Journalist and editor of the show "Načisto" on TV Vijesti, Petar Komnenić, responded to the priest of the Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral SPC, Gojko Perović, on claims that the show he edits "has gone from being a rare oasis of free speech to a place where words cannot be found."
"It is sad to watch priest Gojko Perović revise the August 30th calls "to turn to each other" and render meaningless the warmly welcomed messages of reconciliation, while polishing monuments to war criminals and mindlessly whitewashing the past and the malicious statements of the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church.
REASON AND MOTIVE: Demagoguery is a favorite weapon of revisionists and perfidious truth-suppressors, and it is my professional obligation to expose it - by stating the facts and putting them in context. I did not open the debate on the mission of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro in my shows in order to justify indisputable communist crimes, as priest Perović maliciously claims. These crimes have already been discussed in the "Načisto" program.
The reason for the discussion, in the format I am editing, is the fact that the church and two of its metropolitans renewed and intensified the glorification of Chetnik criminals after August 30. The motive for journalistically dealing with this topic is that the Serbian Orthodox Church uses social influence and subordination to servile civil authorities to rehabilitate ideological favorites and their criminal agendas - trampling on the law, as well as the secular and civil order of the country in which it operates. With the clear ultimate intention of emphasizing the thesis - everyone committed crimes in World War II - to draw a sign of equality between fascists and anti-fascists, which has already been done in the neighboring country where the Serbian Orthodox Church headquarters are located.
Besides, it is a bit morbid that Perović, as the granddaughter of the Golotoč prisoner, after whom I am named, accuses me of doing this because of my fascination with Bolshevik totalitarianism. Unfortunately for you, this family drama did not make me unobjective and forced me to confuse the freedom fighters from World War II with the collaborators of the occupiers and the butchers whom you are today elevating to pedestals in Gornji Zaostr.
I am proud of the fact that my grandfather did not flee with the Ustashi and German troops in 1945, like your hero, and that he defiantly served his departure from totalitarian post-war practices in the Adriatic gulag. I am also proud of the fact that Ivan Goran Kovačić, the author of the poignant poem about the Ustasha atrocities "Jama", dedicated the poem "Our Freedom" to him before he was liquidated by Perović's "anti-fascists".
THE TRUTH HAS NO VERSION: Let's get back to the topic and the comments on my show. I understand why priest Perović is bothered by the fact that in the studio, while we are talking about the revisionist role of the church and the attempt to equate fascists and anti-fascists, "pictures and emblems of only one version of the truth are flying around the heads of the interlocutors"!
The truth has no version, Mr. Perović, and it implies a foundation in factography and relevant historical sources. That is why priest Perović is hurt by the photographs of the "hero of invincible character" Pavle Đurišić and the wartime Metropolitan of the Serbian Orthodox Church Joanikije Lipovac in the company of Italian and German occupiers and Nazi servants like Sekula Drljević, because of whom Perović's political followers are still "fixing their belts" while the Montenegrin anthem is played.
I know that priest Perović is used to giving a sermon, unfettered by facts and relevant historical sources (domestic and foreign). He usually does this in a dogmatic environment that despises questions and relevant historical documents, photographs, videos, and even confessions of monstrous crimes that Pavle Đurišić triumphantly sent to the Chetnik command. Even Draža Mihailović did not dispute those shocking war reports at the trial, while distancing himself from the cruelty of the Serbian Orthodox Church heroes.
After all, your "hero of invincible character" Pavle Đurišić did not earn the title of traitor and criminal only thanks to posing with the Nazis and his own admissions of ethnic cleansing. He was also declared a traitor (and he collaborated with all the quislings in this region) after collaborating with Sekula Drljević, a favorite of the NDH, by your "General Draža", whom you call an "anti-fascist freedom fighter".
"Pavle Đurišić has committed formal treason against the people, the king and this command. The troops of Montenegro and Stari Ras are going hand in hand with the Ustashas... Here is pure treason on behalf of the Montenegrin separatist Sekula Drljević. The Montenegrins will become part of Pavelić's forces under the command of Sekula Drljević... From today on, no commander may and should continue to maintain radio contact with Pavle Đurišić... Pay attention to the positions they hold towards us and be ready for anything." (Mihailović's letter to all subordinate commanders dated March 23, 1945)
Again, I understand Mr. Perović, it is difficult to complete the task and cover up the truth while the studio screen is showing footage of collaborator Đurišić in the company of Mussolini's and the Führer's officers. It is even more difficult to promote a mass murderer into a hero and liberator with quotes from his reports in which he boasts of the execution of thousands of women, children and elderly people of the Muslim faith - listed victims with living descendants, whom the previous head of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro, in a Christian manner, knew how to call "false people of a false religion."
"Anti-fascist" in the company of occupiers
Therefore, I call on Mr. Perović to provide me with all relevant historical material that refutes these historical sources and proves the anti-fascism and heroism of the butcher Pavle Đurišić, whose bloody hands the church is trying to wash today. I undertake to attach this material to the video recordings and photographs that were not made in the Vijesti editorial office, but were made during the war by Djurišić's Nazi collaborators.
Those whom he thanked on several occasions for the enslavement of Montenegro. These are the words, for example, that Joaniki and Perović's "hero of invincible character" and "anti-fascist" Pavle Đurišić addressed to the Nazi occupation governor Pirci Biroli during his visit to Kolašin: "Excellency, for all the good deeds that you have done for the Serbian people in Montenegro with your wise policy, you enjoy their greatest love and respect."
Patriotic and heroic! This is how the Serbian Orthodox Church propagates today, glorifying Đurišić, and welcomes the enemy, occupying army.
METROPOLITAN WAR: But it is not by chance that the Serbian Orthodox Church is today painting the biography of the criminal and traitor Pavle Đurišić. By erecting a monument in Gornji Zaostr, the leaders of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro are trying to rehabilitate the spiritual patron and collaborator of the occupiers in World War II – the Serbian Orthodox Church Metropolitan Joanikije Lipovac, who, together with Djurišić, welcomed the Nazi occupiers and paraded with them in front of the Montenegrin shrine – Ostrog.
The SPC already began this mission when the Synod canonized the convicted quisling and made him a priest-martyr, whom the partisans, according to Metropolitan Joanikije, liquidated in the justice of God. I will mention only two details from the extensive collaborative work of Metropolitan Lipovac, one of the main heroes of the edited history of the SPC.
In his Easter Epistle of April 1942, Lipovac condemned the July 13th uprising and resistance to the occupier as follows: "And it's not enough for them to have caused moral devastation, but on July 13th, 1941, they also raised an uprising that inflicted such wounds on our people that even decades will not heal."
The Serbian Orthodox Church priest-martyr recognized the roots of evil in the uprising, the liberation movement and the communists, but he saw hope and the future in the Nazis, to whom in 1944, after all the atrocities in these regions, he exaltedly congratulated the upcoming holiday. "To the soldiers of the great German Reich: It gives me a special honor to be able to congratulate the most famous army in the world of all time on the New Year on behalf of my government and my people. Happy New Year 1944 to you". Spiritual, heroic, patriotic. And, above all, anti-fascist!
What is it, if not the most brutal example of revisionism, when Metropolitan Joanikije speaks about Lipovac today like this. "He was the lamb of God, he fought for the people and against godless ideology". Explain to the believers and citizens of Montenegro in the name of what dark intention and with what goal you serve such forgeries? And why are you painting the biography of the wartime metropolitan, who shamelessly glorified the Nazi squadrons?
Far from having the slightest sympathy for a summary judgment, even in the heated conditions and circumstances of war. I am only emphasizing that the revisionist propaganda of the Serbian Orthodox Church, with which a convinced admirer of Nazis and anti-Semites is trying to cover himself with lamb's clothing, does not at all fit into the alleged wishes of priest Perović to honestly establish the background of all crimes and the war role of the protagonists on the basis of available historical sources. Even the priests of the Serbian Orthodox Church, dozens of whom fought in the partisans, while the majority, led by Metropolitan Lipovac, supported the fascists and occupiers.
MISSION OF THE SOC: Your falsifications and promotion of beasts like Pavle Đurišić make it impossible to have a serious discussion and even the rehabilitation of those people who, by chance, found themselves on one side or the other, or those who were torn between two armies and who experienced brutal retaliation with the explanation - you are either ours or theirs.
So I ask you: by promoting the most bloodthirsty people alive, are you maintaining the ideology of blood and soil that was also implemented in this region in the 1990s under the auspices of some of your priests? Let me remind you that a recording was shown to the Hague tribunal of Hieromonk Gavrilo blessing the paramilitary "Scorpions" immediately before the genocide in Srebrenica, which the Metropolitan of the Serbian Orthodox Church called "retaliation" while at the same time boasting about offering refuge to the "hajduk" Radovan Karadžić, a war criminal sought by the whole world.
If I'm on the wrong track, and you are dedicated to the truth, explain to us why the church didn't mind the facts even when it declared a mass murderer and butcher, priest Milorad Vukojičić, known by the nickname Pop Mac, a saint?
Why does the Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church present the brutal murderer as a symbol of human purity and martyrdom, despite the verdict and his public confession that he committed 57 monstrous murders in the Pljevlja region. Among others, the mother of the famous Serbian actor Mišo Janketić, whom he executed on the same day, along with eight other women!
At the trial, he defended himself by saying that he slaughtered out of fear of fellow butchers, and he received the verdict for war crimes and the death penalty on his knees, crying and begging for mercy. Was he also the "lamb of God" for priest Perović and should he be a role model for the flock?
I ask this because you say you want to open the story of “criminals who to this day bear the titles of national heroes.” If you are sincerely committed to exposing the role of people you consider criminals, then why on earth are you doing the same thing you resent the other side for – why are you whitewashing the biographies of mass murderers and bloodthirsty people from your ideological milieu?
The answer is obvious – your goals are not truth, nor reconciliation, but naked revisionism that leads to the revitalization of unfulfilled dark plans forged by the nationalists. Šešelj, who was honored ten years ago by your spiritual role model, Metropolitan Amfilohije.
I wholeheartedly advocate that the reference scientific institutions and historians once again open the archives, debate and re-examine every controversial figure from that period. But you must not be allowed to justify the treacherous and criminal goals of the clique that you centrifuge in spiritual washing machines, trampling on the civil substratum of this country and its anti-fascist heritage with indisputable communist crimes and leftist deviations.
My show also freely discusses Partisan crimes, but highlighting the silenced atrocities will not change the side on which the Chetniks and Partisans fought during World War II. Just as the bombing of Dresden by the British or the American nuclear mushroom clouds over Hiroshima and Nagasaki are not arguments for those countries to challenge their anti-fascist position in World War II. Let alone for glorifying collaborators.
DEFENSIVENESS OF LJUB ČUPIĆ: And you keep doing it. In an obvious attempt at revision, you are also spreading the fog around the death of the Montenegrin freedom icon Ljubo Čupić, who was arrested and shot by your anti-fascists - the Chetniks.
You say it is a crime, but behind that crime are "betrayal and the ugly role" of the Chetniks and Partisans. You are trying to base this rumored version on the claim that Ljubov's own brother Martin, after his death, defected to the Chetniks due to the alleged betrayal of the Partisans!?
Let the citizens judge how convincing the version is that Ljubo's brother, you claim, disappointed by the betrayal of the Partisans, left the revolt with the Chetnik platoon that shot Ljubo!?
Let me remind priest Perović, when he already disgustingly mentions the family of Ljubo Čupić. Ljubo's sister Marta was a fighter of the First Proletarian Army, she crossed the Neretva and Sutjeska, despite the Chetniks. Ljubo's brother Ratko and Darinka were arrested and taken to Banjica where Darinka was shot.
The two brothers probably did not hear about the great partisan betrayal that priest Perović talks about. Momčilo was a diplomat and ambassador. Brother Vukan, a revolutionary and famous pediatrician, responded to the call of the post-war authorities in 1945 and moved from Lausanne to Belgrade. He was the leading initiator and organizer of pediatric services in socialist Yugoslavia and the founder of the famous Institute for Mother and Child in Belgrade, where he is buried in the Alley of Meritorious Citizens.
In the end, after the fog that priest Perović spreads, the bare facts remain. Ljubo Čupić was arrested and shot by the Chetniks. There is also photographic documentation.
Before his death, he addressed your "anti-fascists" with these words: "I am the commander of a partisan company and a communist. You nationalists are mere servants of the occupiers. I despise you as human nothingness. Tell my relatives not to try to seek mercy for me."
That's why you, priest Perović, are avoiding Ljubo's relatives.
SOC AND SCIENCE: All of the above makes Mr. Perović's contrite stance - expressed after the church blessed the monument to ethnic cleanser, murderer of women and children, and quisling Pavle Đurišić - seem amateurishly manipulative, as if the SOC was merely asking for "scientific institutions to re-examine historical reports" because the truth about historical events is not only on one side.
It will be difficult for you to bewitch us again, as before the liturgy, by putting on a lamb's skin, Mr. Perović. The head of the Serbian Orthodox Church Joanikije also refutes you, who made it clear to us in front of the cameras of the service RTCG that the church cares about scientific truths just as much as it cared about the arguments of Djordjan Bruno.
He explained to us live how truth is created in your institution. "Metropolitan Amfilohije and I have already partially revised history."
And then you pretend to wish for scientific truths and complain about how the victors in World War II wrote history. Exactly. And I'm sure that here and there they swept their own misdeeds under the carpet. Although I must admit that I personally, and a good part of civilization, somehow prefer that this task did not fall to the favorites of your saint Metropolitan Joanikije Lipovac and that the soldiers of the Reich did not greet another New Year with congratulations from your "heroes and great martyrs".
So, Father Perović, explain to us once again: if you have objections to historical interpretations and if you are truly dedicated to the truth that, you say, should be reached through scientific means, why do you throw the existing evidence into a blast furnace? Why do you hide it from the flock? Why do you promote murderers, by their own admission, like Pavle Djurišić and priest Maco, as great martyrs and lambs of God? Why do priests, before "scientific institutions look again at historical reports," revise history and, in advance, abolish their favorites and clean up their bloody tracks by erecting monuments and canonizing the dark ones?
Unrelated to this topic, but related to the story of biography laundering – explain to citizens and your faithful why the Serbian Orthodox Church awarded the retired Bishop Kačavenda with the prestigious Order of the Holy New Martyrs of Kragujevac, even though the accusations of pedophilia and pimping of underage boys have never subsided. Another lamb of God?
To go back to the beginning. You wrote to me, priest Perović, revolted by my observation that you were one of the few who was bothered by the spontaneous reaction of the Podgorica stands to the rampage of Croatian right-wing fans and the scandalous message "Kill the Serb".
Although a good part of the public welcomed the dignified response of the Montenegrin fans, "Ustasha, Chetniks - you ran away together," you were obviously offended and hurt by it. I assume that such an instant response to the fascist rampage of the guests worried you because your revisionist campaign was not being received as you had expected.
You might have hoped that the Podgorica stands would unfurl a banner with Pavle Đurišić's image. If that had happened, God forbid, considering Đurišić's collaboration with the Ustashas, as testified by Draža Mihailović, the opposing fans would have had no choice but to exchange scarves.
Finally, priest Perović, by deciding to first bless the monument to the bloodthirsty from World War II, and then hide it in the monastery, despite the prosecutor's decision that it is an "instrument of committing a criminal offense", you have elevated yourself above the Constitution and the law. That criminal offense is called concealing or assisting a perpetrator after a criminal offense has been committed. For example, it is the same as hiding a gun in a church after a firefight. I know that this is nothing new, because you already introduced Arkan's paramilitary forces into the Cetinje monastery in the 1990s under full armament. And the monument to Pavle Đurišić that you bless and walk around Montenegro is a weapon - aimed at the foundations of this state - at its civic, multinational and multi-religious orientation. And an anti-fascist legacy."
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