Bishop Irinej of Backa: Honor Your Own Laws
Honor Your Own Laws for a Change
NOVI SAD, Serbia, Jan. 08, 2007 — Bishop of Backa Irinej (Bulovic) has said that giving a state to the Albanian Muslim minority in Serbian Kosovo-Metohija province would represent a violation of the basic principles of ethics, justice and man-made laws ruling the international relations.
“While no one denies that Albanian Muslims represent a majority in the southern Serbian province today, it is important to question the way they have managed to achieve the ‘majority’ in that part of Serbia — since Vidovdan in 1389 up to the present day,” the Bishop said in an interview for the Novi Sad Apolo TV.
Otherwise, Five Million of Ethnic Turks in Germany Should Also be Given a New State There
Nevertheless, said Bishop, Albanian Muslims remain a minority in Serbian state. The issue Serbian Kosovo-Metohija province faces is nothing new or special, because there are a number of countries in the world where ethnic minorities represent a majority in some part of the country they inhabit. This is the case with South Tirol in Italy, for example. There are five million Turkish Muslims living in Germany for generations and they are not allowed to become a constituent nation, let alone to secede part of German state and form another Turkey on the German territory, the Bishop of Backa underscored, adding that the idea of creating ethnically pure states and divisions along the ethnic/religious lines is absurd, even morbid.
“To give a state to a national minority, regardless how big, on the sovereign territory of another state, would represent the gravest violation of all the principles of the international law the world is guided by. Serbian nation, including all of its government representatives will never accept such a ‘solution.’ That would be a kind of precedent even those who are advocating it for Kosovo-Metohija province would never accept on the territories of their own states,” said Serbian Bishop.
Serbian State in Kosovo-Metohija Province Over a Thousand Years Old
“Certain big powers, with the United Stated at the head, are trying to resolve the issue of the Serbian province in a way which is the easiest for them, but the most painful and unacceptable to us. In the south of the United States, Latin Americans represent a majority, but no one is offering them a state, even though that land was taken from them as a war boon. Here, however, Albanian statehood is something that never existed on the territory of Serbian Kosovo-Metohija, while the state of Serbia on the soil of Kosovo-Metohija province has lasted for over a thousand years now,” the Bishop said.
Bishop Irinej added he was encouraged by the Russian stance of being prepared to veto the UN Security Council decision in case it paves the way for secession of the Serbian province.
“This is not merely a reflection of our Eastern Orthodox, Slavic ‘solidarity,’ but the issue of basic justice and of some measure of ethics and common decency in the international relations. Russians are simply saying that the international law and order either exist and apply to all equally, or such thing doesn’t exist and everyone follows their own state interests,” concluded Bishop Irinej, emphasizing his hopes that the security zones around the remaining Serbian churches and monasteries in Kosovo-Metohija province will be widened and made safer for Christians in Kosovo.
Cartoon by Toso Borkovic