The Raška-Prizren Diocese has expressed concern and strongly condemned the statement of Kosovo-Albanian lawyer Tomë V. Gashi, who openly called for the demolition of the Church of Christ the Savior in Pristina. Gashi stated that the church “must be demolished,” claiming it is “on someone else’s land” and was allegedly built during the “occupation,” adding that, in his view, it is unacceptable that the building has stood “for twenty-six years after the war and seventeen years after independence.” The Diocese considers Gashi’s statement a “further radicalization of a long-standing narrative that denies the legitimacy of the Serbian Orthodox Church’s presence in the very center of Pristina.”
Lawyer Gashi, in a Facebook post accompanied by a photo of the church, wrote:
“Enough is enough! This building must be demolished! This building is on someone else’s land! This building was built during the occupation! Unfortunately, we have endured this building for 26 years after liberation and 17 years after independence!”
Church of Christ the Savior
The Church of Christ the Savior, whose construction began in 1990 and was halted in 1998 due to the outbreak of the war in Kosovo and Metohija, has repeatedly been subjected to attacks and attempted bombings. At one point, it was even used as a public toilet. It has also appeared in a music video, and in 2015 its walls were reportedly used as “climbing walls.”
In June 2021, for the first time in 23 years, the church’s feast day was celebrated when Bishop Teodosije of Raška-Prizren conducted a liturgy with a small number of faithful, an event interpreted in Pristina as a provocation.
Protests followed immediately, and graffiti appeared on the church’s unfinished doors reading “Jesus Hates Serbs” and “Symbol of Chauvinism Becomes a Sanctuary, by the Blessing of Albin Kurti.”
The following year, the church feast was not celebrated, reportedly due to intervention by the Kosovo Police, as confirmed at the time by Pristina parish priest Staniša Arsić and later by the Director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija, Petar Petković.
Raška-Prizren Diocese: Gashi’s Call is Not an “Isolated Case”
The Raška-Prizren Diocese stated that Gashi’s words are not merely “an opinion on urban planning,” but:
“They represent a direct call for the destruction of a religious building and, as such, constitute a severe form of hate speech and incitement to intolerance against the Serbian Orthodox Church as a historical religious community and its spiritual and cultural heritage in Kosovo and Metohija.”
According to the Diocese, the Church of Christ the Savior and the land it occupies are properly registered as the property of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Kosovo’s cadastral and land records.
“There is no final court decision that would annul the Church’s property rights, nor any ruling declaring the church an illegal structure. On the contrary, there are court decisions recognizing the Serbian Orthodox Church as the lawful user of this property until all proceedings are concluded.”
In this context, the claim that the church is “on someone else’s land” is not only false, according to the Diocese, but also dangerous.
“It morally justifies the call for demolition and legitimizes the idea that a religious community can be denied the right to worship through the physical destruction of its sanctuary,” the Diocese said.
The call to demolish the church, they added, is not an isolated case, but rather reflects an atmosphere of ethnic intolerance that exists in part of Kosovo’s public sphere and many media outlets.
“Over the past years, certain public figures, including historians and commentators, have publicly advocated for the demolition or ‘repurposing’ of the Church of Christ the Savior, portraying it as a ‘violent’ or ‘illegal’ structure and disputing its status as a place of worship,” the Diocese stated.
The Diocese emphasized that Gashi’s latest statement represents a further radicalization of a long-standing narrative that denies the legitimacy of the Serbian Orthodox Church’s presence in central Pristina.
“Such rhetoric sends the message that, according to this logic, there is no place in Pristina for a visible symbol of the Serbian Orthodox community, and that the mere existence of this church constitutes an ‘injustice’ that must be ‘corrected’ by its removal. In the sensitive post-conflict context of Kosovo and Metohija, where more than 150 Serbian Orthodox churches and monasteries have been destroyed or damaged since 1999 and tens of thousands of Serbs were expelled from their homes, such calls cannot be seen as harmless rhetoric. On the contrary, they directly contribute to a climate in which new attacks on religious sites are increasingly likely and easily ‘justified.’”
Appeals
The Diocese has called on institutions in Kosovo, professional legal associations, civil society organizations, and the international community to clearly and responsibly respond to this latest form of “hate speech.”
“Silence in the face of such statements would be interpreted as tacit approval and would further endanger not only the Church of Christ the Savior but also the principle that all religious communities in Kosovo and Metohija have the right to equal protection, respect, and safety,” the Diocese stated.
“The European Convention on Human Rights, the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, and UNESCO instruments on cultural heritage oblige political authorities to protect religious sites and not tolerate any incitement that could lead to their destruction. The legal and institutional framework in Kosovo, including the mandates of the Ombudsman, the Independent Media Commission, the Kosovo Press Council, and the Office for Good Governance, was formally established to prevent hate speech and protect human rights. Yet repeated public calls for the demolition of the Church of Christ the Savior, now made even by a publicly engaged lawyer, demonstrate how wide the gap between normative obligations and actual practice remains,” the Diocese concluded.
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Source:Kossev.info, Foto: Eparhija – raško prizrenska