Pristina Albanian language daily proclaims Serb monasteries are Albanian

KiM-Info Newsletter 23-08-05

Pristina Albanian language daily "Epoka e re" proclaims Serb monasteries are Albanian - Minister Haracija and his pamphlets

KIM Info Service, August 18, 2005

Attempts by some self-proclaimed Albanian historians to proclaim Serbian Orthodox monasteries in Kosovo as Albanian are nothing new. During persistent efforts to aggressively promote a new political and cultural identity in this region, Serbian Orthodox monasteries and other cultural and historical monuments have always been a stumbling block. Perhaps because stone and the images of the saints speak more clearly and convincingly than the nationalistic ideologues of the tragic times in which we live.

A series of articles has been appearing for days now in the Pristina Albanian language daily "Epoka e Re" (close to former KLA circles) under the byline of a certain Faton Mehmetaj which strive to "prove" in the most shameless fashion that not only are Serbian Orthodox monasteries such as the Pec Patriarchate, Gracanica and Visoki Decani in fact Albanian monuments "usurped by the Serbian occupiers" but that the Nemanjic dynasty itself was actually Albanian although later it was proclaimed to be Serb. For the serious and even amateur historian, the theory that the father of St. Sava and founder of the Nemanjic dynasty was not Stefan Nemanja but Stefan NIMANI can only provoke laughter. However, the fact that thus far none of the Albanian intellectuals in Kosovo have reacted to this nonsense and that this "theory" and others like it are being taught in schools and educational institutions is cause for concern, not because anyone in the civilized world will actually believe the stories of Faton Mehmetaj and his mentors at "Epoka e Re" but because articles such as this systematically generate hatred and scorn toward the Serbian people, the Orthodox Church and a culture that presumably has the right to exist in Kosovo regardless of the status the Province may have in the future.

The aforementioned series of articles began to appear on August 2 of this year and every day new chapters are appearing on the pages of "Epoka e Re" with increasingly aggressive titles. This is the same paper, by the way, which only days ago published threats by the local strongman Avdyl Muskolaj against the monks of Decani and KFOR, and is generally well known for its articles lanced with hatred and intolerance. We cannot help but wonder whether Kosovo society and those within it focused on a European future will ever react to such abuses of the press, which is increasingly becoming a tool for public demonization and mud-slinging directed at everything that the civilized world, as well as many honorable Albanians, actually respect? One also cannot help but wonder whether representatives of international institutions which are supposed to prevent the use of hate speech in the press (UNMIK decrees 2000/36 and 2000/37) are going to react to this series of articles written by anonymous and novice journalists?

Let's look at some of the subtitles of articles published in this series entitled "Monuments of Illyrian-Albanian culture forcibly converted to Serbian culture":

1. "Decani Monastery belongs to the Albanian clan of Gashi"
2. "Monasteries converted to Serbian culture take land from the citizens"
3. "Occupiers implement brutal policy of assimilation of Albanians"
4. "Serbian churches built on Albanian churches"
5. "Albanians preserved their language and customs despite occupation"
6. "Decani and surroundings: ancient tradition and culture"
7. "History based on falsified Serbian founding charters"
8. "Decani Monastery privileged to the detriment of Albanians"
9. "Serbian Church supports Ottoman Empire"
10. "Serbian Church has always provoked killing and wounding of Albanians"
11. "Serbian Church - the cradle of anti-Albanian policy"

As one is able to conclude just from the subtitles, this series of articles has nothing to do with the science of history but represents a most blatant example of "hate speech" and calls for the destruction and expulsion of the remaining Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija. While officials of the Kosovo provisional government in Pristina and international administrators in Kosovo struggle to prove that standards are being implemented after all, in everyday life things continue as they were, especially in the proverbially unprofessional local press where apparently anyone can publish anything that occurs to him without any accountability or consequences.

Culture minister's attacks reflect lack of culture

Not long ago in the month of May one of the activities of Kosovo culture minister Astrit Haracija was distributing, without the knowledge of UNMIK chief Soren Jessen-Petersen, his "historical" pamphlet "Monuments of Kosova" in English. When a representative of the Serbian Orthodox Church taking part in a UNESCO meeting noticed that this brochure was being passed out in the UNESCO building itself and brought a sample of it to Petersen, the latter immediately ordered all copies of the pamphlet confiscated. Haracija allegedly later wrote a letter of apology directly to the UNMIK chief but the letter was never made public. International experts in the Ministry of Culture claim they had no idea the brochure was published and bore the seal of the UN mission, no less. Their explanations are rather unconvincing since a publication of this sort cannot be published and taken to Paris in the same plane as the UNMIK chief without someone asking what it was.

This publication, which was published with the seal of UNMIK and the Kosovo institutions, is especially interesting because it does not mention the Serbs at all. Moreover, it describes the existence of monuments "in the Byzantine-Kosovar style", presumably referring to Serbian and Orthodox monasteries and churches where, according to the pamphlet of the Ministry of Culture, "Kosovar Albanian Christians" prayed. To make the whole thing even more paradoxical, the pamphlet was distributed at a UNESCO donors' conference where the need to restore Serbian Orthodox churches in Kosovo and Metohija was openly discussed. In order to illustrate what is in the brochure and to what extent the Kosovo Ministry of Culture is truly ready and competent to responsibly care for the cultural heritage in the Province, we cite the following passage (p. 8):

"In the old treasury of Albanian history, of culture and art respectively, Kosovars reflect the architectural realizations of Illyrian systems of fortified dwelling places, for example those found in hills and those in flat areas realized during the iron age. Evidence of these is also found from the antique-Dardan period, during Roman Empire, roman-Byzantine, Byzantine, Nemanjid and Ottoman. Also this Kosovar wealth consists of some sacred constructions of paleochristian time, churches that were built and used by BChristian Illyrian-Arberor-Albanian population during the IV-VI centuries. A number of these objects as ruins still exist in the territory of Kosova. Also some monasteries exist, churches of Byzantine-Kosovar style, eclectic churches of Byzantine style and roman-gothic style, monumental construction built mainly on the grounds of paleochristian objects that were constructed during the period of the Nemanjid Empire in Kosova during XIV century.These churches were used by Kosovar Albanian Christians."

The wording of this extremely illiterate pamphlet, which was published with an introduction by and over the signature of current Kosovo minister of culture Astrit Haracija, does not differ from the writing of Faton Mehmetaj, Carrabregu and heaven knows how many other novice "historians" who received their diplomas overnight without the most rudimentary academic qualifications. Reading these fairy tales and fables, one can glean numerous spicy details, e.g. that Aristotle was Albanian, that Alexander the Great was of Albanian origin and through him numerous Hellenistic rulers, including Cleopatra, that the Serbs practically never lived in Kosovo, except as occupiers who "descended from the mountains to destroy Albanian culture, churches and monasteries, converting them into their own". In keeping with the folk adage, "The old woman dreams of that which she holds dear," the writers of this pamphlet, apparently, are deeply convinced that what they write is true although their story is unsupported by a single shred of evidence. Perhaps one day we will learn that Adam and Eve were, in fact, Illyrians, although that would mean that the entire human race, not just the select heirs of the Illyrians, the Albanians, would be the heirs of the entire legacy of humanity.

This whole story of novice reporters and even more illiterate ministers might even be an amusing joke if such theories and "learning" did not represent the dominant position regarding the identity of the cultural heritage in Kosovo. With the intent of forming a separate and independent political identity for the Province in the process of "turbo nation-building" it is obviously necessary to reassess history and completely destroy all traces of the existence of non-Albanian peoples and cultures. Participants in this process do not include only the ill-intentioned individuals who welcome the opportunity to publish their daydreams in the "yellow" press but official Kosovo institutions which enjoy the support of the international community. Presumably what the destroyers of churches, cemeteries and other monuments have left intact now needs to be finished off by ministers, reporters and school professors.

A simple and logical question to emerge from this would be: If all the old medieval churches in Kosovo and Metohija are Albanian, why were they systematically destroyed and desecrated by the Albanians themselves during this post-war period of internationally guaranteed "peace" without a single eminent Albanian intellectual raising his voice against the destruction of the cultural monuments for which Kosovo is know throughout the world? In just the past six years of international "peace" 150 Orthodox holy shrines have been destroyed, not just what Kosovo president Ibrahim Rugova likes to call the more recent "political churches" but numerous centuries old edifices, among them the exquisite medieval churches in Prizren which were barbarically devastated in just one night during last year's March pogrom.

Hence emerges yet again another serious question: To what extent is the survival of the Serbian people and its cultural heritage as a whole possible in this region if the forming of an extremely anachronistic territorial creation where anyone can raze and burn at will, retailor and reshape everything that has been created during past centuries at will and without obstruction? Will that which was not successfully accomplished under the swastika of Greater Albania in 1941 or during the war in 1999 be consciously left to be destroyed despite the international presence in this region? We also wonder whether the appropriate institutions in Serbia will finally start to treat the issue of Kosovo more seriously, not as something that can be resolved by simply transferring responsibility to international representatives. Much more accountability and engagement is necessary at all levels, especially among the resigned Serbian intelligentsia, in order to put a stop to the grand theft of Serbian Orthodox identity, name and memory in the region where our people have left their greatest and most glorious medieval monuments.

By Fr. Sava Janjic