The Holy Hierarchical Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church, at their special meeting held at the Patriarchate on February 17, 2008 brings the following public address for the local and international media regarding the latest events in Kosovo and Metohija:

As the Church has stated countless times in the past also now she states that Kosovo and Metohija was and must remain an integral part of Serbia, in accordance to the United Nations Charter, the Security Council Resolution 1244, as well as all other similar international conventions on human rights and the rights of a people and the protection of internationally recognized borders. Any other decision represents a violation of Divine and human laws, as well as an assault with long ranging consequences, for both the Balkans and all of Europe. All internationally recognized and ratified conventions, not annulled till now by any international act, beginning with the Agreement concluded in 1913, the international resolutions dated 1918 and 1945, to until the UN Security Council Resolution 1244 from 1999, together with the recent acceptance into UN membership of integral Serbia, all confirm that excluding Kosovo and Metohija from Serbia represents a form of violence equal only to the periods of occupations and tyranny, which we hoped definitely belonged to the past of Europe and the world. In this particular case it represents a new legalization of the centuries-old Ottoman tyranny and its impact on the entire region, as well as a repetition of the application of a Fascistic solution (that of Mussolini and Hitler) to the Kosovo question from the time of World War II, when Kosovo and Metohija were annexed to so-called Great Albania, when hundreds of thousands of Orthodox Serbs were expelled from their homes, just like in 1999, with the objective of not having them return, ever.

Having said that, what deeply astonishes us is the fact that, according to the words of one American ambassador, with the now announced illegitimate and illegal recognition from governments of the United States of America, England, Germany, France, Italy, and others, of the self-declared Kosovo independence – Serbia and Montenegro were bombarded in the first place. Therefore, the presumed protection of human and minority rights of bombing by using bomb attack with the code name “Merciful Angel” represented only a preparation for this final violation of justice and the gutting of Serbia’s heart from her bosom.

Thus, considering this proclamation of the independence of Kosovo as illegitimate, a violent act against justice, the Holy Hierarchical Synod and our entire Church, in hopes of a more sooner victory of God’s justice and true human rights, calls upon His Grace Bishop Artemije of Ras and Prizren, his clergy, monastics and the entire Kosovo-Metohija Serbian Orthodox people, as well as others in Kosovo jeopardized by this unjust act, to remain on their homesteads and with their holy sites, preserving peace and confidence in the final victory of God’s justice, having love towards everyone as it is fitting us. May they, in the words of the Apostle Paul, in these difficult times, as they have till now, especially in the Kosovo pain-enduring history, “commend ourselves as ministers of God: in much patience, in tribulations, in needs, in distresses…by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by honor and dishonor” (2 Cor. 6:4-8). Let us always have before our eyes and in our hearts the victorious word of the true God: “Who endures to the end will be saved”.

We await from the United Nations and the Security Council that, in the spirit of their Charter 1244, as well as their international obligations, that they defend and protect this violation of human, religious and the state rights of the Republic of Serbia.