KULJANIN: BOSNIAKS SEIZING SERB HOLLY SITES AND PROPERTY EXTREMELY IMMORAL

BELGRADE, JANUARY 22 /SRNA/ – The author of the book “The Church of the Dormition in Čelebići,” Hadži Đuro S. Kuljanin, told SRNA that it is extremely immoral that Bosniaks have registered a Serb holly site outside Konjic as “state” property, and expressed concern that many other properties of the Serbian Orthodox Church, as well as Serb cemeteries and private Serb-owned land lying abandoned because Serbs were expelled, could end up with the same status.

Kuljanin said that no Serbs live in Čelebići nowadays, but that Serbs lived there for centuries. “They built the first church in northern Herzegovina in 1863 /according to some sources, 1867/. It was built by Marko Manigoda from the village of Dobrigošće, which today belongs to the municipality of Jablanica. He even traveled to Istanbul to obtain a firman from the sultan for the construction of the church, and he succeeded,” Kuljanin noted. He emphasized that the old church was submerged by Lake Jablanica in 1953, but was relocated about half a kilometer away, where it still stands today. “Unfortunately, we are witnessing what is now happening, not only in Konjic but also in Mostar. I fear that this will continue. There are nine cemetery chapels, seventy-five cemeteries, and six churches in the Konjic area. I am afraid that these too will be entered into their land registry,” said Kuljanin, who in his book “Eternal Resting Places” documented Serb cemeteries with chapels and churches in the Konjic area. According to his records as of September 1, 2024, there were 46 Serbs living in villages around Konjic and 102 in the town itself, but he fears that property Serbs were forced to abandon has been left to lawlessness. “What we learned they did with our church in Čelebići is an immoral act, but unfortunately I fear it will spread to private property as well. People have not appeared on their land for 30 years, which will be taken by the ‘state’ - at least that is what it looks like to me,” he said. Kuljanin stressed that individuals cannot oppose the lawlessness they are exposed to in the FBiH on their own, and asked how it would look if Republika Srpska began confiscating religious buildings of the Islamic Community and the property of Bosniaks. “That would be unthinkable. Unfortunately, what has been happening to Serbs has long been met with silence,” he warned. Kuljanin pointed out that although Serbs are few in number, the Serbian Orthodox Church in that area is a living church, with services and liturgies still being held in local churches, and that what belongs to them must be struggled for. The Mostar Municipal Court has entered into the land registry that the "state" is the owner of two cemeteries - one in Vrapčići with a chapel and one in Gornji Vrapčići with a church, as well as a church in the Čelebići settlement in Konjic.