in Prizren, Pe, Pritina and other cities was the main driving force of the urban and
economic development of the province. The newspaper Prizren was published in both in
Serbian and Turkish language. In 1871 the Orthodox Theological School was founded in
Prizren by Sima Igumanov. During the eighties and the nineties of the 19th c. a great number
of new schools, cultural institutions and banks were founded and many of them have been
sponsored by the independent Kingdom of Serbia whose consulate was established in
Pritina.
It was during the WWII, that the most drastic changes in the demographic picture of
Kosovo & Metohija took place. In this region, which became part of Mussolinis and Hitlers
protected Greater Albania from 1941 to 1944 (composed by Albania, Kosovo & Metohija,
Western Macedonia and Eastern Montenegro), the Albanian nationalists got free hands to
terrorize and exterminate the Serbs. Under such pressure no lesser than 100.000 Serbs left
this region. In their empty houses about thesame number of Albanians from Albania are
settled (the Kosovars). Such policy definitely
changed the balance in the Albanian favour.
Thus, the first official census in post-WWII
Yugoslavia (in 1948) showed 199,961 Serbs
(including and Montenegrins) in Kosovo &
Metohija and 498,242 Albanians. Moreover,
the federal National Assembly in Belgrade
issued a special law in 1946 according to which
all expelled Serbs/Montenegrins from theregion during the years of 1941-1944 are
prohibited to return back to their homes under
the official pretext that such move would
provoke tensions between Serbs/Montenegrins
and Albanians in Kosovo & Metohija.
After 1945, as a result of unbelievable demographic explosion (up today the biggest in
Europe) Albanian population in Kosovo doubled till 1971. The official Yugoslav census for
that year shows 916,168 Albanians living in Kosovo & Metohija, while Serb and
Montenegrin (the Montenegrins as a separate nation from the Serbs are declared in 1945)
population reached only to number 259,819. This demographic trend clearly demonstrates
that the theory of Serb repression over Albanians after the WWII is absolutely not correct.
The truth is that the Serbophobic Yugoslav Communist authorities (lead by Austro-
Hungarian Croat Josip Broz Tito who was fighting in 1914 in Austro-Hungarian uniform at
the territory of Serbia) gave favour to the Albanians at the expense of Serbs/Montenegrins
allowing uncontrolled settlement of Albanian immigrants from North Albania and
tolerating different methods of ethnic discrimination over the Serbs/Montenegrins which
made more and more Serbs and Montenegrins leave the province to seek more secured life
in Central Serbia or Montenegro. The new wave of Serbian and Montenegrin exodus fromKosovo & Metohija started after mass Albanian demonstrations in 1968 in the region with a
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requirement to transform Kosovo & Metohija into the new (7th) Yugoslav republic in order
to easily secede the region from Serbia with a final aim to include it into a Greater Albania.
By the 1990s more than 800 settlements in which Serbs lived with Albanians became
ethnically pure Albanian villages. From 1974 (when a new Yugoslav (con)federal
constitution was adopted) Kosovo & Metohija's Albanians got extremely huge political-
national autonomy only formally within Republic of Serbia. However, it became practically
an independent seventh republic within Yugoslav (con)federation having its own president,
government, parliament, Academy of Science, flag, police, territorial defence and school
systems and even a constitution which was in many articles in direct opposition to the
constitution of the Republic of Serbia.
In an attempt to prevent the secession of Kosovo & Metohija after pro-Greater Albanian
demonstrations in this province in the spring 1981 (when Albanians openly required
unification with Albania), Serbian government in the 1990 abolished only Albanian political
autonomy (i.e independence) at Kosovo & Metohija. When the rebels of Albanian classicalterrorist Kosovo Liberation Army (established in 1995 and sponsored by the USA) began
attacks on both Serbian police forces and Serbian civilians in February 1998 the Serbian
government brought the army and stronger
police troops to put the rebellion down. In
the course of the Kosovo War in 1998 and
1999 which ended by the NATO intervention
against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
(Serbia and Montenegro) more than
500.000 Kosovo & Metohija's Albanians, in
order to escape from the NATO bombingand to perform a political refugee show-
programme for the West) fled the province
to Macedonia and Albania. After the war,
despite the international presence, Kosovo
Liberation Army organized persecutions of Serbian, Montenegrin and all other non-
Albanian population with a result that more than 200.000 Serbs and Montenegrins left
Kosovo and Metohija. Only 90.000 Serbs remained living in total isolation, dispersed in
several KFOR protected Serb enclaves. After the self-proclamation of Kosovo state
independence on February 17th
2008 Balkan ethnic Albanians are living in two nationalstates with a great possibility to create in the recent future a united Greater Albania
following the borders from 1941-1944.
By means of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244 (June 1999),
the mandate of the warrant for the effective protection of universal values of the
inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the
human family (which is foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the World) on
the territory of the southern Serbias Autonomous Region of Kosovo & Metohija (in
English known only as Kosovo) after the war against Kosovo Albanian secessionist
terrorists (the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army, established, financed and
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supported by the USA administration) from February 1998 to June 1999 was
given to the United Nations.
Responsibility for protection of human lives, freedom and security in Kosovo &
Metohija was thus transferred to the international public authorities (in fact only
to the NATO): the administration of UNMIK (United Nations Mission in Kosovo),
and the international military forces - (KFOR, Kosovo Forces). Unfortunately, very
soon this responsibility was totally challenged as more than 220.000 ethnic Serbs
and members of other non-Albanian communities were expelled from the region by
local ethnic Albanians. Mostly suffered the Serbs: it left today only 10% of them in
Kosovo & Metohija in comparison to the pre-war situation. Only up to March 2004
c. 120 Christian religious
objects and cultural
monuments were
devastated or destroyed.
The most terrible in the
series of Kosovo Albanian
eruptions of violence
against the Serbs living in
this region was organized
and carried out between
March 17th-19th, 2004,
having all the features ofNazi organized Pogroms.
During the tragic events of
the March Pogrom, in a
destructive assault of tens
of thousands by Kosovo
Albanians led by armed
groups of redressed
Kosovo Liberation Army
(Kosovo Protection
Corpus), a systematic
ethnic cleansing of the
remaining Serbs was
carried out, together with destruction of houses, other property, cultural
monuments and Serbian Orthodox Christian religious sites. However, the
international civil and military forces in the region have been only stunned and
surprised.
The March Pogrom, which resulted in the loss of several dozens of lives, several
hundreds of wounded (including the members of KFOR as well), more than 4.000exiled ethnic Serbs, more than 800 Serbian houses set on fire and 35 destroyed or
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severely damaged Serbian Orthodox Christian churches and cultural monuments,
revealed the real situation in this European region 60 years after the Holocaust
during the Second World War. Unfortunately, the attempts of the Serbs to call
attention to the situation proved to
have been justified in the mostshocking way.
It is thus necessary to reiterate that
ethnic cleansing of the Serbs (and
other non-Albanian population) in the
region by the local Albanians after the
mid-June 1999 means putting into
practice the annihilation of a Serbian
territory of exquisite historic,
spiritual, political and cultural top-level significance in terms of the
Serbian nation, state and the Church,
and its every-day visible
transformation into another Albanian
state in the Balkans with a real wish
and possibility to unify it with a
neighboring motherland Albania. The
main geo-political goal of the First
Albanian Prizren League from June1878 is being brought to its
attainment, including its implications
for the Preshevo valley in South-East
Serbia, Western Macedonia up to
Vardar River, Greek portion of Epirus
province and Eastern Montenegro.
The Albanian national movement, established in accordance with the program of
the First Prizren League in 1878, is keeping on with its terrorist activities up
today. It was before after June 1999 particularly active in the period of Italian and
German Greater Albania from April 1941 to May 1945, when it undertook the
organization of the Albanian Quisling network of agents. During this period of time
c. 100.000 Serbs from Kosovo & Metohija have been expelled from their homes to
addition to extra 200.000 expelled during Croat-run Titoslavia from 1945 to 1980.
The process of articulation of the Albanian secessionist movement in the geo-
political sense continued throughout the post-Second World War period marked
by the rule of Yugoslav-Albanian anti-Serb communist partocracy. The process
became particularly intense and successful in the period between 1968 and 1989.
The entrance of the NATO troops in the region in June 1999 marks the beginning
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of the last stage of the Albanian-planned and carried out Final Solution of the
Serbian question on the territory of Kosovo & Metohija a Cradle of Serbian
nation.
In the light of the main Albanian goal to establish ethnically pure Greater
Albania it is understandable why it is so important to destroy any Serbian
trace in the territory defined by the aspirations. Albanian terrorism has been
developing for more than two centuries. It has the profile of ethnically, i.e. Nazi-
racist style motivated terrorism (like Croat one), marked by excessive animosity
against the Serbs. Its principal features are the following:
1. Repressive measures directed against the Serbian population2. Carrying practical actions to force the Serbs to leave their homes3. Devastation of the Serbian
Orthodox Christianreligious objects and other
cultural monuments
belonging to the Serbian
people and testifying to its
ten centuries long
presence in Kosovo &
Metohija
4. Destruction of thecomplete infrastructureused by the members of
the Serbian community
5. Destruction of Serbiancemeteries
Long standing Muslim
Albanian Nazi-style terror
against the Serbian community
in Kosovo & Metohija is a specific phenomenon with grave consequences not only
for the local Serbs. It became, however, clear that sooner or later it will bringabout severe problems for the whole Europe.
The origins of the endowments of the Serbian Orthodox Church and the heritage
of the Serbian state and nation in Kosovo & Metohija, as well in other Serbian
ethnographic territories, can be traced in historical sources and other relevant
documents since the Early Middle Ages. Unfortunately, throughout the course of
their long history, Serbian religious (and at the same time national) objects have
often been exposed to physical attacks of numerous foreign invaders including and
Albanians who came to the Balkans from the Caucasus Albania via Sicily and
South Italy only in the year of 1043. In the centuries of the Islamic Ottoman rule
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(14551912) over Kosovo & Metohija, both Serbian nation and its cultural
heritage, tangible and intangible, suffered very much by both Turks and especially
(Muslim) Albanians who came to this region from present-day Albania after the
Great Vienna War that is finished in 1699. However, not those sufferings can be
compared to the hardship borne by them since mid-June 1999, when the region ofKosovo & Metohija became turned into the first NATOs established concentration
camp and U.S. 19th c.-style colony in Europe run by both the local Albanians and
their numerous fellows emigrated to Kosovo & Metohija from Albania.
It is in Kosovo & Metohija that the richest group of monuments of religious
endowments bequeathed by the Christian East to the European Christian
civilization can be found. According to the official inventory of protected cultural
properties of the Republic of Serbia, as of 1986 and 1994, more than 300 cultural
properties, belonging to the 1st and the 3rd categories, have been granted
protected status in Kosovo & Metohija. Thereis also a considerable number of properties
having status of recognized heritage, i.e.
preventively protected properties.
A considerable number of cultural properties
in the highest categories mediaeval
monumental heritage in particular
distinctly shows that the Serbian mediaeval
state (early 9th
c.1459), marked by theNemanjisdynasty (11671371), which gave
ten rulers in the course of two centuries,
once (before the Ottoman rule) belonged to
the developed countries of Europe. This is
the heritage that continued the tradition of
the Byzantine architecture: numerous
religious objects and cities (for instance Novo Brdo/Novaberda) were built on
Byzantine foundations, while in some of them elements of Western European
mediaeval architectural styles before all Romanesque were incorporated in a
unique, original manner. The fact that Serbian king Stephen (Stefan) Uro III
Deanski (13211331) dedicated to Christ Pantokrator his great burial church in
the monastery of Deani (in Metohija near Pe), entrusting its construction to the
Franciscan Vito, a member of the order of Friars Minor from Kotor, is an obvious
and respectable example of an unbiast approach. The architecture of Kosovo &
Metohija acquired some specific features owing to the fact that some other Serbian
royal mausolea were built in this region like burial churches of king Uro III
Milutin (12821321) in Banjska and emperor Stefan Duan Mighty (13311355)
in the monastery of Holy Archangels (in Metohija near Prizren) and that the
Patriarchate of Pe, an important religious centre, with church of Holy Apostles,
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was the burial place of the highest prelates of the Serbian Orthodox Church since
the 13th c. (more than 200 years before Columbus discovered America).
It has to be clearly noted that there is no a single Albanian built mediaeval shrine
or profane object on the territory of Kosovo and Metohija for the very historical
reason the Albanians did not live in this region before 1699. Even the term
Kosova used in Albanian language is in fact of Slavic-Serbian original Kosovo
what means nothing in Albanian language but it means a kind of eagle in Serbian
(Kos).
Both Kosovo and Metohija have been the homeland of numerous Serbian
aristocratic families like the Musis, Lazarevis or Brankovis. Their estates are
situated in this region. The greatest portions of Kosovo & Metohijas land, rich in
ores, belonged to Serbian rulers and to Serbian Orthodox Church. The rulers have
been periodically granted to the monasteries vast estates, including villages andshepherds settlements (the so-called katuni), so that the major part of the
present territory of
Kosovo & Metohija was
occupied with church
estates metochies. It
was for that reason that
the western part of this
region got the name of
Greek originMetohija.
In the centuries of the
Ottoman lordship,
Serbian people gathered
around their churches
and monasteries. After
the sudden change of
fortune in the war operations of the Habsburg general Piccolomini, whose military
campaign against the Ottoman Empire (Great Vienna War, 16831699) was
readily supported by the Serbian population of Kosovo & Metohija, c. 100.000 oflocal Serbs were forced to migrate to northern areas, across the rivers of Sava and
Danube in the year of 1690 (The First Great Serbian Migration) in order to escape
retaliation. In the opening decades of the 18th c., the great Ottoman Empire,
together with a policy of mass settlement in the region of loyal Muslim ethnic
Albanians from the neighboring mountainous and poor Albania, began to show
clear signs of political and military weakening. After the First Serbian Uprising
against the Turks (18041813), the Ottoman authorities were compelled to accept
requests of European great powers, and Russia in particular, regarding protection
of the Christian population in the Balkans. When two Serbian states, Serbia andMontenegro, finally managed to liberate Kosovo & Metohija and the whole region of
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Old Serbia (Kosovo, Metohija, Raka and Vardar Macedonia) in 1912/1913, not a
single of the most important monuments of Islamic architecture was destroyed or
desecrated Bayraki mosque in Pe (Metohija), Sinan-pashas mosque in Prizren
(Metohija), built in the 17th c. of stones and fragments of sculptural decoration
brought from the ruins of the monastery of Holy Archangels near Prizren (anendowment of Serbian emperor Duan), the Imperial (Fetih) mosque in Pritina
(Kosovo) or Hadum-mosque in akovica (Metohija).
However, the major part of Serbian Christian religious objects, which despite all
managed to survive centuries of hardship and Muslim Albanian attacks, could not
withstand the latest devastations lasting since mid-June 1999 when NATO troops
occupied the region. Destruction and devastation of Serbian Christian cultural
heritage in Kosovo & Metohija, which in NATOs countries acquires special
treatment, is unprecedented in the whole history of Europe.
The most genocidal action committed by local Albanians under the auspicious by
the NATOs troops in Kosovo & Metohija from the mid-June 1999 was the March
Pogrom from March 17th to March 19th of 2004. These three days and nights of
Albanian vandalism and
ethnic cleansing of non-
Albanians from the region,
primarily the autochthonous
Serbs, in the Nazi
Kristallnacht-style resultedin devastation of 19 cultural
monuments, 6 of which fall
into 1st category churches
from the 14th, 15th and 16th
centuries, and 16 religious
objects without heritage value,
which makes a total of 35 recorded cultural properties and churches of Serb
nation.
Only during the period between 1999 and 2004 (the first 5 years of NATOsoccupation of Kosovo & Metohija), in this region 15 cultural monuments from the
1st category and 23 from the 3rd category have been destroyed, which makes a
total of 38 recorded cultural properties out of much more destroyed Serbian
cultural properties of minor importance. The group of cultural properties at risk ,
i.e. preserved monuments, includes 88 properties: 31 from the 1st and 57 from the
3rd category.
After the March pogrom in 2004, as the most remarkable vandalistic assault of
the Muslim Kosovo Albanian terrorists, the number of devastated most important
cultural properties has reached 21 for the 1st and 36 for the 3rd category, which
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makes a total of 47 monuments and objects (end of March 2004). If we take into
account all the other destroyed cultural properties, as well as ordinary religious
objects, the total surpasses 140 cultural monuments, churches and other
religious objects up to mid-2004.
It is clear that Europe is facing the organized and deliberate destruction of
monuments and religious objects alongside with devastation of private property of
Serbian nation in the cradle of Serbian civilization and history by militant-fanatic
Albanians who took example of Catholic Croat-run genocide against the Serbs
committed three times in the 20th century (1914-1918; 1941-1945 and 1991-1995)
in Croatia, Dalmatia, Slavonia, Srem, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The aim in both
cases was and is to erase any trace of Serbian Orthodox civilization and the
Serbian cultural heritage westward from the Drina River and in Kosovo &
Metohija. The genocide is
accompanied with promotionof totally false historical data,
undue claims to cultural and
historic heritage belonging to
other people and the
changing and renaming of
geographical names and
toponyms. We have not to
forgot that many Kosovo-
Metohija Albanians tookparticipation in ethnic
cleansing of the Serbs from
the Krayina region (Republic
of Serbian Krayina) in Titoist-Tumans Greater Croatia in 1991-1995 as
volunteers or mercenaries in Croatian army or ultra-right party-military
detachments. Some of these Albanians even received the rank of the generals in
the Croatian Army like terrorist and war-criminal Agim Cheku who later became
one of the leading commanders of the Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army and later
the chief-commander of the Kosovo Protection Corps (transformed KLA). Theother KLA top war criminals after the mid-June 1999 took an active part in
political life in the region and one of them, Ramush Haradinaj (a leader of the
Alliance for the Future of Kosovo and deputy-chief-commander of the Kosovo
Protection Corps), even became Prime Minister of Kosova in 2004.
Unfortunately, but not and surprisingly, such a situation in Kosovo & Metohija,
likewise in Croatia, met no adequate response from the international professional
circles coming from the democratic West with the exclusion of Serbian
professionals and institutions from the heritage protection system.
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During the time from the mid-June 1999 up today as the major problems in the
context of protection and preservation of the Serbian Christian Orthodox cultural
heritage in Kosovo & Metohija are:
Access to cultural properties and work on their protection is impossible for
the exiled Serbian experts,
For the most monuments and objects no protection has been provided,
Recommended regimes of protection are not being improved nor
implemented,
Measures of protection are not being put into effect, or, to be more precise,
they are being implemented in a discriminative manner,
Not a single process of rehabilitation of devastated or destroyed Serbian
Christian Orthodox monuments has been initiated,
Supervision by responsible higher rank institutions of the Republic of Serbia
has been precluded,
Vandalization of
cultural properties is
still occurring, but the
offenders have not been
condemned never mind
apprehended,
Disrespect for the
international legal acts,
and
Application of a policy
of double standards
by UNMIK and NATO.
Historically, Serbian Christian Orthodox artistic, cultural and religious heritage of
Kosovo & Metohija (both movable and immovable properties) has been exposed to
the most severe damages and devastation by local Muslim Albanians during the
last 250 years, but particularly after the arrival of the civic UN Mission in Kosovo
(UNMIK) and NATO military occupation of the region under the label of theKosovo Protection Forces (KFOR) in the mid-June 1999. The territory of Kosovo
& Metohija is Serbian centre of cultural, religious and artistic heritage of the
highest value in European context that is, first of all, a testimony of historical
presence of the Serbs, Serbian culture and Serbian civilization. This heritage
belongs to the mankind and is thus worth of protection in accordance with the
principle of the European common heritage. Salvaging and preserving the
Serbian cultural heritage in Kosovo and Metohija is a great challenge and duty to
be undertaken by modern and democratic Europe if it is.
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Yours Sincerely,
Vladislav B. Sotirovic
http://ovsiste.webs.com
May 25th, 2012, Vilnius