16.04.2008, 03.12
MOSCOW, April 16 (Itar-Tass) – Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church on Tuesday issued a statement on the situation in Kosovo and Metohija, voicing full support to the position that the Serbian Orthodox Church has taken on the issue of the much-troubled province’s separation from Serbia.
The Russia Church believes in the importance of according assistance to the brotherly people of Serbia that seeks to maintain the country’s unity, the press service of Moscow Patriarchate said in an official report on the Synod statement.
“It would tantamount to a crime to ignore the importance that Kosovo has for the people of Serbia,” it said. “This is not a mere patch of land, which others are trying to deprive the Serbs of. Kosovo has an inseparable link to the historical rise of the Serbian nation and to its national identity.”
The Synod recalled that international presence in Kosovo and Metohija had a much-publicized goal of providing secure conditions of living for all residents there on the condition that Serbia’s territorial integrity would be preserved.
“We have to state today that this provision has been unfulfilled,” the statement said. “It is only logical that people of various nationalities voice condemnation of the attempts to reshape the
political map of Europe arbitrarily. Such scenarios will inevitably bring new suffering to thousands of people.”
The Synod recalled that humankind paid an inordinate price in two World Wars to gain the principles that have been viewed as the foundation for relations between various peoples and countries up to date.Encroachment on these principles can only lead up to wars of everyone against everyone, in which each nation will have the defend itself with any means available to it, the statement said.
The Synod urged Orthodox Christians around the world to pray for delivering the human civilization of that prospect.
