The Kosovo government directed the Kosovo Cadastral Agency to implement the decision of the Constitutional Court on the land of the Visoki Dečani monastery, almost eight years after its adoption, the Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, confirmed today.
Kurti announced the news at today’s 193rd session of the Kosovo government, while speaking about Kosovo’s membership in the Council of Europe.
A condition for the CoE membership
According to him, all top Kosovo officials, including the delegation of the Kosovo Assembly in the Council of Europe parliament, were involved in the difficult process of lobbying for membership.
„No stone was left unturned, and there was no man left with whom we didn’t meet,“ he explained.
After a detailed assessment of the Assembly of the Council of Europe of Kosovo’s requirements for membership, that is, its adherence to democracy, human rights and governance standards of the Kosovo authorities:
„One report stated that Kosovo is a country with a stable cadre of democratic constitutions,“ he says.
The same report, he adds, also listed conditions, such as the implementation of the decision of the Kosovo Constitutional Court on the land of the Visoki Dečani monastery from 2016.
„The report is public and it cannot be changed. We have been made clear that some of the terms given to us are urgent. One thing remains and will not be removed – the implementation of the Constitutional Court for the issue related to the Visoki Dečani monastery. All high-ranking officials of the parliament, including from the Quint member states, gave us options – either to implement the decision of the Constitutional Court and then allow us to move forward for membership, or to remove us from the membership agenda.“
He once again commented on the decision of the Constitutional Court
While pointing out that he still does not like the decision of the Constitutional Court, which he considers it to be „strange and unfair“ and that he will not change his position on it, Kurti said, on the other hand, that the Kosovo government „does not have the means to annul it „.
„I will not change my attitude towards this harmful decision, never,“ he stressed.
On the other hand, Kurti added that a CoE membership would be a historical victory for Kosovo, as it is a step toward membership in other organizations.
Apart from the fact that the Cadastral Agency of Kosovo, as he said, was ordered to implement the decision of the Constitutional Court, the Kosovo Minister of Foreign Affairs also sent a note to the Council of Europe to inform them about the move.
In the next three months, three sessions will be held in the Council of Europe at which the membership of Kosovo will be decided, Kurti announced.
The Diocese has not been informed
Dioece of Raska-Prizren said in a statement for KoSSev that neither the monastery nor the diocese was informed about this latest news.
They added that they will confirm with an official announcement that the decision of the Constitutional Court has been implemented when the competent person from the Church receives the signed and stamped title deed with all the parcels contained in the court’s decision.
What preceded the implementation of the decision
Eight years have passed since the Constitutional Court of Kosovo, after a 16-year-long court process, confirmed the decision to return 24 hectares of land to the Visoki Dečani monastery.
Despite numerous calls of Western ambassadors, the SOC and Eparchy of Raska and Prizren, the municipality of Decane has refused to register the land in the cadastre. Representatives of the central government have not called on the local authorities to fulfill their obligation. On the contrary, on several occasions, including in public interviews, they expressed their disagreement with the decision, questioning its legitimacy, with allegations that the land was allocated to the monastery while Milošević was in office.
However, several Pristina-based media outlets recently reported, citing unofficial information, that the Kosovo government has now allegedly agreed to implement the decision, that is, it expects the local government to do so, as it is a deciding condition for Kosovo’s application for membership in the Council of Europe at the Parliamentary Assembly of that institution in April.
Kosovo submitted a request for membership in the Council of Europe in May 2022.
In its recent report, the CoE criticized Pristina on several points.It specifically requested the implementation of the decision of the Constitutional Court on the return of the land to the Visoki Dečani monastery, but also the formation of the Association of Serb-majority Municipalities.
The Visoki Dečani monastery, on the other hand, told KoSSev that no one from Kosovo institutions contacted them regarding the execution of the decision of the Kosovo Constitutional Court of Kosovo.
They emphasized that they expect the Kosovo institutions to finally do their part of the job as per the law and register the land in the cadastre, and issue a proper title deed to the monastery.
In the meantime, some opposition politicians from Kosovo also reacted, stating that Kosovo’s admission to the Council of Europe is conditional on compliance with the court’s decision on the monastery.
The government spokesman said this morning that he has no information as to whether the monastery land has been registered, adding that he will notify us as soon as he has this information.
Perparim Kryeziu’s reply to KoSSev’s inquiries arrived a few hours before the government session.
Last week, when asked “whether he will agree to support the government’s decision“, the mayor of Dečane, Bashkim Ramosaj, replied that “his views on this matter are well-known“.
Ramosaj has spoken out repeatedly in the past opposing the decision of the Constitutional Court.
For years, Ramosaj also carried out actions directed against the monastery and brotherhood of Visoki Decani.
700 ha of land taken from the monastery in 1946
Seven hundred hectares of land were seized from the Visoki Decani Monastery in 1946. However, the state of Serbia returned 24 hectares to the monastery in 1997. The monastery, when combined with the twenty hectares it previously owned, then owned 55 hectares of land.
This return of 24 hectares was regularly recorded in the cadaster, but since 1999, the local Kosovo authorities do not recognize that this land belongs to the monastery. Although the monastery continues to use the land, municipal authorities are beginning to challenge the ownership of the monasteries over these 24 hectares.
UNMIK then decided that the monastery would continue to use this property until the dispute is settled in court.
In May 2016, after 16 years of wrangling over the ownership of monastery land in the Decani municipality, the Constitutional Court of Kosovo delivered a decision confirming the previous decision of the Constitutional Court from 2012. This affirmed the ownership rights of the Visoki Decani Monastery over the 24 hectares of disputed land.
This decision led to polarizing reactions within Kosovar society, with the most negative responses coming from the leadership of the Decani municipality. They have, until the present day, refused to implement the court’s decision and register the land in the cadaster as monastery property.
Preuzimanje i objavljivanje tekstova sa portala KoSSev nije dozvoljeno bez navođenja izvora. Hvala na poštovanju etike novinarske profesije.
