Petkovic: The authorities in Kosovo refused my visit for Easter

2024-05-03 13:33:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Petkovic: The authorities in Kosovo refused my visit for Easter

Petar Petkovic

The head of the Office for Kosovo in the Serbian Government, Petar Petkovic, said that the authorities in Kosovo have rejected his request to make a visit to Kosovo for Orthodox Easter over the weekend.

According to an announcement from this office, during this visit, Petkovic was scheduled to participate in the midnight liturgy for Easter in the Deçani Monastery, then in the service in the Graçanica Monastery on Easter morning and in a meeting with the young people in the Draganac Monastery.

"Although the visit was exclusively of a religious nature and included exclusively visits to monasteries and holy places of the Serbian Orthodox Church, in the spirit of the biggest holiday for Serbs, without political goals, the authorities in Pristina stopped his visit without any explanation" , said the Office for Kosovo in the Serbian government.

This office said that for more than a year, the Government of the Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, is preventing Petkovi? from visiting the Serbs in Kosovo.

"These prohibitions [of visits] are not groundless, but also represent a direct violation of the Agreement on free movement and official visits, especially when it comes to the chief negotiator in the dialogue from the Serbian side."

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Diaspora of Kosovo has not yet responded to the question sent by Radio Free Europe to confirm or reject the announcement of the Serbian side.

In the past, Kosovo has rejected Petkovic's requests to conduct visits, saying that the rejection was due to "provocative statements".

Meanwhile, in January of this year, Serbia rejected the request for a visit from the Minister of Internal Affairs of Kosovo, Xhelal Sveçla. He had planned to visit the municipalities of Preshevo, Medvegja and Bujanoc, which are inhabited by Albanians.

The issue of official visits between Kosovo and Serbia is regulated through an agreement reached within the dialogue for the normalization of relations, which is mediated by the European Union. These visits must be announced through the liaison officers of Kosovo and Serbia. However, the authorities of the respective countries must authorize them. /REL