Patriarch Alexy II Officially Supports Serbia

News
25 August 2006, 21:24
Alexy II hopes the Serbian people will not lose their native land in settlement of Kosovo issue (updated)
Moscow, August 25, Interfax - Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and all Russia has expressed hope that the Kosovo issue will be settled justly.’We hope that justice will triumph, that the Serbian people will not be divided further and Serbia will not lose its native sacred land,’ the patriarch said conferring on Friday the Order of St. Sergius of Radonezh upon Nenad Popovic, chairman the Serbian commission of the development of Kosovo and Metohija.The primate of the Russian Church described Kosovo and Metohija as a ‘much-suffering region’, noting, ‘We keep pointing out that no attention is given to the destruction of Orthodox monuments taking place there’. He stressed that for the Serbs to lose Kosovo means ‘to lose their holy places and their history’. The patriarch expressed hope that the negotiations in Vienna would take into account Russia’s position on the Kosovo problem that Kosovo should be granted a broad autonomy within Serbia. Popovic stated in his turn that the socio-economic problems of Kosovo could be settled only if the region was given a broad autonomy within Serbia. ‘Making Kosovo an artificial island is a bad example. It is an experiment with unpredictable consequences for the crisis regions in Europe and Asia’, he said.