SRPSKA PRAVOSLAVNA CRKVA IZMEĐU OKONČANOG PROCESA DISOLUCIJE JUGOSLAVIJE I EVROPSKIH INTEGRACIJA

Đukanović Dragan (Институт за међународну политику и привреду, Београд), dragandjuk@yahoo.com

In this paper, the author points to the relationship of the Serbian Orthodox Church towards the course of the crisis that followed after the dissolution of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. In the period immediately before the outbreak of the conflict in the former Yugoslav Federation, the Serbian Orthodox Church had represented an important cohesive factor of the growing new Serbian nationalism after the years of its marginalized role. However, during the later phase of the conflict, especially after 1991, its influence was evidently weakening in spite of certain statements of its senior clergy, who did not support the settlement of the situation in the region and arrangements achieved in this respect (the Dayton Peace Agreement, Erdut Agreement, etc.). The property and clergy of the Serbian Orthodox Church remained often unprotected in some parts of Croatia as well as in the Bosniak-Croat entity of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and especially in Kosovo after 1999. In the forthcoming period, certainly one of the most significant topics in the negotiations between the authorities in Belgrade and Priština will be the protection of property as well as the regulation of the position of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Kosovo. Although the Athisaari Plan (2007) stipulated the establishment of certain protective zones around the monasteries and churches of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Kosovo, many problems occurred in practice. In early 2013, a special unit was formed within the Kosovo Police aimed at protecting historic-cultural monuments in Kosovo at the previous insistence of the European Union. In Serbia, the Serbian Orthodox Church is one of the most trusted institutions, as is indicated by numerous public opinion surveys. Its influence on the socio-political events is sometimes more visible and stronger, which depends entirely upon the interests of the ruling political elites in Serbia. Therefore, it can be concluded that today, the influence of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Serbia is rather reduced and limited and there are different “currents” within it that differently perceive the position of this religious community in the Serbian society and its relation to the authorities.

Ključne reči: Serbian Orthodox Church, Serbia, Yugoslavia, European Union, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, Croatia, Macedonia