Preserving and strengthening the alphabet, tradition, history and identity is the topic of the two-day scientific meeting on Serbian Spiritual Identity, held at the Academy of Sciences and Arts of the Republic of Srpska in Banja Luka.

The meeting is organized in cooperation with the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts from Belgrade.

Preservation of Serbian spiritual identity is the only guarantee of survival, said the President of Srpska’s Academy of Sciences and Arts, Rajko Kuzmanović. Continuous and orchestrated attacks, he explains, took roots decades ago.

– Continuously, the positions of various foreigners and others are always interwoven with the problem of identity and spirituality like a red thread – says Kuzmanović.

Although scattered around the world, the spiritual component and identity unite the Serbian people, wherever they are.

ASARS member Staniša Tutnjević said that Serbian spiritual identity was the broadest, most open, most dynamic, and even the most democratic.

One of the key factors of Serbian unity and sobornost is seen in the role of the Serbian Orthodox Church and the preservation of traditional values.

Darko Đogo, a professor at the Faculty of Orthodox Theology in Foča, said that Serbian national identity was subject to negative influences in these parts, but that it was important that the most prominent Serb scientific and church institutions understand the processes together and try to provide adequate responses translated into a specific spiritual, cultural, national and academic and scientific practice.

SASA representative Sreto Tanasić, said that this was one of the most significant meetings in the Serbian cultural area, given its dealing with the issues of preserving Serbian spiritual identity.

Meeting participants agree that it is necessary for Serbs to stand up to the disintegration of the Serbian cultural and spiritual area.

The President of the National Assembly of the Republic of Srpska, Nenad Stevandić, noted that Serbian spiritual area and identity were also based on Serbian land ownership, churches, monasteries, alphabet, culture, etc.

– The oldest alphabet, identity and places of worship on BiH territory are precisely those belonging to our people – said Stevandić.

Protection of sovereignty, spiritual identity and history is the key to the survival of the Serbian people in these parts, as well as around the world, said the scientific meeting.

Source: RTRS

Photo: Srna