Residents of the "Dardania" neighborhood receive an order to vacate properties near the mosque under construction

Nine families who own homes in the "Dardania" neighborhood in Pristina have been ordered by the Municipality to vacate some spaces near the new mosque under construction.

According to the capital's authorities, the owners of these houses, located on "Shëndeti" Street, are using municipal property in violation of the law.

Metiner Rexha, who has received such an order from the Municipality, says he does not know which space he should vacate.

"We possess the documentation that we are residents of these buildings, although we have exceeded the surface area. No decision to stop work has been received," said Rexha.

Even lawyer Vigan Rogova, who was hired by the owners who received the order from the municipality, says that they were not told exactly what space they had to vacate.

"At the beginning of February, they received a decision from the Municipality of Pristina ordering them to vacate the properties without specifying which properties within an unspecified property, within a municipal property that includes the entire 1.8-hectare neighborhood, but it is not determined where the property of the residents of the neighborhood begins and where the property of the municipality begins," Rogova stated.

He further emphasized that the residents have had the ownership documents since 1963, when they purchased them through an auction.

Resident Metiner Rexha says the municipality intends to remove them from their properties, in order to  the expansion of the Central Mosque that is being built.

"Earlier, two houses were expropriated for the needs of the Central Mosque. We are now aware that behind this work is the expansion of the mosque to have access to the street below."

In this regard, KOHA has sent questions to the Municipality of Pristina, but has not received a response.

The documentation possessed by these residents states that these objects were not property of the Municipality but general public property under the administration of the Municipality.

Under this reasoning, they filed a request for a protective measure with the Basic Court of Pristina, which was approved on March 4.

While residents are awaiting a final decision from the Foundation, the Municipality of Pristina on Thursday sent them, for the second time in 10 days, an order to vacate municipal property. According to the order, if the spaces are not vacated, residents will be considered as occupiers of municipal property.