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/Porodicnostablo]

Kosovo is a relatively modern name for two neighboring, historically and culturally connected regions - Kosovo and Metohija, which I will refer to, for simplicity, as just "Kosovo".

A region inhabited by the Slavs after the Slavic settlement of the Balkans in the 6th & 7th centuries, it was ruled by the Byzantines, by the Bulgarian Empire for a number of periods, before finally being continually part of the Serbian state after Serbia became independent from Constantinople, 12th-15th centuries. This was a Golden Age for Serbia in the Middle Ages, and in the 13th and 14th century, at the height of the state's power, Kosovo was the center of the state. (Earlier, in the 12th century, and later, in the 15th century, Serbia's capitals and rulers mostly resided north of Kosovo). During this time, Serbian rulers built their endowments - beautiful monasteries like Pecka Patrijarsija, Decani, Gracanica, Bogorodica Ljeviska, Sveti Arhangeli near Prizren (destroyed by the Ottomans) etc. These monasteries and churches are very important to the Serbs and many are UNESCO World Heritage sites. Also, the epic Battle of Kosovo, embedded in Serbian folk stories, legends and songs took place there.

Serbs made up the majority of the population back then. However, after Ottoman arrival, already in the 16th century a lot of the villages are Albanian, as evident from the Turkish censuses, up to 10% in certain areas. Furthermore, in 1690 and 1737/9 Serbs leave Kosovo in great numbers, fleeing north (due to wars and confrontations with the Turks) and Albanians, which is completely natural, slowly settle the deserted lands. Some highland tribes of Montenegro will also, to a lesser degree, settle here. This trend will continue all the time (why and under which circumstances depended on many things) and by 1878 at the latest, Serbs will stop being the majority in Kosovo, and Albanians will become the majority. By 1912, when Serbia finally liberates Kosovo from the Turks, Albanians already have a significant majority in Kosovo, and they don't want a Serbian rule :)

After some attempts at settling some more Serbs from other regions to Kosovo after WW1 and before WW2, which will be only partially successful, the trend of Serbs moving out of Kosovo will continue after WW2 until this day. Meanwhile, Albanians will rebel in Kosovo all the time, in 1944, 1968, 1981, 1989/90, 1991 etc, wanting more autonomy and independence. This will finally escalate to an international war in 1999, and bloody conflicts in Kosovo itself in 1998 and 1999. After the war of 1999, Kosovo not de jure, but de facto, became independent, from Serbia at least :) Although many Serbs find it hard to accept this, it is a fact, and I believe there is no logical possible way for Kosovo to become Serbia again. USA, UK, Australia etc have acknowledged that, Russia, China, India, Spain etc have not - each have their own personal reasons and it's pure interest on all sides!

What is important for the Albanians is to build a strong economy and a functioning, stable society.

However, it is important for the West to realize that currently the little remaining Serbs and their property, graveyards, and medieval churches and monuments, are endangered or very endangered (in some parts of Kosovo) and, in other parts, Serbs are not under danger, but are de facto 2nd class citizens. The West, who are the power holders in Kosovo, need to make sure Serbs and their cultural heritage in Kosovo remain safe.

[u/Guckfuchs → u/Porodicnostablo]

Great write-up! It’s always nice to see a more balanced assessment of such a complicated situation. Not an easy thing to write one when even seemingly neutral descriptions of events can unwittingly favor one side of the story over another. For this reason I’d like to highlight this specific part:

By 1912, when Serbia finally liberates Kosovo from the Turks,

I’m not accusing you of bias but I would question whether Serbia’s acquisition of Kosovo should objectively be called a liberation. I know that it’s the usual term used when describing the expansion of the independent Balkan states into Ottoman territory. A geographical region itself can obviously be neither free nor suppressed and it’s clear to everyone the liberation refers to how the people living in it felt about that change in rulership. But the Ottoman Balkans were an ethnically and religiously very diverse place and it’s only natural that not every group experienced those political upheavals in the same way.

Here specifically it implies that the people of Kosovo were under some kind of bondage under Ottoman rule that was removed by the arrival of the Serbian army. Now I don’t doubt that the Serbs living there felt a lot freer in their own nation state than under the Ottomans but what about Kosovo’s Albanian majority? To them it must have come much closer to a conquest by a foreign power than a liberation. What looks like liberty to one side might seem like colonial rule to another.

[u/Porodicnostablo → u/Guckfuchs]

Yes, this is a legitimate question. The Serbs of Kosovo viewed the events of 1912 as liberation of course. Albanians had a more ambiguous attitude towards the Ottoman Empire, a times fighting it, and at times fighting against it, but they, of course, viewed the arrival of a Serb government not as liberation - rather, they organized several armed insurgencies during the following decade. In 1912 Serbs made up about one third of the population, with the exact percent varying from area to area and from city to city.

One should, of course, ask how legitimate was the Serbian taking of Kosovo, or at least parts of it. At the time, of course, almost no one wanted or dared to ask that question, as all Balkan nations were doing the same thing. (Small reminder, in 1912, after liberation or "liberation", Serbia incorporated three quarters of Kosovo, while the remaining was incorporated into Montenegro, the smaller of the two allied states).

Anyways, not in order to defend the actions of the Serbs, but just to shed some more light, I must say. The Albanians who arrived to Kosovo in the late 17th-early 19th century period, came from the famous, heroic highland tribes (fisi) of today's North Albania. So, the Kelmendi, Hoti, Dukagini, Dibri etc. They were (and many still are) Catholic Christians in Albania. Religion was, however, never too important for Albanians (I'm generalizing) and the most important things were the tribal pride, respect, heroism etc. So, when an Albanian group came from Malesia (North Albania) to Kosovo in, for example, 1740, they were Catholics. In 1-2 generations, as a rule of thumb, they would convert to Islam. Why? Because they viewed religion as a secondary thing, and becoming Muslim allowed them to be able to legally carry weapons (which was strictly forbidden for Christians in the Ottoman empire), have lower taxes than the Orthodox/Catholic etc. This lead them to a, lets say, far better position than their neighbor Serbs. In the following 200 years, and I don't want to start a comment war, but that's how it was, the Albanians would be able to kinda bully the Serbs, steal from them etc, because they faced little or no consequences from the Turks. Sometimes, they committed even worse crimes, but never mind. The Evidence for this are the thousands of letters of priests, bishops and others from Kosovo to the Sultan, to the government in Istanbul, asking for protection. These events were instrumental in lowering the number of Serbs in Kosovo in the 18th-early 20th century. Why did I write all of this - When Serbia planed to "liberate" Kosovo, it's historic and holy land, they knew they'll find a region with only a third of population being Serbian. But, because of all these hardships, they felt the fact there's an Albanian majority in Kosovo is a consequence of the criminal, unlawful and long occupation of Kosovo by the Ottomans, which allowed Albanians to do "whatever they want". The Serbs didn't view the Majority of the Albanians as a "legitimate" thing. So, these are not my views, but I just tried to explain the state of things back then.

[u/Should_have_listened → u/Porodicnostablo]

should of

Did you mean should have?

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This is a bot account.

[u/[deleted] → u/Guckfuchs]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massacres_of_Albanians_in_the_Balkan_Wars

Not even the Serbs saw it as any liberation. It was about conquering lands.

"We have carried out the attempted premeditated murder of an entire nation. We were caught in that criminal act and have been obstructed. Now we have to suffer the punishment.... In the Balkan Wars, Serbia not only doubled its territory, but also its external enemies." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimitrije_Tucovi%C4%87 Who himself participated in it.

[u/srpskicetnik → u/[deleted]]

Too bad more weren't massacred. I absolutely love how the Albanians always play the victim in every case. You portray yourself as angels that can do no harm. Let's be real.

[u/atred → u/Porodicnostablo]

The West, who are the power holders in Kosovo, need to make sure Serbs and their cultural heritage in Kosovo remain safe.

I think Serbia could help, they could recognize Kosovo independence and free other countries to do that under the clear condition to protect Serbian minorities and monuments, that would be the logic step.

[u/Porodicnostablo → u/atred]

I guess so, but it's gonna be hard. The degree of mistrust is enormous.

[u/A3xMlp → u/atred]

That won´t work. It just won´t. And no offense to the OP, but you can´t possibly believe the west gives a damn bout us or our heritage. In fact, it´s in their interest for it to be destroy, to remove any trace of us being there and give their Albanian puppets full control.

[u/atred → u/A3xMlp]

I don't believe in fuzzy concepts as "the West" nor do I think there's a single hive mind "the West", people and countries act following their interests and more or less some principles. I don't think it's in the interest of "the West" to put down Serbs and put up Albanians. At most in their interest it would be to be peace and that people won't run from those countries to the West too seek refuge, stability is in the interest of everybody. Also it's not in the interest of the West to have cultural heritage destroyed if anything people in the West are interested in preserving heritage. The issue here is that is a matter between Serbs and Albanians in Kosovo and it's better if it's solved with an understanding between them. Just dragging things on and leaving things undecided and Kosovo not recognized will only give incentive to Albanians to treat Serbs in a bad way to get rid of them and to erase any trace of Serbian culture, if there are was treaty they would get something in exchange of something else, that's how things work in the world, and they will have an incentive to keep their part of the deal to get the other part of the deal. If you have no deal there's no incentive to not misbehave.

[u/A3xMlp → u/atred]

You make the west here seem like the good guys. Of course the people don´t have a hive mind. But the governments do. Kosovo, and all the wars here, is no different than Iraq, Libya or Syria. We didn´t dance to their tune, we payed the price. They do want to prop up the Albanians. They are their allies. They have streets named after Bill Clinton, golden statues of him, they call children tonibler, as in Tony Blair. On the other hand we are historically Russian allies, and they hate Russia cause Putin has the balls to stand up to them. It´s all part of the global geopolitical game.

They don´t care our heritage sites, why would they? What do they gain from them. And if you really think the Albs will leave us alone if we recognize them you´re wrong. They´ll want Preševo next, and half of FYROM, plus maybe a couple chunks of Montenegro and Greece. They didn´t leave us alone back when the Turks were in charge, when neither side was in power. Instead they used their Muslim privileges to bully our people away.

[u/atred → u/A3xMlp]

On the other hand we are historically Russian allies

I guess at some point you need to choose your sides, if you think Russians care about Serbian heritage more than the "West" (and can protect it) then go for it.

[u/A3xMlp → u/atred]

Course they don´t care. There´s only interests in geopolitics. And it just so happens that our and Russia´s interests align. As they have for most of our history. But I do believe in brotherhood between two people, independent of the politicians. I certainly believe that exists between us and the Russians, which is simply isn´t the case with the major EU powers. Being culturally similar and allied for centuries will lead to that. Overall I believe Russians to be much trier friends than, let´s say the Germans, who tried to destroy us twice.