"Expression of greatest primitivism and aggression": Petkovic speaks after desecration of a church in Pristina

Photo: Tanjug/Milos Milivojevic

"The Serb people in Kosovo and Metohija are exposed to provocations, disenfranchisement and violence every day, but some of those attacks have become a symbol of the suffering of our people, and the Church of Christ the Savior in Pristina is certainly one of the saddest symbols of the tormenting of the Serbs," the director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija, Petar Petkovic, said commenting on Thursday's desecration of that Serbian Orthodox church in Pristina.

Petkovic stressed that after it was used as a set for filming videos, a garbage dump and a public toilet, and as a billboard for writing hateful messages directed at Serbs, now it has become a flagpole for the Albanian flag.

"While Pristina is trying in every way it can to present itself as some kind of oasis of peace, right in the very center of that same Pristina, a temple of the Serbian Orthodox Church is being desecrated in the most shameless way, thus spitting in the face of the entire Serb people. As long as such things are happening, it is unnecessary to talk about any kind of reconciliation, coexistence and civil society in Kosovo and Metohija," added Petkovic.

He stressed that the destruction of other people's holy places is an expression of the greatest primitivism and aggression, and that history teaches us this in a tragic way. Petkovic noted that where other people's places of worship were burned and destroyed, not long after those people who prayed in them were burned and destroyed too.

"That is why we demand from the political decision-makers in Pristina as well as from the representatives of the international community on the ground not to turn a blind eye to such incidents, because they are not only terrible in themselves, but also represent an announcement of even more terrible crimes and accidents. Without pointing fingers at anyone, we only ask to ensure that the symbols of the Serb existence in Kosovo and Metohija - our churches, monasteries and historical sites - are, if not respected, then at least protected from the attacks carried out by extremists and vandals," he concluded.

(Telegraf.rs)