Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic called on Kosovo Serbs not to sell their properties even if Albanians offer them "big money." "You are the ones who guard and defend your country, who are defending our future by preserving your homes in Kosovo and Metohija," Vucic said.

Vucic is visiting Kosovo this week. Vucic met several Kosovo Serbian communities, unveiled a monument to medieval Serbian king Milutin (1253-1321) in the centre of Gracanica, and encountered Orthodox bishop Teodosje, who also insisted Serbs should not leave the country: "It is more important than anything to us that people do not leave their homes, and to preserve our holy land," he said.

Vucic also promised support from the Serbian state to Kosovo Serb communities, and vowed not to "forget or abandon" them.

According to the first Yugoslav census, 66% of Kosovo inhabitants spoke Albanian in 1921, while 26% spoke Serbo-Croatian. From then onwards, the share of Albanians gradually increased: in 1981 they made up 77% of the population, while Serbs had decreased to 13%.

After the dissolution of Yugoslavia and the two declarations of independence of Kosovo, the Serbian population has declined even more, and is now estimated to be around 6%, mainly concentrated in the north and in a strip south and east of Kosovo's capital Pristina.

Serb parties and organizations complain that the Kosovo government only cares about Albanian interests. Serbia and Kosovo governments agreed in April 2013 on the creation of a Serbian institution of self-government in Kosovo, the Serbian Community of Municipalities, which should come into operation this year.

(Image: Aleksandar Vucic / Picture by Franz Johann Morgenbesser.)