Montenegrin media: Dritan Abazoviqi led the Serbian machine transport action by helicopter

Serbian Mitrovici, Ionanikije, was evacuated yesterday at the Cetinje monastery after being transported from Podgorica by military helicopter along with Patriarch Porfirije. They could not reach Cetinje via land routes, as thousands of protesters for two straight days kept them blocked, setting up barricades.

In the morning, the helicopter landed in the meadow in front of the monastery, where Ionanikije was removed to the throne of St. Peter Montenegrin.

According to Montenegrin media, the Government has unofficially said that military helicopter has been used because it is more modern, faster and safer than other helicopters available to the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Space ahead of the monastery was secured by members of the Montenegrin Police Antiterrorism Unit armed with long arms. They protected Ionichiye and Porphiria with their troops and armor as they entered the monastery surrounded by a police cordon.

B92 writes that according to the media in Montenegro, security service co-ordinator, Deputy Prime Minister Dritan Abazovic, his advisers, Interior Minister Sergey Sekulovic and Police Administration Director Zoran Brdjani directed their transport by helicopter, broadcast the newspaper Express.

Brdjani assistants Dejan Knezevich, Milos Rakonjaq and Dragan Gorovic, as well as the head of the Security Centre, Goran Jokic and his associates were in the meadow as the helicopter landed.

As noted in a video of Serbian “Vecernji novost”, priests at the Certinje monastery sang the song “Ječam <ela”, whose text contains pieces that say “when the army returns to Kosovo”.

The ceremony was preceded by incidents in which, according to official data, seven policemen were injured and dozens of protesters sought medical assistance. Also, 14 people were arrested, among them also the security adviser to Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic, Veselin Veljovovic.

Albanian Dritan Abazovic, deputy prime minister of Montenegro, has supported his proserb chief in approaching Montenegrin citizens' protests against the disgurging of the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Cetinje.

Montenegrin Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokafic said the attack on police was an attack on the state.

In an extraordinary response to the chaotic situation in Cetinje and the disgurging of the new Serbian Orthodox Church, Ionanikije II, Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic said that “alone would allow himself to enter the Cetinje monastery by helicopter”.

“Today in Cetinje, we witnessed the great shame of the Serbian Orthodox Church and the Government of Montenegro, an unprecedented disgrace in the long history of the Montenegrin state, and the same in the history of general Orthodoxy”, the Montenegrin president said.

Commenting on the Montenegrin president's statement of Serbia's aspirations and efforts to subdue Montenegro, Serbia's president, Aleksandar Vuciq, reacted by saying Serbia wants good relations with Montenegro and that he will not allow Djukanovqi to rule Serbia. The head of the Serbian state also told the Montenegrin president that “will continue cleaning”.

We're not going to submit anyone. But, I tell him neither you nor anyone else will be able to rule Serbia, as you have for 30 years. You have ruled this country in all possible ways, through crime, police officials, political officials, those in intelligence structures”, Vuciq said.

We erased those who worked against Serbia. There's more, but they're remains. We'll keep cleaning. You will not conquer Serbia, as you conquered”, Vuciq said.

Recent protests clearly show tensions in Montenegro among residents who defend close ties with Belgrade and patriotic Montenegrins who oppose it.

Montenegro seceded from Serbia in 2006, but its church has not become autocephales and is under the auspices of the Serbian Orthodox Church, which opponents see as a symbol of Serbia's influence in independent Montenegro.

While Yonikije estimated that the move has been politicised and that no one has the right to ask the Serbian Orthodox Church to hold the ceremony elsewhere, Montenegrin protesters consider insults and provocations for the leader of the Orthodox Church to sit on the throne of a monastery where traditionally Montenegrin St. Peter of Cetinje was.