Serbian Ministry of Culture: We strongly condemn the latest attempt to appropriate Serbian cultural heritage in Kosovo and Metohija

The Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia strongly condemned the statement by the Archaeological Museum in Pec that the Patriarchate of Pec “represents a complex of original pre-Romanesque and Byzantine churches that were systematically transformed into Raska-Serbian Orthodox churches”, assessing for Kosovo Online that this is the latest example of an attempt to appropriate Serbian cultural heritage through the most bizarre falsification of history.

“As if it were not enough that the Patriarchate of Pec is on the UNESCO World Heritage List as a masterpiece of Serbian-Byzantine architecture, as if it were not enough that it was built by Serbian archbishops over the course of a century, as if it were not enough that it is the seat of the Serbian Orthodox Church, where its Patriarchate was established, as if it were not enough that it was founded in the mid 13th century as the seat of Serbian archbishops even before the Patriarchate and as the burial place of several archbishops, as if it were not enough that it was burned by Albanian extremists in 1981,” the written response to our portal states.

They add that despite all of this, and in the absence of any cultural heritage of their own, Albanian “institutions” do not hesitate to appropriate Serbian heritage.

“Amid a multitude of fabrications, falsifications, fantasies, manipulations, and cynical lies that Serbs appropriated their own cultural heritage (!?), perhaps the most sinister is the message ‘that this initiative should serve as an example and encouragement for other schools’. Thus, those who should be teaching truth and cultural values are instead meant to serve as an example and encouragement for falsifying history and stealing cultural heritage,” the Ministry stated.

They emphasize that this clearly shows not only that Albanian extremism does not shy away from blatant appropriation and outright falsehoods in order to claim Serbian cultural heritage, but also that it seeks to involve institutions that are supposed to deal with education.

“That is precisely why this example is at the same time horrifying and tragic. The monstrosity of this act lies not only in using educational institutions to implant falsehoods into children’s minds, but even more in the fact that such falsifications have often been a prelude to widespread violence against the Serbian people, not only against Serbian cultural heritage and culture as a whole. Therefore, such an ‘example and encouragement’ is a grotesque image of the abuse of youth and childhood in the service of creating a false state based on false history and on Serbian cultural heritage. For that reason, the Ministry of Culture will continue to oppose the destruction of civilizational values, especially such alarming examples, everywhere, in the name of protecting Serbian cultural heritage, protecting historical truth, and defending universal human values,” the Ministry of Culture of Serbia concluded.

Students of the “Rifat Gjota” Technical High School yesterday visited the Patriarchate of Pec, organized by the Archaeological Museum in Pec, which was presented in the museum’s social media statement as a “complex of original pre-Romanesque and Byzantine churches that were systematically transformed into Raska-Serbian Orthodox churches”.

On this occasion, journalist and writer from Gracanica Zivojin Rakocevic also reacted, describing the claims of the Museum in Peja as a scientific, practical, and public absurdity.