[4] In 1989, the autonomous status of Kosovo within the Yugoslav federation was removed by President Slobodan Milošević of the Serbian Republic and direct control was established from Belgrade.

[7] Following the war and international military intervention in 1999, Kosovo became a protectorate under a United Nations administration (UNMIK) and a failed attempt was made to destroy the building with explosives that did little damage to the structure.

[5] Pristina Municipality, with an Albanian majority population became part of the newly established UNMIK provisional government institutions of Kosovo and it proposed four uses for the building: preserved as is, demolition, turned into a museum and usage for some alternative purpose.

[5] Based in Gracanica at the time, the SOC stated that it was against the proposals viewing them as an attack toward a religious location and an attempt to remove the Serb presence from Pristina.

[5] Between 2005-2007 the international community sought a political solution for Kosovo's status and it generated the Ahtisaari Plan which outlined supervised independence and a provision to protect SOC property.

[5] The Ahtisaari Plan also made the Kosovo government through its Culture Ministry in charge of protecting the property of the SOC, an arrangement which the Serbian church did not acknowledge.

[5] To breach the impasse, the EU special representative (EUSR) in Kosovo selected a neutral mediator, ambassador Moschopoulos of the Greek Liaison Office to discuss matters between the government and church.

[1] On 10 June 2021, the Eparchy of Raška and Prizren entered the grounds of the disputed property and conducted a religious ceremony under Bishop Teodosije Šibalić for the first time since 1998.

[12] Dalibor Jevtić, a Serb politician, posted on Twitter a few photos of policemen standing outside the premises of the church and claimed that the police were sent to monitor the liturgy.

[14] It was quickly removed by student activists of Social Democratic Party of Kosovo the next morning who called it a "provocation aimed at igniting religious and ethnic tensions".