The monastery of Deçan registers the ownership of 24 hectares of land

2024-03-20 11:42:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

The monastery of Deçan registers the ownership of 24 hectares of land

Monastery of Deçan. Photo from the archive

The Diocese of Rashka and Prizren of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Kosovo confirmed that the Monastery of Deçan has registered 24 hectares of land in its name in the central Cadastre of Kosovo, in Pristina.

"On the basis of the cadastral extract, we can confirm that the decision of the Constitutional Court of 2016 has been implemented and the Monastery is also recognized in the cadastre as the owner of the disputed land earlier. With this, we can conclude that the long-standing legal process that has developed around 24 hectares of land in the Deçan Monastery has finally been resolved," the announcement on March 20 states.

On March 13, the Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, announced that he had asked the Cadastral Agency to transfer 24 hectares of land on behalf of the Monastery of Deçan. He said that the implementation of the Constitution's decision would be decisive for Kosovo's application for membership in the Council of Europe, during the Parliamentary Assembly of this institution, which will be held in April.

The decision of the Government of Kosovo was criticized by local officials in Deçan and an association of historians in this municipality, who described the decision of the Constitutional Court as unfair.

The land, which was registered as ownership of the Monastery, is located around this monastery, in the cadastre it had been marked as the property of two enterprises "Iliria" and "Apiko" - the first a hotel and the second a honey factory.

The ownership of Deçani Monastery over these 24 hectares of land was confirmed by the Constitutional Court of Kosovo in May 2016.

However, the local authorities of Deçan had not implemented this decision, arguing that this area was taken by force in the 90s, by the regime of the then Serbian leader, Slobodan Milosevic.

Deçani Monastery had earlier told Radio Free Europe that in 1997, 24 of the total 700 hectares of land, which had been taken from it in 1946 by the communist government of Yugoslavia at that time, were returned to the monastery.

The international community had repeatedly asked Kosovo to implement the decision of the Constitutional Court of Kosovo regarding the 24 hectares of land of the Monastery of Deçan./ ??REL