Montenegro Opposition Accused of ‘Coup Attempt’ Over Cetinje Riots

Montenegrin officials have accused the opposition Democratic Party of Socialists, DPS, of launching a coup attempt during violent protests at the weekend against the enthronement of a new Serbian Orthodox Church leader, claiming that some of the protesters were armed.

On Sunday, violence erupted in Cetinje, the old capital of Montenegro, after opposition supporters and self-declared patriotic groups clashed with police trying to stop the enthronement of a new Serbian Orthodox Church Metropolitan, Joanikije, in Cetinje.

Deputy Prime Minister Dritan Abazovic on Sunday claimed that former government and police officials incited the protests in order to destabilize and even destroy the country.

The DPS "initiators  … were … in favour of a scenario that was supposed to have fatal consequences. It was an attempt to introduce Montenegro into permanent destabilization with elements of dissolution", Abazovic told local television station Vijesti.

During the clashes in Cetinje on Sunday, police used tear gas, and several protesters and police officials were injured.

Police earlier broke down roadblocks erected near Cetinje, designed to stop clerics from reaching the town for the ceremony, while the Serbian Orthodox Church Patriarch Porfirije and the new Metropolitan of Montenegro were transported to Cetinje by army helicopters. They were escorted to the monastery protected by bulletproof shields, while police used tear gas to disperse protests nearby.

On Sunday, Serbian Church Patriarch Porfirije warned that church clerics' lives had been in danger ahead of the ceremony. He was "horrified by the fact that some people intended to prevent this act of love for everyone with a sniper's rifle", he posted on Instagram.

The ceremony...

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