The Office for Kosovo in the Government of Serbia has issued a statement regarding the robbery of three churches. The Office for Kosovo in the Government of Serbia has issued a statement regarding the robbery of three Orthodox churches in the vicinity of Zubin Potok this year, which, according to them, is a person from the Albanian community responsible for.
This office has tried to present these robberies of Serbian Orthodox churches without facts as, as stated in the press release, part of official Pristina's political messages towards the Serbian community in Kosovo.
Excerpt from the press release of the Office for Kosovo in the Government of Serbia translated into Albanian:
Not only was money and other valuables taken from the shrines of the Serbian Orthodox Church, but church relics were also scattered during the search.
An Albanian suspected of this series of attacks on KOS temples has been arrested in Zubin Potok.
This attitude of members of the Albanian community towards the religious objects of the Serbian Orthodox Church is a reflection of the political circumstances and the messages sent every day by political leaders from Pristina, as well as a new confirmation of the threat to Orthodox shrines in Kosovo and Metohija.
It is more than clear that when there is no clear political commitment in Pristina to respect and cultivate religious diversity and tolerance, then on the ground we witness all kinds of attacks on Orthodox churches.
Link to the press release issued by the Office for Kosovo in the Government of Serbia:
http://www.kim.gov.rs/v4641.php
This statement from this office has also been published by several Serbian media outlets such as "Novosti.rs", "Politika.rs" and "Jedinstvo.rs". (see here, here and here)
Previously, Serbian state and religious institutions had published similar statements, through which they claimed to present incidents at religious sites (churches and monasteries) as actions of an interethnic and interreligious nature.
Representatives of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC), on May 11, 2021, published a statement in which they claimed without evidence that some robberies in several Orthodox religious buildings in Kosovo have an ethnic and religious background, alluding here to the Serbian community in Kosovo. Hibrid.info has covered this case. (see here)
Also, on December 27, 2021, the director of the Office for Kosovo in the Government of Serbia, Petar Petkovic, had claimed, through a photograph of the Serbian cemetery in the village of Kishnica, Gracanica, which was reported to have been damaged, assessing it as an interethnic incident, without being based on any facts.
Even then, Hibrid.info had verified this article, rating it as "Disinformation". (see here)
Analyze:
The Office for Kosovo in the Government of Serbia has issued a statement regarding the robbery of three Orthodox churches in the vicinity of Zubin Potok this year, which, according to them, is the responsibility of a person from the Albanian community.
But, this office links these robberies of Serbian Orthodox churches without facts as a result of the repression of the Serbian community in Kosovo, saying that "this is a reflection of the political circumstances and the messages sent every day by political leaders from Pristina, as well as a new confirmation of the threat to Orthodox shrines in Kosovo and Metohija."
All these claims were made by this office without any basis in fact. For this reason, hibrid.info considers this statement a "Conspiracy Theory".
Reasoning:
"Conspiracy theories" are media reports that disseminate a false or unverifiable description of a phenomenon, event, or person, presenting it as part of or the result of a secret plan ("conspiracy"). A characteristic of these reports is that they present a series of claims, presented as facts, between which cause-effect relationships are established, without providing any credible evidence.