Kingdom of Serbia

The Serbian Orthodox Church, the most loyal ally of modern Serbian chauvinism in the Balkans, began celebrations on the 700th anniversary of the death of King Stefan II Milutin (1282-29 October 1321) in RN Macedonia, but without inviting local scholars, a BGNES reporter reported.

The central topic of Pisarri's book, which he developed out of his PhD thesis and which was originally published in Italian, is crimes against Serbian civilians in the part of the Kingdom of Serbia that was occupied by Bulgaria in 1915. The book will be issued in a Serbian translation this autumn.

After media reported on Thursday that Montenegrin police have barred four Serbian cultural, academic and legal figures from entering the country, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic condemned the decision and vowed to respond. 

Officials and politicians in Serbia on Sunday condemned Podgorica's decision to ban ceremonies marking the 100th anniversary of the unification of Serbia and Montenegro.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said he doesn't understand the decision, which he said prohibits people in Montenegro from "thinking differently and having a different view of the past".

The Serbian National Council, the body representing Serbs in Montenegro, on Thursday asked permission to use the main hall of the Montenegrin National Theater to celebrate the unification of Serbia and Montenegro - an event that the government believes should not be celebrated at all.

Podgorica-based daily Pobjeda reports this.

According to the interpretation by the current Montenegro government and some historians, the Great National Assembly of the Serb People in Montenegro in 1918, known as Podgorica Assembly was organized contrary to the former Montenegro Constitution and its legal system.

The EU's annual Terrorism Situation and Trend Report, released June 15, says terrorists are still joining the conflict in Syria from the Balkans, which remains a route to and from the conflict zones in the Middle East.

More than 800 foreign terrorist fighters have travelled to Syria to join the armed conflict there from the Western Balkans, it says.

Photo: Profimedia

The ongoing developments in the Balkans evoke strong memories of 1914, RIA Novosti contributor Dmitri Dobrov noted, warning that the region may soon turn into the powder keg of Europe again. It appears, however, that neither Washington, nor Brussels wants to make it easier for Balkan states to ease growing tensions.

The Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro said that it had formed a committee for the protection of nature and cultural and spiritual values of the Moraca River after the government revealed plans to build several hydropower plants there.

BELGRADE - A delegation of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts asked Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic for support in establishing a Center for Digitization of SASA.

Nikolic spoke in Belgrade with a SASA delegation led by the President of the Academy, Vladimir Kostic, the presidential press office said.