Page 417 - Kosovo Metohija Heritage

MeMORaNDUM
on Kosovo and Metohija
of the Holy Assembly of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church
Bishop Atanasije (Jevtić)
The Church of Christ among the Serbian people, which has shared the fate of its people throughout its historical, cultural and spiritual exis- tence, demonstrates itself even today to be the most reliable witness of
its trials, which are perhaps more dangerous now than ever. These trials are greatest and most tragic in Kosovo and Metohija, the Holy Land of the Ser- bian people. What jerusalem means to the jewish people, that is Kosovo for the Serbs. Moreover, Kosovo, like jerusalem, is not just matter of geography or demography. it is a question of identity: national, spiritual, cultural, Chris- tian and human, i.e. theanthropic, for us Orthodox Christians.
This is why the Serbian Orthodox Church remains at this moment deep- ly concerned about the fate of Kosovo and Metohija, and all human beings who live there, and all Holy Shrines that exist there. This Memorandum is, therefore, an impartial reminder, in a countless series of reminders, of the full truth and justice about Kosovo and Metohija, in the past and the present, and for the sake of the common future of all in Kosovo. We have spoken and written about this many times,1 and this is only the most recent reminder because the question of “resolving the status of Kosovo” is imminent.
The problem of KOSOVO is not of recent origin but is several centuries old. in addition to centuries of Ottoman occupation and Greater albanian expansion, this problem was further compounded by the Nazi occupation (1941–1945), the Communist undemocratic and anti-Serbian government of the past 55 years (1945–1999) and, in the last four years, by euro-american “robust” intervention in the drama of Kosovo and Metohija, which is still ongoing, and which has not only failed to yield any significant improvement but is making an already difficult situation even worse and consequently, the problem of Kosovo threatens to end in unprecedented tragedy for the Ser- bian people and its Church in Kosovo and Metohija.
1 See, for example, Apel za zaštitu Srpskog življa i njegovih Svetinja (appeal for the protection of the Serbian people and its Holy Shrines) from 1982 published in Pravoslav- lje (Orthodoxy), the publication of the Serbian Patriarchate, on May 15, 1982; and the monograph Zadužbine Kosova—Spomenici i znamenja Srpskog naroda (endowments of Kosovo—Monuments and exponents of the Serbian people), Prizren-Belgrade, 1987, 876 pp., where this appeal was also published.
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