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Christmas opportunity for reconciliation in the Balkans
Visoki Decani,
7 January 2010
Serbian President Boris Tadic said today at the Visoki Decani Monastery in Kosovo-Metohija that Christmas is an opportunity for reconciliation at the individual and collective level for the people of the Balkans, in the interest of a joint future.
Author:
Tanjug
Tadic, who attended a Christmas service at the Monastery, said that he wishes to send out a message of peace to all, including the Albanians and other peoples in the Balkans who were in the past divided and at war with each other.
Today is the holiday of peace and this is a day which is always an opportunity to send out a message of peace, particularly in Kosovo-Metohija, where people need to reconcile with each other and come together to find a solution for the troubles and problems that have resulted from the past, because undoubtedly a common future awaits us, said the Serbian President.
He said that it is necessary to unite in the name of shared values and joint aims and that the Serbian Orthodox Church has a huge and important role to play in this regard.
Tadic expressed his gratitude to all the monks and abbots of the Monastery for the efforts being made by the Church to restore human rights and to safeguard Serbian national identity.
Nations cannot exist without a sense of identity, just as individuals cannot exist without a name. We want to preserve our identity, to unite it with the identities of other European nations in the name of shared values, just as this Monastery represents joint values and cultural traditions, said the President.
He said that Serbia is seeking its place among other European countries and wants its rightful place as a nation to be recognised.
The Serbian people want their rights to be validated in Kosovo-Metohija, as they do wherever they live, said Tadic at the Christmas morning service which he attended in the company of hundreds of people from all over Kosovo-Metohija and children from the village of Osojane.
Abbot Teodosije of the Visoki Decani Monastery said after the service that the President’s visit shows his deep love for the Monastery and for all Serbian holy sites in Kosovo-Metohija and for the Church and for its followers who are facing grave troubles today in Kosovo-Metohija.
Today is the holiday of peace and this is a day which is always an opportunity to send out a message of peace, particularly in Kosovo-Metohija, where people need to reconcile with each other and come together to find a solution for the troubles and problems that have resulted from the past, because undoubtedly a common future awaits us, said the Serbian President.
He said that it is necessary to unite in the name of shared values and joint aims and that the Serbian Orthodox Church has a huge and important role to play in this regard.
Tadic expressed his gratitude to all the monks and abbots of the Monastery for the efforts being made by the Church to restore human rights and to safeguard Serbian national identity.
Nations cannot exist without a sense of identity, just as individuals cannot exist without a name. We want to preserve our identity, to unite it with the identities of other European nations in the name of shared values, just as this Monastery represents joint values and cultural traditions, said the President.
He said that Serbia is seeking its place among other European countries and wants its rightful place as a nation to be recognised.
The Serbian people want their rights to be validated in Kosovo-Metohija, as they do wherever they live, said Tadic at the Christmas morning service which he attended in the company of hundreds of people from all over Kosovo-Metohija and children from the village of Osojane.
Abbot Teodosije of the Visoki Decani Monastery said after the service that the President’s visit shows his deep love for the Monastery and for all Serbian holy sites in Kosovo-Metohija and for the Church and for its followers who are facing grave troubles today in Kosovo-Metohija.
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