Dacic: Greece assures us that they will not recognize Kosovo

Representatives of both the government and the opposition, as well as the archbishop, all say that Greece will not recognize the unilaterally declared independence of Kosovo. It is up to us to keep the topic active at all times - president of the National Assembly of Serbia said while in Athens

President of the National Assembly of Serbia Ivica Dacic used his visit to Athens to have bilateral meetings with his Greek counterpart Konstantinos Tasoulas, Archbishop Ieronymos II of Athens and former prime minister of Greece, now opposition leader Alexis Tsipras, who confirmed that Greece will not recognize Kosovo's independence, Tanjug is reporting.

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"Both representatives of the government, the speaker of the parliament, the opposition leader, the archbishop, they are all saying the same thing, and that is that Greece will not recognize the unilaterally declared independence of Kosovo. It is up to us to keep this topic active, that is, to ask that kind of question because it is of great importance to us," said Dacic.

The president of the Serbian Assmebly, who is participating in the conference of parliament speakers in Athens organized by the Council of Europe, said that Archbishop Ieronymos is a very important person not only in the Orthodox world, but also in the social life of Greece.

"In an open conversation, Archbishop Ieronymos told me that he believes that Kosovo Polje (literally "Field of Kosovo," the site of Serbians' 1389 battle against Turks), as Kosovo and Metohija is knownin Greece, is as important for the Serbs as the Acropolis is for Greeks," said Dacic.

He added that the archbishop assured him that the position of Greece, at least as far as the Orthodox Church is concerned, is very stable on the issue of Kosovo.

Speaking about the meeting with President of the Hellenic Parliament Tasoulas, Dacic said that they agreed that his Greek colleague would visit Serbia by the end of the year, because it is necessary to hold a joint session of two commissions set up for cooperation between the Serbian and Greek parliaments.

Referring to his meeting with Tsipras, now the head of the opposition, Dacic said that he is a great friend of his and a friend of President Aleksandar Vucic, and added that they had good cooperation with him while he was prime minister.

(Telegraf.rs)