Abbot of monastery Visoki Decani Sava Janjic has said that Pristina’s membership in UNESCO would be very dangerous for the Serb cultural heritage. “It is a very dangerous situation in which the future of our heritage, of our entity and all that we have comes under a big question mark,” said Janjic.
He added he is very worried primarily because the Kosovo government refuses any discussion in the Brussels dialogue, which Serbia requested, wishing to talk in an open dialogue about all issues, including the issue of cultural heritage.
The abbot of Visoki Decani said that claims of Albanians that Visoki Decani are a part of their heritage (that the monastery was built by Albanians) is in the service of politics, populism and does not demonstrate the good will. “Recent draft law on cultural heritage and strategy for cultural heritage, which were drafted by Kosovo Albanians without international representatives, were withdrawn precisely because of their discriminatory nature, because the entire cultural property in Kosovo and Metohija was turned into the property of the government of Kosovo.”
Janjic added there is plenty evidence in the monastery to refute such Albanian claims. “There are so many documents and historical data in Visoki Decani, so that volumes of books could be written, more than about the entire history of the Albanian people. We have a collection of Ottoman manuscripts and ferman (translator’s note: decrees from the time of Ottoman Empire) which is the largest in Kosovo. I think that none of the mosques has such collection of ferman, which from 1506 (during the time of Sultan Bayezid II) guaranteed the monastery’s rights, protection and land.”
