Kosovo

Kosovo (Albanian: Kosovë/Kosova, Serbian: Косово и Метохија/Kosovo i Metohija) is a UN-administered province. 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 of 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 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).

History

 * See also: Demographic history of Kosovo

Ancient
It is likely that the region of Kosovo has been inhabited by Illyrian tribes, Dacians and Thracians 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 local Dardani were of Illyrian or Daco/Thracian stock. Illyrians and other inhabitants of Kosovo (i.a. Scordisci, Celtic tribe) raveged Roman province of Macedonia several times during the late second and first century BC. For safety reasons, area of modern Kosovo was then occupied by the Roman Empire under Emperor Augustus. When the Roman Empire split in 395, the area of Kosovo came under the Eastern Roman Empire. Romans with local origins from Dardania gave numerous leaders to both Rome and Byzantine Empire. Justinian the Great was among them.

Great Migrations
Slavs came to the territories roughly modern-day Kosovo in the 6th-7th century, with the largest waves coming in the 630s. The Slavs were christianized in several waves, between the 7th and 9th century, with the last wave taking place between 867 and 874. From the 850s until 1014 Kosovo was ruled by the Bulgarians and the Byzantines, while the area of Metohija (Albanian: Rrafshi i Dukagjinit). became a part of the Serb Principality of Rascia, with Dostinik in Hvosno as the Principality's Capital.

Serbian Kosovo
The full Serbian takeover from Byzantine Empire was carried out under a branch of the House of Voislav Grand Princes of Rascia. In 1093, Prince Vukan advanced all the way to Lipljan, burned it down and raided the neighbouring areas. The Byzantine Emperor himself came to Zvečan for negotiations. Zvečan served as the Byzantine line-of-defence against constant raids from the neigbouring Vukan's forces. A peace was concluded, but Vukan broke it and defeated the army of John Comnenus, the Emperor's nephew. His armies threw away Byzantine rule over Kosovo. Byzantine Emperor Alexius had to come to Lipljan 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 that part of Byzantine Empire.

In 1166, a Serbian nobleman from Zeta, Stefan Nemanja, the founder of the House of Nemanja asserted to the Rascian Grand Princely 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, near Pauni. 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 domination of Kosovo.

Nemanja's son, Stefan II, recorded Nemanja's conquests, as Nemanja restored Kosovo from the Greeks, the border of the Serbian realm reaching the river of Lab. Grand Prince Stephen II finished the inclusion of the Kosovo territories in 1208, by which time he had conquered Prizren and Lipljan, and moved the border of his realm to the Šar mountain.

Kingdom of the Serbs
In 1217, the Serbian Kingdom achieved recognition. In 1219, an autocephalous Serbian Orthodox Church was created, with Hvosno, Prizren and Lipljan being the Orthodox Christian Episcopates on Kosovo. By the end of the 13th century, the centre of the Serbian Church was moved to Peć from Žiča.

In the 13th century, Kosovo becomes the heart of the Serbian political and religious life with the Šar mountain becoming the political center of the Serbian rulers. The main chatteu was that in Pauni. On an island was Svrčin and on the coast Štimlji, and in the mountains was the Castle of Nerodimlje. The Complexes were used for counciling, crowning of rulers, negotiating and as the rulers' living quarters. After 1291, the Tartars broke all the way to Peć. Serbian King Stefan Milutin managed to defeat them and then chase them further. He raised the Temple of the Mother of Christ of Ljeviška in Prizren around 1307, which became the seat of the Prizren Episcopric and the magnificent Gračanica in 1335, the seat of the Lipljan Episcopric. In 1331, Juvenille King Dušan attacked his father, Serbian King Stefan of Dechani at his castle in Nerodimlje. King Stefan closed in his neighbouring fortress of Petrič, but Dušan captures him and closed him with his second wife Maria Palailogos and their children in Zvečan, where the dethroned King died on 11 November 1331.

In 1327 and 1328, Serbian King Stefan of Dechani (named after Visoki Decani, orthodox monestery in Kosovo) started forming the vast Dečani domain, although, Serbian King Dušan would finish it in 1335. Stefan of Dechani issued that Dechani Charter in 1330. Listing every single citizen in every household under the Church Land's demesne.

Serbian Empire and Despotate
King Stefan Dušan founded the vast Monastery of Saint Archaengel near Prizren in 1342-1352. The Kingdom was transformed into an Empire in 1345 and officially in 1346. 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 it was not recognized before 1370.

After the Empire fell into disarray prior to Dušan's 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 Christian coalition under Prince Lazar on 28 June 1389, near Priština, at Gazi Mestan. The Serbian Army was assisted by various allies. 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, 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 on one side, 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, Brankovic's territory, then became vassalaged to the Ottoman Empire, until its direct incorporation as the Viyalet of Kosovo after the final fall of Serbia in 1459.

In 1455, new castles rose to prominence in Priština and Vučitrn, centres of the Ottoman vassalaged House of Branković.

Ottoman rule
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 the Orthodox Serb population began to lose its majority when masses of Turks and Albanians (Muslims) moved to Kosovo. During the Islamisation many Churches and Holy Orthodox Christian places were raised to the ground or turned in to Mosques. The big Monastery of Saint Archangel near Prizren was teared down at the end of the 16th century and the material used to build the Mosque of Sinan-pasha, an Islamized Serb, in Prizren. Although the Serbian Orthodox Church was officially abolished in 1532, an Islamized Serb from Bosnia, Vizier Mehmed-pasha Sokolović influenced the restoration of the Patriarchate of Peć in 1557. Special privalages were provided, which helped the survival of Serbs and other Christians on Kosovo.

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 mostly Serbs, but there where numerious Orthodox Albanians and others too. 20,000 Serbs 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. By the end of the 19th century, Albanians replaced the Serbs as the dominating nation of Kosovo.

In 1766 the Ottomans abolished the Patriarchate of Peć and the position of Christians on Kosovo was greatly reduced. All previous privilages were lost and the Christian population had to suffer the full weight of the Empire's extensive and losing wars, even to take the blame for the losses.

Modern
The arising Principality of Serbia planned a restoration of its rule on Kosovo and Metochia as the Ottoman might crumbled on the Balkan peninsular. The period witnessed a rise of Serbian nationalism, as the Serb elite refused to admit the Albanian national spirit and referred to the Albanians as Arvanites, "Albanians of Serbian origin" or "Albanian-speaking Serbs". Serbia's plans for a post-Ottoman period included the return of Kosovo.

Moslem refugees from the territories conquered in the 1876-1877 Serbo-Turkish war and the 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.

Albanians formed the nationalistic League of Prizren in Prizren in the 19th century. Hundreds of Albanian leaders from Albania gathered and discussed the urgent issues concerning protection of Albanian populated regions from being divided among neighbouring countries. 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 Turks and other Slavs in Kosovo, which disabled the Albanian movements to occupy Kosovo.


 * See also: Serbia in WWI

In 1912 during the Balkan Wars, most of Kosovo was liberated by the Kingdom of Serbia, while the region of Metohija (Albanian: Dukagjini Valley) was taken by the Kingdom of Montenegro. An exodus of the local Albanian population occured, according to Soviet propaganda, in Leon Trotsky's reports for the Soviet 'Pravda' newspaper at the time. The Serbian authorities planned a recolonization of Kosovo. Numerious Serb families, were now free to come back to Kosovo, equalizing the demographic balance between Albanians and Serbs.

In the winter of 1915-1916 during World War I Kosovo saw a large exodus of Serbian army; tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians have died of starvation, extreme weather and Albanian reprisals as they were approaching the Allies in Corfu and Thessaloniki. In 1918 the Serbian Army pushed the Central Powers out of Kosovo. Serbian captured Kosovo and Montenegrin annexed Metohija were unified as Montenegro subsequently joined the Kingdom of Serbia. The Monarchy was then transformed into the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.

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 a decline in the non-Serbian. In the Kingdom Kosovo was split onto four counties - three being a part of the entity of Serbia: Zvečan, Kosovo and southern Metohija; and one of Montenegro: northern Metohija. However, the new administration system since 26 April 1922 split Kosovo among three Areas of the Kingdom: Kosovo, Rascia and Zeta.

In 1929 the Kingdom was transformed into the Kingdom of Yugoslavia which the Yugoslav nationality unifying all Kosovan Slavs. The territories of Kosovo were split among the Banate of Zeta, the Banate of Morava and the Banate of Vardar. The Kingdom lasted until the World War II Axis invastion of 1941.

The greatest part of Kosovo became a part of Italian-controlled Fascist Albania, and smaller bits by the Nazi-Fascist Tsardom of Bulgaria and Nazi German-occupied Kingdom of Serbia. Since the Albanian Fascist political leadership had decided in the Conference of Bujan that Kosovo would remain a part of Albania they started an ethnic cleansing campaign of the non-Albanian population, in the Kosovo. The infamous SS Division Skanderbeg committed henious 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 the region. After numerous uprisings of Serbian Chetniks and Yugoslav Partisans, the latter being lead by Fadil Hoxha, Kosovo was liberated after 1944 with the help of the Albanian partisans of the Comintern, and became a province of Serbia within the Democratic Federal Yugoslavia.

Kosovo in the Second Yugoslavia
The Province of Kosovo (official name was Kosovo i Metohija, shorthned Kosmet) was formed in 1945 as an autonomous region to protect its regional Albanian majority within the People's Republic of Serbia as a member of the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia under the leadership of the former Partisan leader, Josip Broz Tito, but with no factual autonomy. After the Yugoslavia's name change to the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Serbia's to the Socialist Republic of Serbia in 1953, the Autonomous Region of Kosovo and gained inner autonomy in the 1960s. In the 1974 constitution, the Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo's 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 Federation, but remaining as a Socialist Autonomous Region within the Socialist Republic of Serbia. Serbo-Croatian and Albanian were defined official on the Provincial level marking the two largest linguistic Kosovan groups: Serbs and Albanians. 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 increased and dropped 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 becomes a Republic within Yugoslavia. Those protests were harshly contained by the centralist Yugoslav and Serbian governments. 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, by secret police of ex-Yugoslav communist regime. In the essay, SANU portrayed the Serbian people as a victim and called for the revival of Serb nationalism, using both true and greatly exaggerated facts for propaganda. During this time, Slobodan Milošević's rise to power started in the League of the Socialists of Serbia. Milošević used the discontent reflected in the SANU memorandum for his political goals.

Kosovo War
One of the events that contributed to Milošević's rise of power was the Gazimestan Speech, delivered in front of 100,000 Serb citizens 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, as approved by the Assembly in 1990, the autonomy of Kosovo and Metohija was revoked back to the old status. 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. After Slovenia's sescession from Yugoslavia in 1991, Milošević used the seat to attain dominence over the Federal goverment, outvoting his opposers.

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 an unconstitutional Kosovo parliament declared Kosovo an independent country, although this was not recognized by the Goverment. 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, in 1992, the Parliament 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 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 Serbian refugees from Croatia and Bosnia to Kosovo.

After the Dayton Agreement in 1995, extremist Albanians organized into the Kosovo Liberation Army, described by one American official (Robert Gelbard) as terror group http://www.cfr.org/publication/10159/terrorist_groups_and_political_legitimacy.html#4 with special ties, as often claimed in Western media, with radical islamistic groups. Serbian and Albanian civilians were also involved in the clashes between Serbian security forces and Albanian terror groups. 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 2,800 people of Serb origin are still missing, believed dead. According to OSCE numbers and Kosovar Albanian sources on population size and distribution, an estimated 45.7% of the Albanian population and 59.5% of the Serb population had fled Kosovo during the bombings (i.e. from 23 March to 9 June 1999).

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 numerious UNESCO World Heritage sites destroyed by the Albanian para-military forces is King Stefan Milutin's grave, Our Lady of Ljeviš Orthodox Cathedral from the 12th century in Prizren. In total, 156 Orthodox Serb Churches and Monasteries were destroyed 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. The security of the minorities, must be provided by Kosovo Albanian governments, but it is disputed if the Kosovo Albanian Institutions can grant these guarantees.

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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