TIES WITH SERBIA AND REPUBLIKA SRPSKA ESPECIALLY VALUABLE FOR SERBS IN ROMANIA

BELGRADE, DECEMBER 16 /SRNA/ – For Serbs in Romania, ties with compatriots in Republika Srpska are especially valuable, as Republika Srpska has provided financial assistance to this Serb community, director of the Publishing House of the Union of Serbs in Romania Saša Jašin told SRNA.

He emphasized that the Union of Serbs in Romania maintains friendly and fraternal relations with the relevant ministries of the Government of Serbia and receives support for financing its projects, noting that their ties with Republika Srpska are particularly strong.

Recalling that the current President of Republika Srpska Milorad Dodik, on several occasions, visited the Union of Serbs during his visits to Romania, Jašin stressed that Republika Srpska even provided direct financial support to the Serb community.

"We are immensely grateful," Jašin said.

He highlighted as particularly important the participation of Serb children from various parts of Romania in thematic camps in Serbia, from which they regularly return with very positive impressions.

Jašin also welcomed the recently established cooperation with the Prosvjeta Serbian Cultural Society and the visit of the Society's president Milimir Mučibabić to Timișoara.

"Every visit by our Serbian brothers and sisters from Republika Srpska or Serbia is precious to us, because we prove to everyone that we Serbs are one inseparable body of the great Serbian nation, wherever we may live," Jašin said.

He noted that the Union will celebrate its patron saint's day, St. Nicholas, with friends, emphasizing that the patron saint's day, along with language and script, represents a clear marker of Serbian identity among other Orthodox peoples.

"We see that more and more young people are coming to our churches to celebrate and cut the ceremonial bread," Jašin said.

He added that every Serb in Romania can determine their genealogical roots based on parish and church records kept since the second half of the 18th century.

"Serbs in Romania have lived on their own land for centuries," Jašin said.

According to him, Serbs have never had frictions or major problems in relations with other minorities or with the majority Romanian population, nor are there unresolved historical issues, but the main problem is their declining numbers.

"The biggest problem we face is ourselves, because the number of our compatriots is decreasing. We cannot blame anyone else for that. It is up to us alone to take care of it," Jašin said.

He stressed that, according to the latest census, there are just over 12,000 Serbs in Romania, which is 30 percent fewer than in the previous census.

"The largest concentration is in Timișoara. We like to say that Timișoara is our largest village, because about 3,000 Serbs live there," Jašin said.

He concluded that it is up to Serbs to ensure that the classrooms of the only Serbian high school in Romania, Dositej Obradović High School in Timișoara, do not remain empty, and that the continuity of Serbian presence in Romania, dating back to the Middle Ages, continues.