Kosovo's PM: Protection of religious places is rooted in our tradition

Avdulah Hoti, Hoti — AFP/Armend Nimani | AFP/Armend Nimani

Avdulah Hoti, Kosovo's Prime Minister, said on Monday that the protection of religious and cultural sites was rooted in its tradition and that Kosovars had guarded them as a mosaic of different cultures and religions.

Oglas

His statement followed tensions regarding the building of the road connecting Kosovo and Montenegro but passing through the protected area around the Serb Orthodox Visoki Decani monastery in the west of Kosovo.

Hoti ordered the works on the road to stop and wrote on his Facebook profile that religious and culture diversity in Kosovo was a common value and the memory of the society.

The monks from Decani say they are not against the road, but warn it should not be built in the monastery area.

Sava Janjic, the monastery's elder, invoked the 2014 decision by the then Kosovo's government head by the current President Hashim Thaci, which said the issue should be resolved by the building of a detour outside the monastery's land.

Earlier, the Decani's Mayor Bashkim Ramosaj described Hoti's decision Government decision to stop the works as injustice and an obstacle to his municipality's economic development.

Teme