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Post by Duke John on May 30, 2009 9:39:51 GMT -5
"Kosovo is Serbia", "Ask any historian" read the unlikely placards, waved by angry Serb demonstrators in Brussels on Sunday. This is rather flattering for historians: we don't often get asked to adjudicate. It does not, however, follow that any historian would agree, not least because historians do not use this sort of eternal present tense. History, for the Serbs, started in the early 7th century, when they settled in the Balkans. Their power base was outside Kosovo, which they fully conquered in the early 13th, so the claim that Kosovo was the "cradle" of the Serbs is untrue. What is true is that they ruled Kosovo for about 250 years, until the final Ottoman takeover in the mid-15th century. Churches and monasteries remain from that period, but there is no more continuity between the medieval Serbian state and today's Serbia than there is between the Byzantine Empire and Greece. Kosovo remained Ottoman territory until it was conquered by Serbian forces in 1912. Serbs would say "liberated"; but even their own estimates put the Orthodox Serb population at less than 25%. The majority population was Albanian, and did not welcome Serb rule, so "conquered" seems the right word. But legally, Kosovo was not incorporated into the Serbian kingdom in 1912; it remained occupied territory until some time after 1918. Then, finally, it was incorporated, not into a Serbian state, but into a Yugoslav one. And with one big interruption (the second world war) it remained part of some sort of Yugoslav state until June 2006. Until the destruction of the old federal Yugoslavia by Milosevic, Kosovo had a dual status. It was called a part of Serbia; but it was also called a unit of the federation. In all practical ways, the latter sense prevailed: Kosovo had its own parliament and government, and was directly represented at the federal level, alongside Serbia. It was, in fact, one of the eight units of the federal system. Almost all the other units have now become independent states. Historically, the independence of Kosovo just completes that process. Therefore, Kosovo has become an ex-Yugoslav state, as any historian could tell you. · Noel Malcolm is a senior research fellow at All Souls College, Oxford. He is the author of Kosovo: A Short History www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/feb/26/kosovo.serbia
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sojourner01
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Post by sojourner01 on Jun 20, 2009 17:57:06 GMT -5
Kosovo had never formed into a single society. It was an amalgamation of hundreds of autonomous multi-ethnic towns and villages, where Albanians traded with Serbs, Bosniaks, Goran and Roma, and lived in harmony, even praying at the same holy sites. Towns and villages were marginalised by an elite in Pristina. Rural Kosovo resisted the Serbian state between the 1920s and the 1990s because Belgrade wanted to divide Kosovo along racial lines by exaggerating racial differences. I'm a History graduate of the University of Derby, England, class of 2008. I gained specialist knowledge of the Balkans Crisis and Kosovo Conflict. Learn more about Serbian identity and Kosovo Roma on my YouTube channel www.youtube.com/mynextstopkraljevo where you can also learn more about the lighter side to me.
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donnie
Senior Moderator
Nike Leka i Kelmendit
Posts: 3,389
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Post by donnie on Jun 21, 2009 0:48:03 GMT -5
Welcome to the forums. Look forward to see your input.
Could you evaluate a little more? Are you speaking of the Ottoman era ?
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sojourner01
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Post by sojourner01 on Jun 21, 2009 2:11:31 GMT -5
Hi! Animosity between Albanians and Serbs only began to occur in the last quarter of the 19th century until today. Conflict in Kosovo usually occurred as blood feuds between Albanian clans until an external (Serbian) threat became serious enough to cause the Albanian clans to unite against this threat. Unfortunately, many Albanians and Serbs today believe that there has always been an ancient hatred for each other, much more than in Bosnia.
Initially, in the Kosovo conflict of 1998-9, there was no Kosovo Liberation Army, merely dozens of militia acting autonomously to defend their town or village. Serbian nationalists quickly worked to create division in rural Kosovo between Serbs and Albanians through spreading propaganda. When Belgrade launched a full assault on Kosovo, then the Albanian units united and formed the KLA. Rugova and the Democratic League of Kosova did not truly represent all Kosovo Albanians, although this is what he claimed and presented to the international community through the 1990s, simply because there were many multi-ethnic communities, Serbs working with Albanians and others. Rugova was forced to take on this role as a national leader because of the rigid political framework of 'Rugova representing Albanians and Milosevic representing Serbs'. UNMIK, after June 1999, behaved as if there was a single 'Albanian' community, partly because Rugova claimed to represent all Albanians in Kosovo, and allocated 4 seats for it in the Interim Administrative Council, one seat for the 'Serb community', and 4 seats for the 'international communities'. From that moment Kosovo had been given a new identity as a single entity, and all Albanians and Serbs in Kosovo had to go to their 'community' representatives to deal with UNMIK. It is possible that the international community believed that if left alone, Albanians would commit genocide against the remaining Serbs.
Sources: Isa Blumi in 'Understanding the War in Kosovo' edited by F. Bieber and Z Daskalovski, 2003
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sojourner01
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Post by sojourner01 on Jun 21, 2009 2:19:19 GMT -5
Source on mult-ethnic Kosovo study: Ger Duijzings, 'Religion and the Politics of Identity in Kosovo', 2000.
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Post by todhrimencuri on Jun 21, 2009 2:31:43 GMT -5
sojourner, thanks especially for bringing up some of these sources. Ive been meaning to get Duijzings' work for some time now. Have you by any chance looked at Civil Resistance in Kosovo by Howard Clark?
You are right, problems in Kosova really started in the last two centuries with the Serbian revolt. Previously it was common for Albanian lords to actually protect and become benefactors for Serbian institutions (for instance many beys would protect the churches from any threats).
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sojourner01
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Post by sojourner01 on Jun 21, 2009 2:40:37 GMT -5
Hi Toskaliku, thanks for your kind remarks. No, I've not heard of Clark. What's his angle?
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Post by todhrimencuri on Jun 21, 2009 2:46:22 GMT -5
Clark studies the pre-KLA period of resistance in Kosovo. He is heavily interested in passive, non-violent resistance. His main concern is the methods by which Kosovo Albanians attempted to have their voice heard in a non-militant approach between 1980-late 90s and the successes and eventual failure of the movement.
One of his chief figures in the book is Rugova.
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sojourner01
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Post by sojourner01 on Jun 21, 2009 2:57:20 GMT -5
Sounds interesting, I will look him up.
Going offline for a while. Cul8tr.
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Post by Pejoni on Jun 21, 2009 5:34:54 GMT -5
We seem to have a real historian with us, welcome mate.
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Post by captainalbania on May 27, 2010 20:24:30 GMT -5
Well, he didn't last very long did he?
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Post by captainalbania on May 27, 2010 20:26:25 GMT -5
No, the smart ones usually leave and the forum is left to rot at the hands of retards like Pyrros, Deucaon, Patrinos, Mysia, Karta, and Novi Pazar.
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Post by ushtari on Jan 29, 2011 20:00:36 GMT -5
No kosovo is not Serbia. Kosovo(Dardania) is the original home of Albanians.
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Post by la3ar on Jan 29, 2011 20:14:21 GMT -5
No kosovo is not Serbia. Kosovo(Dardania) is the original home of Albanians. You can continue to say it, but it does not make it true. Just ask more than half the world.
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Post by ushtari on Jan 29, 2011 20:19:05 GMT -5
You can continue to say it, but it does not make it true. Just ask more than half the world. I have clearly proven to you that Kosovo(Dardania) is the original home of albanians, in those other threads where we have(are) discussing.
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Post by la3ar on Jan 29, 2011 20:21:00 GMT -5
Where and how have you proved it?
This is a debate that can only go nowhere, do you really have the time to send links back and forth and read them all?
We can argue about the past forever, but the present remains true. Kosovo is not independant. Only a dependant entity in southern serbia, currently occupied by the UN/NATO.
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Post by ushtari on Jan 29, 2011 20:29:26 GMT -5
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Post by la3ar on Jan 29, 2011 20:32:50 GMT -5
Thanks for re-posting what you have already claimed. You have prooved nothing, everything you have argued for has a counter argument for it.
think about it mate, how can you prove such a claim really, without being there? Your argurments are going to be biased no matter what, concidering the heritage you claim to have.
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Post by ushtari on Jan 29, 2011 20:34:41 GMT -5
Thanks for re-posting what you have already claimed. You have prooved nothing, everything you have argued for has a counter argument for it. think about it mate, how can you prove such a claim really, without being there? Your argurments are going to be biased no matter what, concidering the heritage you claim to have. What do you mean by "proven nothing" when my impartial academic sources clearly states that the original home of Albanians is in Balkan?
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Post by la3ar on Jan 29, 2011 20:37:58 GMT -5
So you have no prior history ? You magically appeared in the balkans. Are you denying your indo-european roots?
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