A group of public figures from across the region issued an appeal over what they said is an attempt to destabilize Montenegro by the Serbian authorities.

Montenegro is exposed to an attempt at violent destabilization, danger to peace, territorial integration, constitutional order, equality of the citizens and equality of religious communities and the orders for that attempt came from the authorities in Serbia, the appeal handed to the media by the Serbian Helsinki Committee said.  

“Official Belgrade, the Serbian Orthodox Church and biggest opposition parties are the strategist, sponsor and logistics provider who issued the order for the latest attempt to destabilize Montenegro,” it said and added that this is another attempt by Belgrade to bring Montenegro back to the state framework of Serbia and prevent its consolidation as an independent and sovereign state.  

The appeal claims that the law on religious communities which the Montenegrin parliament adopted recently was drawn up with the Venice Commission and allegedly alters a 50 year old law and a 1920 decree by then Regent of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes Aleksandar Karadjordjevic which allegedly “abolished the autocephalous Montenegrin Orthodox Church”. The appeal said that the law rounds off the state and legal framework of Montenegro which is why “Greater Serbia nationalists are attacking the law”.  

The appeal warned of what it calls the impermissible passivity of European institutions and governments in condemning the attempt to destabilize Montenegro.  

The appeal was signed by 88 public figures (politicians, historians, actors, journalists, directors, writers and others) from across the former Yugoslavia.