The Serb member of BiH Presidency Željka Cvijanović, currently on a working visit to France, said last evening that ‘it is nice to visit our compatriots who preserve our language, religion, culture and customs far from their homeland’.

The Serb member of BiH Presidency, Željka Cvijanović, said in Paris, where she visited the Church of St Sava and met with its clergy, that the activities of the Serbian Orthodox Church and the diaspora were visible, and that the connecting thread, Serbian identity, tradition and culture had to be preserved.

‘It is important to preserve the identity. We always promote the ties between the diaspora and the motherland. The diaspora is gathered around the Church’, noted Cvijanović.

She thanked the clergy for their efforts on preserving Serbian identity in France and said that they would always have backing and support in the institutions of the Republic of Srpska.

‘The diaspora is gathered around the Church and also united in various formations, associations, through which we want to make the truth about the Republic of Srpska, Serbia heard. The most important thing is to maintain the tradition, the culture, the existing thread that connects them, their family members, parents, grandparents, with what is their motherland’, said Cvijanović.

She noted her delight with both the capacity and what she had the opportunity to hear that evening.

‘This is a combination of young people and those somewhat older, with experience, where everyone strives to contribute in their own way, within their work domain, to the preservation of identity, and also to step forward in those domains and show the truth about both the moment we live in today and everything that is left behind as a burdensome, difficult history, which is weighted down further by the fact that it had been difficult for the truth to see the light of day’, said Cvijanović.

She stated that it was this door that these people were trying to open in their own way, be it through literature, film, history, studying certain issues, events.

‘They are trying to show the world that there are many moments in which it was time for some unknowns to reveal themselves as known, and that is what is positive concerning the Republic of Srpska, Serbia and Serbian people’, said Cvijanović.

Cvijanović noted that she had started her visit to France with a cordial meeting and conversation with His Eminence Bishop Justin of Western Europe and representatives of the Serbian diaspora.

‘I start almost every foreign visit in this way, by visiting the Church, speaking with representatives of various associations’, added Cvijanović.

Source: RTRS – SRNA

Photo: Željka Cvijanović