Kosovo

Kosovo (Albanian: Kosovë/Kosova, Serbian: Косово и Метохија/Kosovo i Metohija) is a UN-administered province of Serbia. By the UN Security Council Resolution 1244 (adopted in 1999), Kosovo is defined as autonomous province within former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia under UN administration. Kosovo is presently run by the Provisional Institutions of Selfgovernment and the UN and the EU, while the security is maintained by the NATO-led KFOR. The talks on the future status of Kosovo have started in Vienna, on February 20, 2006, with the future of the province should be determined by the end of the year.

Geography
With an area of 10,912 square kilometres (4,213 sq. mi) and a population of over two million of the eve of the 1999 crisis, Kosovo, Serbian province, borders Montenegro to the northwest, Serbia proper to the North and East; Macedonia to the south, and Albania to the southwest. The largest cities are Priština (Prishtinë, in Albanian) the capital, with an estimated 500,000 citizens, and Prizren in the southwest with 120,000 citizens; five other towns have populations in excess of 50,000. The name Metohija is used by mostly Serbs for the western part of the land (Rrafshi i Dukagjinit, in Albanian).

Ancient
It is likely that the region of Kosovo has been inhabited by Illyrian tribes since the Bronze Age. In ancient times the area has been known as Dardania and was settled by a tribe with the same name. The south of Kosovo was ruled by Macedonia since Alexander the Great's reign in the 4th century BC. The Dardani were of Illyrian or Thracian stock. Illyrians organised resistance against Greeks and Romans for hundreds of years but after the long wars of Illyrian tribes against intruders, the region was later occupied by the Roman Empire under Emperor Augustus. When the Roman Empire split in A.D. 395, the area of Kosovo came under the Eastern Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire. Dardania gave numerous leaders to both Rome and Constantinopolis. Justinian the Great was among them.

Medieval - Byzantium and the Serbian Empire ruling of Kosovo
Slavs and Serbs came to the territories of roughly modern-day Kosovo in the 6th-7th century. Serbs were invited to settle in the area south of the Danube river as farmers by Byzantine emperor Heraclius to protect the area from invading Avars. . The Slavs were christianized in several waves, between the 7th and 9th century, with the last wave taking place between 867 and 874. But by then Kosovo proper was ruled by the Bulgarians and the Byzantines from the 850s until 1014, while the area of Dukagjini Valley (Serbian: Metohija) became a part of the Principality of Rascia.

The Serbian takeover was carried out under a branch of the House of Voislav as the Grand Princes of Rascia. In 1093, Prince Vukan advanced all the way to Lipljan (Albanian: Lypjan), burned it down and raided the neighbouring areas. The Byzantine Emperor himself came to Zvečan for negotiations. A peace was concluded, but Vukan broke it and defeated the army of John Comnenus, the Emperor's nephew. His armies stormed Kosovo. Byzantine Emperor Alexius had to come to Ulpiana (today's Lipljan/Lypjan) in 1094 and negotiated again. Peace was concluded and Vukan gave hostages to the Emperor, including his two nephews Uroš and Stefan Vukan. Prince Vukan renewed the warring in 1106, once again defeating John Comnenus' army, but Vukan's following death put a halt to a total conquest of Kosovo. .

In 1166 - 1168, a Serbian nobleman from Zeta, Stefan Nemanja, the founder of the House of Nemanja asserted to the Rascian Principality throne and conquered most of Kosovo, in an uprising against the Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Comnenus. He defeated the previous Grand Prince of Rascia Tihomir's army at Pantino. Tihomir, who was Stefan's brother, was drowned in the Sitnica river. Stefan was eventually defeated and had to return some of his conquests, and vouched to the Emperor that he would not raise his hand against him. In 1183, Stefan Nemanja embarked on a new offensive with the Hungarians after the death of Manuel I Comnenus in 1180, which marked the end of Byzantine ruling of Kosovo.

The castle of Zvecan was used in the last century of Byzantium rule of Kosovo to protect their Empire from Serbian attacks. During late 12th century, the Serbs moved south and eastward from their original homeland, the mountainous area around Raska, and began the takeover of present-day Kosovo.

In 1217, the Serbian Kingdom achieved recognition. In 1219, an autocephalous Serbian Orthodox Church was created, with the Hvosno, Prizren and Lipljan Episcoprics on Kosovo. By the end of the 13th century, the centre of the Serbian Church was moved to Peć (Albanian: Peja) from Žiča.

King Stefan Dušan founded the vast Monastery of Saint Archaengel near Prizren in 1342-1352. Since the crowning for Emperor in 1346, King Dušan was declared "Tsar of All Serbs, Albanians, Greeks and Bulgarians", thereby starting the Serbian Empire. Stefan Dušan received John VI Cantacuzenus in 1342 in his Castle in Pauni to discuss a joint War against the Byzantine Emperor. In 1346, the Serbian Archepiscopric at Peć was upgraded into a Patriarchate, but not recognized before 1370.

After the Serbian Empire fell into disarray prior to his death in 1355, feudal anarchy caught up with the country during the reign of Tsar Stefan Uroš V. Kosovo became a domain of the House of Mrnjavčević, but Prince Voislav Voinović expanded his demesne further onto Kosovo. The armies of King Vukašin Mrnjavčević from Priština and his allies defeated Voislav's forces in 1369, putting a halt to his advances. After the Battle of Marica on 26 September 1371 in which the Mrnjavčević brothers lost their lives, Đurađ I Balšić of Zeta took Prizren and Peć in 1372. A part of Kosovo became the demesne of the House of Lazarević.

The Ottomans invaded the Serbian Realm and met the coalition of South East European nobility on 28 June 1389, near Prishtina (Serbian: Priština), at Gazi Mestan. The Balkan armies were led by the Serbian Prince, Lazar. The epic Battle of Kosovo followed, in which Prince Lazar himself lost his life. Prince Lazar amassed 70,000 men on the battlefield and the Ottomans had 140,000. Through the cunning of Miloš Obilić (Albanian: Millosh Obiliqi), Sultan Murad was murdered and the new Sultan Beyazid had, despite winning the battle, to retreat to consolidate his power. The Ottoman Sultan was buried with one of his sons at Gazi Mestan. Both Prince Lazar and Miloš Obilić were canonised by the Serbian Ortodox Church for their efforts in the battle. The local House of Branković came to prominence as the local lords of Kosovo, under Vuk Branković, with the temporary fall of the Serbian Despotate in 1439. Another great battle occurred between the Hungarian troops supported by the Albanian ruler Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg, and Ottoman troops supported by the Brankovićs in 1448. Skanderbeg's troops which were going to help John Hunyadi were stopped by the Brankovic's troops, who was more or less a Turkish Vassal. Hungarian King John Hunyadi lost the battle after a 2-day fight, but essentially stopped the Ottoman advance northwards. Kosovo then became vassalaged to the Ottoman Empire.

In 1455, castles were constructed in Prishtina and Vushtrri, centres of the Ottoman vassalaged House of Branković.

The Ottoman Empire
The Ottomans brought Islamisation with them, particularly in towns, and later also created the Viyalet of Kosovo as one of the Ottoman territorial entities. This brought a great shift, as it brought institutional stability and peaceful coexistence among different ethnic groups and religions. Kosovo was taken by the Austrian forces during the Great War of 1683 - 1699 with help of 5,000 Albanians and their leader, a Catholic Archibishop Pjetër Bogdani. The archbishop died of plague during the war, and his grave was later reopened, with his body scattered and given to the dogs by the Ottomans because of his role in the rebellion. In 1690, the Serbian Patriarch of Peć Arsenije III, who previously escaped a certain death, led 37,000 families from Kosovo, to evade Ottoman wrath since Kosovo had just been retaken by the Ottomans. The people that followed him were probably mostly Serbs. 20,000 people abandoned Prizren alone. Due to the oppression from the Ottomans, other migrations of Orthodox people from the Kosovo area continued throughout the 18th century. It is also noted that some Serbs adopted Islam and some even gradually fused with the predominantly Albanianians and adopted their culture and even language.

The Rise of Serbian and Albanian Nationalism
In early 19th century the Serbian nationalism was in the rise. The Serbian elite, adopted an expansionist nationalist ideology with a dream for a unification of all Serbs. While it was more difficult for Serbia to expand to the North and East, Serbia extended South, where the Ottoman Empire was weakening. In 1846, "Nacertanije", written by Ilija Garašanin was issued, a document that shaped Serb nationalism. After the Congress of Berlin, the Vilayet of Niš fell in the hands of Serbs and almost all of its Albanian population was expelled. Hundreds of villages were ploundered and the city of Niš was left virtualy with no Albanians.

Refugees from territories conquered in the 1876-1877 Serbo-Turkish war and 1877-1878 Russo-Turkish are now known as 'muhaxher' (which means 'refugee', from Arabic muhajir) and are the ancestors of many who are still known by their same surnames, Muhaxheri. It is also estimated that 200,000 to 400,000 Serbs were cleansed out of the Vilayet of Kosovo between 1876 and 1912, especially during the Greek-Ottman War in 1897. (see Demographic history of Kosovo)

Albanians formed the League of Prizren in Prizren in the 19th century. Hundreds of Albanian leaders from all over Albania gathered and discussed the urgent issues concerning their territories. They successfully opposed any Serbian invasion attempts. Serbia complained to the Western Powers that the promised territories were not being held because the Ottomans were hesitating to do that. Western Powers put pressure to the Ottomans and in 1881, the Ottoman Army started the fighting against Albanians. The Prizren League created a Provisional Government with a President, Prime Minister (Ymer Prizreni) and Ministries of War (Sylejman Vokshi) and Foreign Ministry (Abdyl Frashëri). After three years of war, the Albanians were defeated. Many of the leaders were executed and imprisoned. In 1910, an Albanian uprising spread from Prishtina and lasted until the Ottoman Sultan's visit to Kosovo in June 1911. The Aim of the League of Prizren was to unite the four Albanian Vilayets by merging the majority of Albanian inhabitants within the Ottoman Empire into one Albanian State. However at that time Serbs have consisted about 40% of the whole Vilayt of Kosovo's overall population and were opposing the Albanian nationalism along with other Slavs and Turks in Kosovo.

Serbian and Montenegrin administration since 1912

 * See also:Serbia in WWI

In 1912 during the Balkan Wars, most of Kosovo was liberated and became part of Serbia while region of Metohija (Dukagjini Valley) was liberated by Montenegro. An exodus of the local Albanian population occured. This is best described by Leon Trotsky, who was the reporter for the 'Pravda' newspaper at the time. The Serbian authorities planned a recolonization of Kosovo. In the winter of 1915-1916 Kosovo saw a large exodus of Serbian army; tens of thousands of soldiers have died of starvation, extreme weather and Albanian reprisals as they were approaching the Allies in Corfu and Thessaloniki. .

Kingdom of Yugoslavia and WWII
The 1918-1929 period of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes witnessed a raise of the Serbian population in the region and decline in the non-Serbian. After the 1929-1941 Kingdom of Yugoslavia which introduced the Yugoslav nationality unifying all Kosovan Slavs, the Kingdom was invaded by the Axis forces. The greatest part of Kosovo became a part of Italian-occupied Fascist Albania, and smaller bits by the Nazi-Fascist Tsardom of Bulgaria and Nazi German-occupied Kingdom of Serbia. Since the Albanians had decided in the Conference of Bujan that Kosovo would remain a part of Albania they started an ethnic cleansing of the non-Albanian population in the Kosovo. The infamous SS Division Skanderbeg is said to have committed crimes. . Tens of thousands of Serbs lost their lives and around 75,000 Serbs fled Kosovo during the war. . Hundreds of thousands more would leave in the following decades, following the shift of power in Kosovo. Prior to the surrender of Fascist Italy in 1943, the German forces took over direct control of their region. After numerous uprisings of Yugoslav Partisans, lead by Fadil Hoxha Kosovo was liberated after 1944 with the help of the Albanian partizans of the Comintern, and became a province of Kosovo and Metohija of one of the units of the Democratic Federal Yugoslavia, Serbia. .

Kosovo in Socialist Yugoslavia
The Province of Kosovo was formed autonomous to protect its regional Albanian majority within the People's Republic of Serbia as a member of the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia in 1945 under the leadership of the former Partisan leader, Josip Broz Tito, but with a strictly limited status. Prior to Yugoslavia's name change to the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Serbia's to the Socialist Republic of Serbia in 1963, the Autonomous Region of Kosovo gained more inner autonomy. In the 1974 constitution, the Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo government received higher powers, including the highest governmental titles - President and Premier and a seat in the Federal Presidency which made it a de facto Socialist Republic within the SFRJ, but remaining as a Socialist Autonomous Region within the Socialist Republic of Serbia. Serbo-Croatian and Albanian were defined official on the Provincial level, Albanian as the local language and Serbo-Croatian as the language of the whole country. In the 1970s, an Albanian nationalist movement pursued full recognition of the Province of Kosovo as another Republic within the Federation, while the most extreme elements aimed for full-scale independence. Tito's arbitrary regime dealt with the situation swiftly, but only giving it a temporary solution. The ethnic balance of Kosovo witnessed unproportional increase as the number of Albanians tripled gradually rising from almost 65% to over 80% and the number Serbs barely increasing and dropping in the full share of the total population from some 25% down to 10%.

In 1981 the Kosovar Albanian students organized protests seeking that Kosovo become a republic within Yugoslavia. Those protests were harshly contained by the Serbian government. In 1986, the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SANU) was working on a document, which later would be known as the SANU Memorandum. An unfinished edition was filtered to the press. In the essay, SANU portrayed Serbia as a victim and called for the revival of Serb nationalism. During this time, Slobodan Miloševićs rise to power started in Serbia. Milošević used the discontent reflected in the SANU memorandum for his political goals.

Recent history
One of the events that contributed to Milošević's rise of power was the so-called Gazimestan Speech, delivered to 1 million people at the central celebration marking the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo, held at Gazimestan on 28 June, 1989. In the speech, Milošević criticised the "dramatical national divisions" and called Yugoslavia "a multinational community [which] can survive only under the conditions of full equality for all nations that live in it."

Soon afterwards, the autonomy of Kosovo was revoked. Milošević, however, did not remove Kosovo's seat from the Federal Presidency, installing in it his own supporters to seize more power in the Federal government.

Many Albanians organized a peaceful active resistance movement, following the job losses suffered by some of them. Albanian schools and the medical care system were shut down.

On July 2, 1990 a so-called Kosovo parliament declared Kosovo an independent country. In September of that year, the parliament, meeting in secrecy in the town of Kaçanik, adopted the Constitution of the Republic of Kosovo. Two years later, Kosovo organized a referendum which was observed by international organisations but was not recognized internationally. With an 80% turnout, 98% voted for Kosovo to be independent. In January, 1992 Albanians in Macedonia also voted for autonomy and independence in parts of western Macedonia. In the early nineties, Albanians organized a parallel state system which managed the non-violent resistance movement and organized a parallel system of education and healthcare, among other things. With the events in Bosnia and Croatia coming to an end, the Serb government started relocating some of the Serbian refugees from Croatia and Bosnia to Kosovo. In a number of cases, Albanian families were expelled from their apartments to make space for the refugees.

After the Dayton Agreement in 1995, Albanians organized into the Kosovo Liberation Army. Yugoslav forces allegedly committed war crimes in Kosovo, although the Serbian government claims that the army was only going after suspected Albanian "terrorists". This triggered a 78-day NATO campaign in 1999. During the conflict, some 12,000 Kosovars were killed, of whom 9,000-10,000 were Albanians and 1,000-2,000 others (Serbs and Roma) and up to 700,000 Albanians and over 100,000 Serbs expelled. Some 3,000 Albanians are still missing. The number of Serbian soldier, policemen, and civilian deaths is considered to be around 3,000, but it's also disputed to be much more, as 600(?) people of Serb origin are still missing, believed dead. .

see also: Kosovo War

With the arrival of NATO, a large number of Serbs fled the region, estimated at 100,000 by the UNHCR. Around 120,000 remain in Kosovo and oppose any rule by Albanians. Many Serbs fear to return to their homes since they percieve not to be safe for them, even with UNMIK protection, notably the unrest in 2004, when 900 Serbian houses were burned and other property destroyed while the Serbian populace was closed into enclaves and had to concentrate to the north of Kosovo until today, causing a wave of 3,500 Serbian refugees. Among the numerous religious heritage sites were destroyed by the Albanian youth riotters. In total, 156 Orthodox Churches and Monasteries were damaged during the unrest in Kosovo. Many of the Churches and Monasteries were dating back to the 12th, 13th and 14th century.

The Status talks started in February 2006, it is set to end in the course of the year.

Economy
UNMIK declared the Euro to be the official currency of the province in 2001 in the course of implementing a currency reform. This was undertaken to replace the previous widespread use of the Deutschmark, which had become the de facto currency even before the 1999 war. However, the Serbian dinar remains an official currency, used principally in the Kosovo Serb enclaves; it is only used sporadically outside of them. Most trade is conducted using the euro; Kosovo's administration uses the euro exclusively, and all commercial banks use the euro as the primary currency. Of other international currencies, the United States dollar and Swiss franc are the most widespread.

Demographics
According to the 2000 Living Standard Measurement Survey of the Statistical Office of Kosovo, Kosovo's total population is estimated between 1,8 and 2,0 million in the following ethnic proportions:
 * 88% Albanians (between 1,584,000 and 1,733,600)
 * 7% Serbs (between 126,000 and 140,000)
 * 3% Muslims and Bosniaks (54 to 60 thousand)
 * 2% Roma (36 to 40 thousand) (see also Roma in Mitrovica Camps)
 * 1% Turks (18 to 20 thousand)

However, the figures are highly disputable. Some estimates are that there is an Albanian majority well above 90 percent. Others give much higher figures for Roma and Turks. There was a small minority of Circassians in Kosovo Polje(Fushë-Kosovë in Albanian) but they were repatriated to the Republic of Adygea, in Southern Russia, following threats by the KLA

List of Presidents

 * Ibrahim Rugova, 1992-2006 (deceased)
 * Fatmir Sejdiu, 2006-present

List of Prime Ministers

 * Bajram Rexhepi, 2002-2004
 * Ramush Haradinaj, 2004-2005
 * Bajram Kosumi, 2005-2006
 * Agim Çeku, 2006-present

Pro-Albanian

 * Balkan Update- A blog with news, analysis and the lates updates from Balkans
 * Economic Initiative for Kosovo - "...latest news, analysis and publications from the Kosovar economy"
 * Albanian.com - general information
 * Kosova e lirë (Free Kosova) -- Material about Kosovars and Albanians in Albanian language.
 * Why Independence for Kosovo? A summary of the case for an independent Kosovo by two Prishtina intellectuals
 * Alliance for New Kosovo A policy resource on Kosovo Independence
 * Kosovareport A collection of news on Kosovo, in English, gathered from many agencies.
 * Kosova Crisis Center A collection of articles on Kosovo, in English.
 * AACL Albanian American Civic League.

Pro-Serbian

 * Serbian Government Kosovo-Metohija site
 * Kosovo.net Serbian Orthodox Church's official website on Kosovo
 * Account of destroyed Serbian Orthodox churches in Kosovo and Metohija
 * Kosovo Newsgroup archive
 * Coordination Center of SCG and the Republic of Serbia for Kosovo
 * Eastern Orthodox Resource Centre
 * Southern Serbia: The second Kosovo?
 * Kosovo News blog
 * B92 Serbian Independent news agency
 * Hugo Roth, Kosovo Origins: a historian's comprehensive overview

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