PANEL “KING PETER II AND SERBIAN MONARCHISM TODAY”

Belgrade, 2 November 2010 – Mr. Matija Beckovic, member of the Crown Council, participated last night in a panel discussion “King Peter II and Serbian Monarchism today”, organized by the Kingdom of Serbia association at the Parochial home of St. Sava Temple in Belgrade.

Mr. Dragomir Acovic, member of the Privy Council, stated in his letter: “Really, what do we Serbs know about King Peter II besides his photographs and clichés? What do we know about the man whom those who knew him personally characterized as a “good man”? Four decades after the death of the King of Yugoslavia, it is our obligation to remember this unfortunate good man, born at the steps of the Throne, and buried the other side of the world, in exile, in a Serbian church on foreign soil. A King before his time, and a refugee after his death “

His Majesty King Peter II of Yugoslavia, father of His Royal Highness Crown Prince Alexander II was the first born son of Their Majesties King Alexander I and Queen Maria of Yugoslavia. He was eleven years old when his father, King Alexander I was assassinated in Marseille, France. On 27 March 1941, he was proclaimed of age and ascended the throne, but unfortunately had to leave the country following the German occupation. With the Yugoslav government in exile, he first went to Greece, Jerusalem, Egypt and finally to England. After the World War Two, the communist regime deprived him of all rights, and forbade him to return to his country. His Majesty King Peter II of Yugoslavia, the last King of Yugoslavia, died on 3 November 1970 in the hospital in Denver, Colorado. He was buried in St. Sava Church in Libertyville, Illinois and is the only European Monarch buried in the United States.

On Wednesday, 3 November 2010, a special church memorial service will be served for the late King Peter II at St. Sava church near the St. Sava Temple, at 4 p.m.