Koci: Novoberda Castle in poor condition

The state of this cultural field, according to the Council for Cultural Heritage, is quite serious and in its collapse and is required to find a way out.

Isuf Koci, leader of the Council of Kosovo for Cultural Heritage, said the report of this Council represents a poor status of heredity, which is about to collapse in Kosovo.

“Unfortunately, the status of cultural heritage is not good, one of the facts is that the status of the Novoberda Castle is miserable”, Koci said.

Despite raising funds for cultural heritage, Koci said the situation is miserable. As for this field, there is also the issue of 39 construction companies, which are not licensed for conservation and restoration.

“From 2008 to 2018 budget sharing has gone to cultural heritage from 1m euros to 4m to 5m in 2017, respectively. Unfortunately the state of cultural heritage that we've presented in the report and today it's proving to be not good. Let me start this argument with the Novoberda Fortress. We under the report that we drafted in December, have found that the walls are only beginning to break and the situation is extremely bad”, Koci said.

According to Koci, the failure to respect cultural heritage has been highlighted in the country's Progress Report. Koci said that except the law is not being respected, there is no co-operation with the Department every time it comes to finance.

Vjollca Aliu, head of the Department of Cultural Heritage at the Ministry of Culture, said there has been no violation of the Law for Cultural Heritage, but has acknowledged that the status of the Novoberda Tower is disturbing.

While, as far as companies are concerned, she acknowledged that there are unlicensed companies for restoration and conservation of cultural objects.

As far as companies are concerned, the law has to be said that even the law recognizes the competent institution, the physical and legal persons. Of course there are, there are organizations that have developed activities in the field of conservation and restoration, and they are not licensed, but when the job is done well, no one mentions it, but when something has been seen wrong, however, we all need to be on guard”, Aliu said.

Ismail Kurteshi, chairman of the Commission for Education and Culture, said it is binding to report the situation and laws of cultural heritage, and, as he said on the basis of these reports, the minister and the Council, there is great distribution among themselves.

Kurteshi, has asked Director Vjollca Aliu whether the Council report is legitimate but failed to get an answer.

The report's legislation is said that, those who have brought the report are not legitimate because the board is missing, you now said this document is legitimate because it was drafted until there was a board. Directors, is the report legitimate for ten years since 2008-2018. Yes or No? I can't do yes or no. Then we leave him unanswered. You have to ask questions later, Kurteshi said.

While, Commission member Driton Caushi said the cultural heritage situation is serious based on the Kosovo Council report. However, he expressed surprise that the Ministry of Culture does not recognise the report because it has no legitimacy to the Council, while the ministry itself has participated in drafting the report.

For me, it's disturbing that the last time you said you didn't recognize the report because it was compiled by an institution that's not legitimate, and today you're saying that you've been involved in drafting the report. However, there's a big slide from” here, Chaushi said.

While Kosovo Council for Cultural Heritage leaders acknowledged that they are currently not legitimate, due to the lack of the Board, but, according to them, the ten-year report has been drafted last year.