Kosovo awaiting response from U NESTO for its four monuments

Decani Monastery, Patriarchana of Peja, Gracanica Monastery and St. Premte Church in Prizren are the four monuments that are listed on the WW World Heritage List NESTO.

Kosovo is not a member of U NESTO is in trouble to seek the introduction or change the status of any of its monuments. All four religious Orthodox objects are registered in U NESTO at Serbia's request. However, those in the world's highest heritage body are registered as religious Orthodox monuments.

In 2015 Kosovo has not succeeded in membership in U NESTO, following a severe lobby of Serbia and its allies against that membership.

Kosovo institutions request for U n NESCO, sent on 21 May, has been signed by Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani, Prime Minister Albin Kurti and Assembly Speaker Glauk Konjufca, with the argument that the “security circumstances in Kosovo have completely changed since the distant 2006 year, when these monuments have been assessed as endangered”.

Regarding changing circumstances mentioned in the letter sent U n NESCO of Kosovo's institutional leaders, Kosovo Government spokesman Progress Kryeziu, has told Radio Free Europe that this is based on the fact that, according to him, “at least, a decade no serious incident was reported in Orthodox churches”.

Our <x0 security institutions, in co-operation with KFOR troops, have offered protection and security for Orthodox churches in Kosovo for years. In recent years, this responsibility has been attributed to the Kosovo Police, which owns specific units that care and will continue to care for these monuments. The Government of Kosovo's dedication to the protection of all of Kosovo's cultural heritage, Prime Minister Kurti has confirmed it even through a letter to world leaders”, Kryeziu has said.

List of monuments endangered by 2006

With the World Heritage Committee's decision from 2004 to 2006, U n NESTO placed on the list of endangered monuments the Decani Monastery, Pec Patriarchate, Gracanica Monastery and St. Friday Church in Prizren, due to difficulties for managing and preserving them, which, according to U. NESTO, stemming from the region's political instability.

U n NESTO has recognised these four Orthodox religious objects as medieval monuments in Kosovo two years after the riots that had occurred in Kosovo in March 2004, with which a number of Orthodox religious objects had been damaged.

At the time, the World Heritage Committee had demanded that the state side, Serbia, work with U programmes. NESCO, with the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) and what this committee called Kosovo's Interim Institutions of Self-Government to care for monuments.

Four Orthodox religious objects have been named as reflecting the high points of Byzantine-Roman church culture that took place in the Balkans between the 13th and 17th centuries in the particular style of painting on the wall. As described, Patrickna of the Peja Monastery is a group of four dome churches on the outskirts of Pec, where a series of mural paintings are shown. The frescoes of the Church of Holy Apostles of the 13th century were painted in a unique, monumentic style.

Early 14th century frescoes at the Church of St. Friday represent the new style of so-called Palaiologian Renaissance, combining the effects of Eastern Byzantine and Western Roman Orthodox traditions. Style played a crucial role in the following Balkan art.

How does a monument get into the risk “list?

Cultural heritage monuments enter the list of endangered “monments” following the U decision NESTO, which precedes a preliminary list that compiles the World Heritage Committee with the objects or monuments this committee considers the “at risk”.

The list of endangered cultural monuments “has been created to show the international community about conditions threatening a monument, as well as encouraging governments to take measures to protect those monuments.

For example, accessing the endangered “list of” of a monument would enable the World Heritage Committee to allocate funds to help protect that monument. It will also alert the international community, which may contribute funds or technical expertise to saving a endangered country.

If a monument loses the characteristics that set out its description on the World Heritage List, it can be erased from both the World Heritage List at risk and the main World Heritage List. Until today, this has only happened twice.

U n NCO without investments in endangered “monuments”?

Enver Rexha, director of the Kosovo Archaeological Institute, in a conversation with Radio Free Europe, estimates that leaving the list of endangered U monuments NESTO, of four Orthodox religious objects, is important for Kosovo, because on this list they are applied, according to him, Serbia's political.

Such demand, he says, occurred after the March riots in 2004. As he says, there have been claims by Serbia that these monuments will be registered as Serbian Orthodox monuments.

But, according to him, this has not happened because of reactions from then-administration institutions that have managed Kosovo, reactions from other states, as well as from France itself, as a host of U. NESTO. As a result, these monuments are recorded only as Orthodox monuments.

“These Orthodox monuments have been attacked politically (in 2004, but the institutions have not. It has to be this way. These political reasonings sought by our neighbouring state, Serbia, in that sense are political and are not real. We must testify to institutions of the state and the responsible institution, the Ministry of Culture and others that we are prepared to testify strongly that we stand up for them, on the basis of the Law for Cultural Heritage and other norms”, Rexha stressed.

Rex says U NESTO, in the past three years has been working and continuing to work with Kosovo institutions, but according to him, there has been no investment in the four monuments it has on the endangered “list.

“U n NESTO has worked with Kosovo institutions at the Novoberda Castle. It's an ongoing process. But, regarding the issue of risklessness (for the four Orthodox monuments), it means, in that sense, no direct funds have been allocated for these four monuments in order to prove that they are at risk. As far as I know, such a report does not exist from our institutions or from international ones”, Rexja stressed.

Radio Free Europe has sent questions to U NESTO's 28 May, in terms of investing in these four monuments, which are on its list of endangered “monuments”. But no answers have been accepted until the publication of this article.