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Yugoslav Ex-Royals Demand Montenegro Castles Back
The Karadjordjevic family, descendants of Yugoslavia’s former royals, want Montenegro to return millions of euros’ worth of property including castles confiscated by the Communists after WWII.
Descendants of the former Yugoslav royals want to be given back castles and a house in Montenegro, but also property in Serbia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Macedonia, according to a document that BIRN has obtained from the Karadjordjevic family’s office.
The document says that the Karadjordjevic family want to be given back a castle in Milocer, Leskovac castle in Rijeka Crnojevic and a house in which King Alexander was born in the historic former Montenegrin capital, Cetinje.
The Karadjordjevics’ office told BIRN that the family will not comment on the case as it is still ongoing.
The property was seized after World War II when the Communists came to power in the former Yugoslavia. Most of it is now used by the Montenegrin state, but several million euros’ worth of land and buildings were privatised or contracted out to be used by private companies.
On February 27, it was revealed that the royal family had demanded the return of 22,000 square meters of land near the five-star Milocer resort in the Budva municipality.
Budva’s local government, now run by several parties who are in opposition at the national level, said that that request was noted in the official book of the country’s Property Administration, which means that the land, although formally owned by the state, cannot be sold.
The decision sparked sharp reactions and divisions in Budva’s ruling coalition, composed of both pro-Serbian and pro-Montenegrin parties who have differing views of the Karadjordjevics’ role in the early 20th Century in Montenegro.
Some see the Karadjordjevics as liberators and the people most responsible for the unification of Serbs and Montenegrins in 1918, but others believe the royal family is to blame for Montenegro losing its independence in the 20th Century.
But Budva's city manager Milo Bozovic told local media on February 28 that luxury property in Milocer and other valuable buildings and land should be returned to its "real owners" although the five-star resort built there is privatised and now managed by a private Greek-Montenegrin company.
"This applies not only to the Serbian dynasty, but also to all other citizens, and I think they all should be compensated," Bozovic said.
The Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro has also entered the public debate, urging the state to either return the property or compensate the Karadjordjevics.
Its leading bishop Amfilohije said on February 27 that “what has been taken is damned” and that confiscated property should be returned to its rightful owner, no matter who it is.
In 2014, the former royal family also said it will demand the return of a luxury villa in the coastal village of Milocer, near the resort town of Budva, which was the summer residence of King Alexander, along with the Queen's Beach, which got its name for being the favourite holiday destination of Queen Maria of Yugoslavia.
Villa Milocer, which is currently a luxurious state-owned hotel rented to a Greek-Montenegrin company, was registered as the property of Queen Maria until WWII.
The house in which King Alexander was born in Cetinje, which the Karadjordjevics’ descendants are also demanding, is now an ethnographic museum.
They are also asking for a castle on Lake Skadar, near Cetinje, which served as the winter residence for the royals.
In the Montenegrin town of Rijeka Crnojevica, Karadjordjevic family want to be given 47,586 square metres of land on which the Leskovac castle stands.
A Belgrade court in April 2014 legally rehabilitated former Queen Maria, ruling that she was illegally stripped of her property and citizenship by the Communist authorities in 1947.
The decision allowed the heirs of the former royal family to reclaim their seized property under Serbia’s restitution law.
In late 2013, a Belgrade court also ruled that a villa in the Dedinje area of the Serbian capital that was being used as the Montenegrin embassy had to be returned to Elizabeth Karadjordjevic.
Karadjordjevic family wants gold mines
Among other properties, the former royal family is demanding the return of gold and coal mines in Bosnia and Serbia, a library in Belgrade, and a power station on Oplenac Hill near the central Serbian town of Topola, according to the document obtained by BIRN.
The Karadjordjevics also want to be given back a military barracks and other property in Oplenac, a villa in Bled and other property in Slovenia.
They are further demanding the return of valuables that were handed over to the Yugoslav National Bank in 1982. On the list are gold bars, gold coins, clocks and jewellery.
http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/arti...ack-03-01-2018
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Originally Posted by Crn Volk
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