Muslim pensioner achieves demolition of Orthodox Church
The European Court of Human Rights has ordered the removal of an Orthodox church built after the civil war in Republika Srpska on the former home of Bosnia's Fata Orlović, who a quarter of a century ago moved to live in the Muslim-Croat federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
This was reported by Balkan media, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
According to the court decision, the deadline for moving the church is April 1. But already now church utensils have begun to be removed from the church under the supervision of the police.
Initially, it was assumed that the temple in the village of Konjevic Polje of the Republika Srpska would be located across the road opposite, but the SOC failed to reach an agreement with the owner of the site, and as a result, the stone church would “move” to neighboring Bratunac.
“We were waiting for the moment to return, to come here, sit down and have a cup of coffee,” said the 77-year-old owner of the site, Fata Orlovic, who in fact has not lived in Konjevic Polje for a long time, but lives in the care of her daughter Huria and son-in-law Mirza in the city of Srebrenik .
Before her victorious return to the village where she lived before the war, Orlovich spent four months visiting her children in the United States - in the 90s, many Bosniaks received residence permits, and subsequently citizenship of European countries and the United States, as “victims of genocide.”
“I thank Allah for everything,” said the former refugee. – Congratulations to all of Bosnia and Herzegovina, not just from Konjevic Polje. I congratulate the journalists, they are the best, because if it weren’t for them, no one would have known about my struggle.”
Bosniak, Turkish, Arab and Western media really made Fata Orlović a “victim of genocide” and a desperate fighter against injustice, and the construction of a church on her house plot was attributed to cases of manifestation of “dominance of a certain ethno-religious group.”
At the same time, journalists from Sarajevo congratulated the winner Fata on March 8, presenting flowers completely in the tradition of the SFRY, to the destruction of which the political forces of which they are the mouthpiece had a hand. The touched grandmother admitted that she had nothing against the Serbs and the church in principle, but not in her yard.
Fata Orlović and her seven children fled Republika Srpska in the early 90s after her husband Sacir went to fight for Bosniak separatists. He was subsequently captured and shot. When the final partition of BiH took place under the Dayton Accords, many Muslim Bosniaks and Croats moved to Federation territory, and Serbs accordingly moved to the RS. Not far from the empty house of the Orlovichs, an Orthodox church was erected on the plot of land. Returning to her native village in 2000, the militant’s widow began a legal battle with the SOC, and waged it for twenty years, considering it her life’s work. She refused the compromise options offered to her.
It is characteristic that during the war unleashed by the separatists, many Serbs lost their homes, shops and factories. In particular, the headquarters of the most authoritative Bosniak Party of Democratic Action occupied the Sarajevo mansion of the famous Serbian businessman Mihajlo Mišo Semjan. The heirs of the late Semyan wanted to return this house, but the restitution mechanism in BiH has not been developed to this day. During the anti-Serbian aggression unleashed by Islamist separatists, many Sarajevo Serbs lost their homes and real estate in the capital of BiH alone, especially in the central region of Bascarsija. But the international community is not interested in such precedents.
Muslim pensioner succeeds in demolishing Orthodox church