Office for Kosovo and Metohija
Government of the Republic of Serbia

Dačić: Kosovo membership in UNESCO would be like accepting ISIL, no difference there

Admission of Kosovo to UNESCO would be a self-destructive decision for this organization, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Ivica Dacic stated today, adding that it would be as absurd as proposing the Islamic State as a member of UNESCO.

“Four of our holy shrines in Kosovo and Metohija have been listed as the world cultural heritage sites, namely, the Visoki Dečani Monastery, Patriarchate of Peć, Gracanica Monastery and the Cathedral Church of Our Mother of Ljeviška (Lyevish), and UNESCO declared them as world cultural heritage sites in danger. And who is endangering them? It would be as if someone suggested the Islamic state for membership in UNESCO. What's the difference? ", Dačić said at his regular press conference.

He pointed out that Albania placed the admission of Kosovo to UNESCO on the agenda outside the standard procedures, and that the voting in the Executive Council of UNESCO is by majority.

“Thirty-two members of the UNESCO Executive Council, out of total of 58, have recognized the so-called Kosovo, which means that we will be faced with a tough struggle in order to protect our interests. Everyone we spoke to in the world about UNESCO and our cultural and religious patrimony in Kosovo and Metohija agrees with our argumentation. However, there is a huge difference between granting oral consent and taking part in formal decision making, recalling that those countries have recognized the UDI of Kosovo“, said Dačić.

The UNESCO EC session about placing this issue on agenda should start on October 12, and the decision should be on the agenda of the UNESCO General Assembly on October 21, where the decision is made by two-thirds majority.

„Our position is that this should not be discussed before it is tackled in the Brussels framework, since we have insisted from the very beginning to make it a topic of the dialogue. We therefore hold that deciding on this issue based on Priština's unilateral move and by means of outvoting, would be detrimental to the further course of the Belgrade-Priština dialogue,“ Dačić underscored.

Serbian Foreign Minister stressed that, since the deployment of KFOR in Kosovo and Metohija, over 200 churches, monasteries and other religious and cultural sites have been destroyed, demolished by dynamite, while 8,000 that tombstones have been torched and destroyed.

"We will fight to the best of our powers and will make use of all diplomatic means to preclude the admission of the so-called Kosovo to UNESCO," he concluded.