Serbia President Aleksandar Vučić has called on the European Union to pressure Kosovo to suspend road construction in the vicinity of a Christian Orthodox monastery in Deçan, Kosovo.
In a press release on Saturday, Vučić stressed that the monastery is imperiled by illegal works for the Kosovo-Montenegro road.
He said he would ask representatives of Kosovo and European mediators to “urgently and permanently suspend construction works” in the protected zone of the monastery of Deçan.
The president announced that Serbia is “ready to form a special team together with the Serbian Orthodox Church to protect our shrines – Serbian and Christian spiritual, cultural and historical heritage” in Kosovo.
Road construction works amount to an attack against Serbia’s heritage, Vučić stated, as well as against the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue .
Vučić called on the EU to pressure Kosovo to stop the works that jeopardize “monuments of the European Christian culture”.
In 2016, Kosovo’s Constitutional Court ruled in favor of the Deçan monastery regarding the ownership of 24 hectares of land around it. Part of the Kosovo-Montenegro road that started construction in 2018 passes through the monastery’s land.
