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On June 10, 1999, the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution which ended the war, established a NATO peacekeeping force in Kosovo, and provided for some autonomy which included a 120-member assembly. Over time, Kosovo’s desire for full independence grew.
- Overview
- Ottoman rule
- Kosovo in Yugoslavia
- Self-declared independence
history of Kosovo, a survey of important events and people in Kosovo, from the medieval era to the present. For earlier history and for further discussion of the historical Albanian and Serb populations, see Balkans, Albania, and Serbia.
From late antiquity through the late Middle Ages, much of the Balkans lay within the borderlands of the Byzantine Empire. South Slav peoples, including the Serbs, settled throughout the peninsula from the 6th century ce forward. Meanwhile, an ethnically and linguistically distinct Albanian settlement already had begun to develop in the southwest, in what is now Albania. As Byzantine power waned, the Kosovo region became by the later Middle Ages the centre of the Serbian empire under the Nemanjić dynasty. By available accounts, its population was overwhelmingly Serb but did include a small Albanian minority. Between the mid-12th and the mid-14th century the region was richly endowed with Serbian Orthodox sites, such as the Dečani Monastery (Deçan Monastery; 1327–35) with its more than 1,000 frescoes.
In 1389 at the Battle of Kosovo, fought just west of Pristina, an army of the Turkish Ottoman Empire defeated a force of Serbs and their allies. By the mid-15th century the Turks had established direct rule over all of Serbia, including Kosovo. In the centuries after the Ottoman victory, a significant portion of Kosovo’s Orthodox Serb inhabitants immigrated northward and westward to other territories, while some converted to Islam. Following the repulse of an Austrian invasion in 1690, during which many Serbs sided with the invaders, an estimated 30,000–40,000 Serbs joined their patriarch, Archbishop Arsenije III Crnojević of Peć, in retreating with the Austrian army.
The ethnic balance of the region was changing in favour of Albanian speakers, although it is not clear that they constituted a majority until the 18th century. The abolition in 1766 of the Serbian Orthodox patriarchate at Peć (Pejë) substantially diminished the importance of Kosovo as a Serbian cultural centre. Nevertheless, Kosovo came to symbolize Serbia’s golden age of national greatness. A tradition of epic poetry emerged, in which Kosovo represented Serbs’ national suffering and aspirations. At the same time, ethnic Albanians increasingly identified with the region, and by the late 19th century Prizren had become an important centre of Albanian culture and ethnic identity.
Serbia, which had won independence from the Ottoman Empire early in the 19th century, regained control of Kosovo in 1912, following the First Balkan War, but lost it again in 1915, during World War I. An occupation divided between Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria ended in 1918, leaving Kosovo to be incorporated into the new Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (later renamed Yugoslavia) as a part of Serbia. The advancing Serbian army forced thousands of Kosovar Albanians to flee during 1918–20, and many eventually immigrated to what became Turkey. The new Belgrade government then aided the migration of Serb colonists to Kosovo, despite some resistance from Kosovar Albanians. The Serbs’ numbers increased, but they remained a minority. During World War II, after the Axis powers occupied Yugoslavia in 1941, Kosovo was united with neighbouring Albania under Italian control. Kosovar Albanians then drove out or killed thousands of the interwar Serb colonists.
With the retreat of Axis forces in 1944, ethnic Albanians who wanted Kosovo to remain united with Albania staged a revolt, which was crushed by the Partisan army of Yugoslavia’s new communist government. The postwar government of the new federal Yugoslavia granted Kosovo the status of an autonomous region (and later autonomous province) within the republic of Serbia, but it also continued to suppress nationalist sentiments among Kosovar Albanians.
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From the mid-1960s, however, the Yugoslav government followed policies that acknowledged Albanian ethnic identity and enabled Albanians to advance in provincial and federal administrations. This “Albanization” of the province was also stimulated by the increasing departure of Serbs for Serbia proper. As a result of Serb migration and higher Albanian birth rates, the Albanian share of the population rose from half in 1946 to three-fourths in 1981 and to four-fifths in 1991, by which time the proportion of Serbs had fallen to less than one-fifth.
Under the Yugoslav constitution enacted in 1974, Kosovo’s status as an autonomous province was that of a republic in all but name. Yet sharp rises in international energy prices in 1973 and 1979 placed growing strain on the Yugoslav economy, and conflict deepened among republics over the issue of aid to underdeveloped regions, notably Kosovo. Within the province itself, starting with a student protest in Pristina, there was serious civil disorder in several cities during 1981. The demonstrations spread primarily in response to the authorities’ use of lethal force against the protesters, which resulted in a contested number of deaths.
Talks initiated by the UN in 2005 on the future of Kosovo led in 2007 to a plan, submitted by UN envoy Martti Ahtisaari, that laid the groundwork for self-rule but stopped just short of full independence. Rapid endorsement of the plan by Kosovar Albanians was countered with intransigent opposition from the Serbian government. Months of further talks between Serbian and Kosovar leaders failed to resolve Kosovo’s future status, and by early 2008 Kosovo was determined to secede.
On February 17, 2008, Kosovo formally declared independence. Serbia, backed by Russia, called the declaration illegal. Serbs living in Kosovo largely opposed Kosovar independence as well; they soon elected their own assembly as a direct challenge to Kosovo’s new constitution, which took effect in June. In October the UN General Assembly, following a request by Serbia, submitted the question of the legality of Kosovo’s independence to the International Court of Justice. Meanwhile, Russian objections postponed the withdrawal of the UN mission, which ultimately was expected to transfer its powers of oversight to the European Union (EU). The EU finally deployed its mission, known as Eulex, in December. Eulex, made up of about 2,000 officials from a number of European countries, would oversee police, judicial, and customs activities in Kosovo.
In November 2009, in what many viewed as a test of its commitment to democracy, Kosovo held its first elections since independence. International monitors determined that the process, conducted on the municipal level, was peaceful and, in general, fair, despite the refusal of many of the remaining Serbs to participate. By 2010 a new World Bank loan promised to address the problem of real estate registry (a proper system was needed to ensure transparent property transactions and to protect minority property rights), but a June report of the Council of Europe expressed continuing international concern over the wider judicial reform that would be needed to establish the rule of law. The same concerns informed the decision of the EU to extend the Eulex mission for two years, through mid-2012. The July 2010 decision of the International Court of Justice to recognize Kosovo’s declaration of independence was expected to strengthen the determination of the Kosovar Albanian government and the Eulex authorities, as well to consolidate Kosovo’s sovereignty within its declared borders—largely if not unanimously recognized by the international community.
Meanwhile, the status of the small Serb minority remained unsettled, and the government in Pristina continued to face difficulty in establishing authority over the Serb-dominated areas north of the Ibër (Ibar) River. Obviously unsettled as well were relations with Serbia, still a major trading partner. However, Serbia’s support of a UN resolution passed in September 2010, which called for EU-mediated talks between Serbia and Kosovo, offered some hope for the normalization of relations.
Kosovo’s level of unemployment continued to exceed 40 percent, but economic growth persisted—although at a reduced pace given the international financial crisis that began in 2008 and the attendant drop in remittances sent back from abroad. A young population and a variety of mineral deposits are nonetheless resources to be tapped if Kosovo’s political leadership can respond to the challenges of domestic reform and international accommodation.
In November 2010 the Assembly of Kosovo overwhelmingly passed a motion of no confidence in the country’s minority government, led by Prime Minister Hashim Thaçi of the Democratic Party of Kosovo (Partia Demokratike e Kosovës; PDK), prompting the dissolution of the body and the scheduling of elections. The fall of the government followed the September resignation of Pres. Fatmir Sejdiu, who in October withdrew his Democratic League of Kosovo (Lidhja Demokratike e Kosovës; LDK) from the coalition that had governed Kosovo since independence. The elections, held in December 2010, returned the PDK to power, and Thaçi remained prime minister. Although there were reports of widespread voting irregularities, a revote in January 2011 affirmed the earlier results.
3 days ago · Although the United States and most members of the European Union (EU) recognized Kosovo’s declaration of independence from Serbia in 2008, Serbia, Russia, and a significant number of other countries—including several EU members—did not.
On 17 February 2008, representatives of the people of Kosovo [1] unilaterally declared Kosovo's independence and subsequently adopted the Constitution of Republic of Kosovo, which came into effect on 15 June 2008.
This book tells the story of Kosovo's independence, from the periodic bloodshed of the twentieth century to the diplomacy that led to a determination of Kosovo's final status as a state in 2008. Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia in February 2008, over the objection of Serbia and Russia.
- Henry H. Jr. Perritt
- 2009
On February 17, 2008, Kosovo formally declared independence. Serbia, backed by Russia, called the declaration illegal. Serbs living in Kosovo largely opposed Kosovar independence as well; they soon elected their own assembly as a direct challenge to Kosovo’s new constitution, which took effect in June.
The United States recognized Kosovo’s independence and agreed to establish diplomatic relations on February 18, 2008, when Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice released a press statement announcing President George W. Bush’s decisions.
