What do you know about... Kosovo?

[u/MarktpLatz]

This is the thirty-second part of our ongoing series about the countries of Europe. You can find an overview here.

Today's country:

Kosovo

Kosovo is a partially recognized state in the balkan. It belonged to the Ottoman empire from the 15th until the beginning of the 20th century. After being part of Yugoslavia for most of the 20th century, Kosovo unilaterally declared independence in 2008. It has been recognized as a country by 111 nations, but Serbia refuses to recognize it as a souverign state. Notable european countries refusing to recognize Kosovo include Spain (because of separatist movements in Spain), Greece and Russia (there are several more, you can check the list linked).

So, what do you know about Kosovo?

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Major thanks to /u/our_best_friend, who took care of these threads during my absence.

[u/Anton-Slavik]

Given that the OP has avoided saying anything about Kosovo & Metohija before the Ottoman occupation in the OP, avoided saying it was part of Serbia at all, there's an implied bias to be read in between the lines.

[u/Guckfuchs → u/Anton-Slavik]

No, you're the one who reads that bias into the OP. That text isn't supposed to lay out the entire history of Kosovo nor is it about the various arguments Serbs and Albanians use to claim that region for themselves. Those are simply some short lines meant to start a general discussion about Kosovo. If you want part of that discussion to be about how Kosovo was also part of Serbia for much of the 20th century or about how it was ruled by Serbian princes before the Ottoman conquest then you're perfectly fine to state those facts. But baseless accusations of bias are simply rude. So is calling the OP factually incorrect when it actually isn't.

[u/Guckfuchs → u/[deleted]]

I know that this is the point you're trying to make. But to be honest you're not really doing a good job at it. Yes, Serbia is omitted but so are the Albanians living in Kosovo. One might be tempted to think the OP was formulated in this way to be as neutral as possible. It doesn't need to lay out any arguments that could justify why Kosovo should still be considered as part of Serbia. It doesn't do so for the Albanian side either. That you'd call it biased despite of that says a lot more about your own position than about OP's.

[u/Guckfuchs → u/[deleted]]

What are you talking about? Albanians have clearly been omitted from the OP. They aren’t even mentioned once. Even Serbia is more a presence in that text than they are. Them being a core part of the issue is knowledge that you bring to the table and not something spelled out or even implied by the OP. If it’s really enough just to mention the name Kosovo in order to thereby imply its Albanian population then it should also suffice to just mention Yugoslavia and expect people to know that Kosovo was a part of Serbia within that larger entity.

It’s also made quite clear that there are in fact issues with Kosovo’s independence. Otherwise they wouldn’t have declared it unilaterally like the OP describes it.

Maybe you, from your supposedly unbiased point of view, can explain to me what kind of horse the person that posted this threat has in this race? Where exactly lie his or her biases?