BELGRADE - Marko Djuric, director of the Serbian government's Office for Kosovo-Metohija, condemned on Sunday the attacks on property of members of the Albanian minority in Serbia that took place over the last few days in several cities in Serbia following the incident at the football match between Serbia and Albania.

Djuric urged the authorities to find and punish those who vandalized shops and bakeries owned by ethic Albanians, who are "honest and loyal citizens of our state, our good neighbors, friends and acquaintances," the Office released in a statement.
"They, just as we, have no other home but our Serbia, and therefore we need to live together in peace and harmony, cherish unity and respect differences," Djuric said.

At the same time he expressed great concern for the safety of Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija, who have already been subjected to provocations and pressures, and who could be further threatened after the incidents at the match.
“I call on all citizens of the Republic of Serbia for peace and tolerance and to do all in order to continue the trend of normalization relations, which would contribute to eradication of extremism and religious and ethnic intolerance in the region," Djuric said.

The match between Serbia and Albania in Belgrade on October 14 was abandoned after a brawl that followed the appearance of a drone with a map depicting the so called Greater Albania, a nationalist project that would include parts of Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia and Greece.

Serbian officials stated that this is a serious political provocation and an attempt to cause unrest in Serbia and instability in the region.

Not a single official in Pristina and Tirana condemned this provocation. On the contrary, Albanian footballers were welcomed as heroes; Albanians in the region celebrated the incident as a national victory and the mayor of Tirana immediately awarded them the city's top honor.

This was followed by a series of provocations and attacks in the region - in which the target of Albanian nationalists and extremists were bars and shops in Kosovo-Metohija, southern part of central Serbia and even in Vienna. Moreover, ethnic Greeks in Albania were also subjected to attacks.

During the next two days, the attacks were carried out on several bakeries and restaurants whose owners are Albanians in the Serbian province of Vojvodina, while the windows of the Albanian Embassy in Podgorica, Montenegro, were smashed.