Attempted "appropriation" of Our Lady of Ljevis - falsifying history, an attack on the SOC and the Serbs in Kosovo

Falsification and misuse of history, appropriation of Serbian cultural heritage, an attempt to undermine the SOC... Kosovo Online interlocutors assessed the writing of "Koha" and the article in which it is presented that "Our Lady of Ljevis is a temple erected in honor of the goddess Premte, built on the foundations of a pagan Dardanian sanctuary".

Professor Jovanovic also emphasizes the following - "if it's yours, why did you burn it in March 2004?"

Far from being the first time that articles have been created in which Serbian cultural heritage is "appropriated" and transformed into something else, with churches and monasteries transitioning from Orthodox to Catholic, other temples throughout Kosovo have been targeted in addition to Our Lady of Ljevis.

It is also essential not to forget other attempts to rewrite history, such as the case of the memorial plaque for Serbian soldiers in the cemetery in Pristina, where the main role was played by the French Ambassador, Guerot.

Historian Stefan Radojkovic stated that the attempt to present the Church of Our Lady of Ljevis as a temple built in honor of the "goddess Premte" was a brutal falsification, pointing out that this trend of cultural appropriation was not an isolated incident, as such things had happened before and would continue to happen.

Radojkovic says for Kosovo Online that the problem is that the Pristina administration feels quite comfortable in this position and that it is not a matter of misinterpretation but a gross falsification because, he adds, Dardanian ethnic churches do not exist.

"Dardanian ethnic churches do not exist; they are not recorded in history. Of course, Dardania as an Illyrian tribe did exist and is a historical reality of the first centuries of the Balkans, which is not disputed. However, it is problematic when you falsify something. This only supports the thesis that they feel comfortable in the current constellation of international relations and how they reflect on the Balkan Peninsula, specifically the Western Balkans", he stated.

Radojkovic recalled that the Pristina administration had a serious media campaign when the Serbian Orthodox Church published the book "Christian Heritage in Kosovo and Metohija", which does not have an ethnic dimension.

"They reacted when this book, as it is in English and printed in the USA, was found in the office of a high EU official. This just shows that they pay close attention to symbolism, identity, and the identity and cultural appropriation of Kosovo and Metohija, which as a geographical and territorial concept belongs to all peoples living in those areas. It is not an exclusive right of Albanians, Gorani people, Serbs, or anyone else", he added.

As Radojkovic explained what further encouraged the Pristina administration to engage in such actions was that over the past 20 years, authors like Noel Malcolm, Anna Di Lellio, and other scholars had participated in a project of cultural appropriation and often historical falsification.

As he adds, they received a lot of media space, which was supposed to build their credibility.

"In this way, they now further build their attempts, such as the attempt to become a member of UNESCO, which will not happen because if we have any indicators of how they would behave as a member of that organization, this is one of the examples. The Republic of Serbia and the Serbian Orthodox Church must resist these efforts", he emphasized.

Radojkovic notes that fortunately for the Serbs and humanity as a whole, the Serbian Orthodox Church, the Visoki Decani Monastery, and the clergy and monasticism of the Eparchy of Raska and Prizren are more than capable and accustomed to such attempts at appropriation.

He emphasizes that they have proven more than capable of facing this task and that it requires more proactive action from the Republic of Serbia, following the example of the SOC's publication "Christian Heritage in Kosovo and Metohija".

He believes that one way to counter such attempts at rewriting history is for the media to react to them.

"What is more needed is proactive action, where relevant publications are released in English, Russian, Spanish, French, and all world languages, and promoted in diplomatic centers and important global cultural institutions such as UNESCO. The UN is one forum where we could address this, and our scientists dealing with the issue of Kosovo and Metohija should publish in English, which is an increasing trend in our scientific institutions. The conversation about Kosovo and Metohija should be based on reality, not on some projects, in this case, Pristina and its sponsors, trying to promote the independence of Kosovo and Metohija, the independence of the Pristina administration. Instead, we should talk about the ethnic groups living there, and their real needs, talk about 2024, and have other ethnic groups like the Gorani people in focus. They are very interesting from a scientific perspective. We could also promote the position of those ethnic communities that are not in the spotlight and highlight the achievements of scientists dealing with the medieval period", he said.

Radojkovic points out that the problem for the Pristina administration is that between the 4th century AD and the 11th century, there is no inscription or document mentioning any coinage like "Albanian" or "Arbanas", and they struggle to show that the population that should be Christian today is Albanian, not Serbian.

He notes that the Albanians living in Kosovo, who are Catholic Christians and mostly live around Gjakova, lack material evidence to support all these claims.

"What unfortunately works in their favor is that we live in a postmodern time when the spoken or written word is often taken as a fact, and material remains are disregarded. In general, this plays into their hands, given the constellation in international relations where they are favorites of Brussels, Washington, Paris, and Berlin", he adds.

Referring to the case of the Novo Brdo fortress, Radojkovic says that it is also a part of the same puzzle, but thanks to art historians, Novo Brdo is well-researched in a scientific sense and documented.

"There, regarding the scientific community, international, local, regional, there are no doubts; they can hang whatever flags they want, it doesn't matter. What we need to do is strengthen our advocacy campaign for our interests based on facts. We don't need to invent anything; we do not need to invent anything. It's enough for us to testify to the truth, which is not only in records and inscriptions but also in material evidence at Our Lady of Ljevis and Novo Brdo Fortress. That is quite enough, but we must communicate in English and other languages and in a language that the Brussels administration understands", he says.

Radojkovic notes that for the Brussels administration, it is not enough to just translate; it must be presented in a specific format and language.

"We must be aware that this is not a conversation between two art historians or historians and archaeologists but between historians and archaeologists on one side and technocrats and bureaucrats in Brussels on the other. It should be presented, for example, in 20, 30 pages maximum, and it should be a continuous effort that we engage in institutionally and individually, and the SOC does this as a matter of course", Radojkovic concludes.

Historian Stefan Radojkovic stated that the attempt to present the Church of Our Lady of Ljevis as a temple built in honor of the "goddess Premte" was a brutal falsification, pointing out that this trend of cultural appropriation was not an isolated incident, as such things had happened before and would continue to happen.

A history Professor from the University of Pristina with a temporary seat in Kosovska Mitrovica, Luka Jovanovic, stated that all of this was done with the aim of undermining the SOC in Kosovo.

He pointed out the statement from Visoki Decani Monastery, where they had raised the question of whether there was evidence to support the claims.

"Of course, there is no such evidence because such articles and writings can only be found in the media. Surprisingly, Koha is involved, as a media outlet that has published relevant texts, and why they allowed something like this to be written. The question arises as to why something like this cannot be written and published in a scientific journal. Precisely because there is no scientific evidence for it, neither written nor material evidence. What we could see actually needs to be tied to a broader story that we have seen in the past few months, and that is that every church in Kosovo, in one way or another, is connected to the Albanians. We used to have examples where they called certain churches Catholic, and even Albanian Orthodox. What we see today is that they associate it with antiquity, returning to that old story, that they are the only autochthonous ones here and that they are the only masters of everything in Kosovo, including cultural heritage, whether it be Roman, Byzantine, Serbian, Turkish, or Jewish", he emphasizes.

Jovanovic claims that this is a wrong narrative that leads to nothing good.

"The gentleman who wrote that article is an absolutely unknown person. I found it interesting to see that he is from the University of Zagreb, and when we consider that a good number of Albanian historians who were educated there worked in Zagreb for some time and that there, precisely in that Department that dealt with antiquity, was led by the famous Zef Mirdita. He gained a scientific reputation but also used his scientific reputation for Albanian independence and created an indigenous story about Albanians. That story, colloquially, 'holds no water', and today no nation can be associated with some ancient, especially Albanians cannot be associated with Illyrians, Dardanians, and Autariates, nor with many ancient peoples who lived here a few thousand years ago, whom the Romans subdued and incorporated into their state system", Jovanovic adds, recalling that the Illyrians assimilated into the Romans.

He states that the Monastery of Our Lady of Ljevis, like many other temples built by King Milutin, was erected on older foundations.

"It was precisely normal for the peoples who embraced Christianity to transform their pagan temples into Christian ones. However, proving and claiming, as this gentleman claims in the article, that Our Lady of Ljevis was built on the foundations of a Dardanian pagan temple is pointless. The question arises, how do you claim that it is a Dardanian temple, how do you know it is a pagan temple, because maybe another object is in question, and have you conducted archaeological research? We know very well that they haven't. Again, I will emphasize, that such writings and nonsense can only find a place in yellow journalism, never in scientific literature because there is no scientific journal that would publish something like this", Jovanovic claims.

Talking about it and usurping Our Lady of Ljevis, Jovanovic says, serves two purposes.

"The first one is: 'If it's yours, why did you burn it in March 2004?'. Second, one cannot talk about temples being built on the foundations of pagan sanctuaries because that was quite normal. An analogy cannot be drawn that a temple is someone's property if it is built on the foundations of an older culture", Jovanovic emphasizes, drawing a parallel between Notre Dame and a Gallic pagan temple.

Our interlocutor believes that one should react every time cultural heritage, the memory of a people, and its past are threatened.

"We can see that such revisionist intentions have always been present when significant changes were underway. It is extremely indicative to me why they are now attacking the SOC in various ways. It's as if they are looking for a model on how to approach the separation and theft of Serbian churches and monasteries in Kosovo and Metohija. We had examples, of whether to approach from the side of Catholicism, autochthony, Islam, or something else, but a model is still being sought, and the question is what they will present in the end. The world is aware of whose cultural heritage it is, and that is the main problem for the Albanians. Now the narrative needs to be changed and questioned, in order to, as some experts have stated publicly, lead to the breaking of the Eparchy of Raska and Prizren, whether through its division, abolition, or establishment of an independent church. We can see everywhere where the Serbian territory was contentious, they came to the point where the church was the first to be targeted, and, as in the case of Montenegro and North Macedonia, they attacked the church and what the people cared about the most", he said.

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Jovanovic emphasizes that such claims should always be refuted and voices should be raised, but assistance should be sought from UNESCO and other religious communities.

"Absolutely, every time scientific evidence should be presented and questions should be raised about scientific truth and whether there are material, written sources for any scientific claim", Jovanovic concluded.

Historian Marko Markovic assessed for Kosovo Online that this was another form of abusing history for political purposes with the clear goal of presenting Serbian and Christian cultural heritage as Albanian.

"In this case, the attack on our cultural heritage is clear, with a long-term goal, considering everything that has happened in recent months, and I would say even years, it creates a clear picture and a clear goal, not only for Albanian political elites but also for the professional public", Markovic said.

Responding to the "Koha" article, the Visoki Decani Monastery stated that there were no concrete written pieces of evidence "about any Dardanian ethnic churches" and that the text incorrectly represented the history of the church in Prizren, with which Markovic agrees.

"I call on the Albanians who claim otherwise to show written historical sources that confirm their claims, to present the results of archaeological research that confirm their claims, and then, based on historical sources, we can interpret the past of this Christian sanctuary", Markovic said.

Markovic recalls that this is not the first attempt to rewrite Serbian history.

"The goal is clear, what they did during the Ottoman occupation, for example, converting Our Lady of Ljevis into a Friday mosque, colloquially speaking, because prayers of Islamic believers were held there on Fridays, so because of that it is called Friday mosque, today they are looking to abuse that term as if it is something else, which it truly isn't, and the goal is clear, to appropriate this religious and cultural heritage of the Serbs", Markovic said.

Let's remind ourselves that in response to the reporting by "Koha", the Visoki Decani Monastery stated that there were no concrete and written pieces of evidence for such claims and that during Christian holidays, ethnic and religious hatred was being incited.

"Unfortunately, despite positive reporting on Orthodox Christian Christmas in Kosovo and positive Christmas wishes from the main Kosovo political leaders, the news portal Koha, once known for professional journalism, has now become a media outlet that often publishes one-sided, pseudo-historical texts inciting ethnic and religious hatred, especially against the Serbian Orthodox Church. Today, on Christmas itself, Koha published an article that grossly misrepresents the history of the Church of the Our Lady of Ljevis in Prizren, Kosovo", the monastery stated on platform "X".

They recalled that the former church Panagia Eleusa – Church of Our Lady of Ljevis was reconstructed in the 14th century by King Stefan Milutin, who added significant features, giving it its current structure with five domes, which was extensively documented in medieval and modern historical and artistic literature, with an extensive list of sources confirming it.

They emphasized that this church had been converted into a mosque in the 17th century, where it had been used for Muslim prayers on Fridays and was known as the Friday Mosque. (or the Church of Saint Paraskeva - Shen Premte in Albanian) This name suggests that it has no connection with the original name of the church but rather with the mosque. After the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913 and liberation from Ottoman rule, the church was again converted into a church. Many frescoes with Serbian inscriptions were found, and it continues to function as an Orthodox church and the historical seat of Serbian Orthodox bishops in Kosovo.

"Moreover, this church suffered extensive damage during the mass riots by Kosovo Albanians in 2004, when the rioters brought barrels of burning tar, damaging medieval frescoes and the church bell tower. At the same time, all other Orthodox churches in Prizren were burned and desecrated. Most churches have been restored since then. Since the riots, the church, along with other significant Serbian Orthodox objects in Kosovo, has been included on the list of World Heritage in Danger", they added further.