Saying it, so you don’t have to:
These are a perfect examples of Serbian Nationalistic Propaganda facts.
Fact 1. When Serbs settled the Balkans in the 6th and 7th centuries, and in subsequent centuries, they fought the Byzantine and Ottoman Turkish Empire. Not Albanians. See the Wikipedia encyclopedia.
• Do you know the meaning of the word Empire? Check Wikipedia that says: An empire (from the Latin “imperium”, denoting military command within the ancient Roman government) is a state that extends dominion over populations distinct culturally and ethnically from the culture/ethnicity at the center of power. The Byzantine and Ottoman Empires were not mono-ethnic Empires of just Ottoman or Byzantine. They were multiethnic since they conquered different countries. The Byzantines were part of the former Roman Empire which was not only comprised of Italican Romans but Greeks, Macedonians, Britons, Goths, Illyrians, Germans etc. Ottomans conquered Greeks, Albanians, Arabs, Slavs, Hungarians etc. Albanians were part of those empires and Slavs settled in those areas due to wars and acceptance. And who lived in those lands in your opinion, Elves and unicorns?
. Fact 2. Only Albanians claim to be descendants of the ancient Illyrians but most of the world does not support this theory. See the Wikipedia encyclopedia. In any case, Serbs did not fight the Illyrians, because the Illyrians were not there when Serbs had initially settled the Balkans.
• An ongoing discussion is still going for the descendants of Albanians. Most accept that Albanians and descendants of the Illyrians. But they claim to be Illyrian because they know they are. And according to Serbian texts who lived there before they moved in? Not “Byzantines”.
Fact 3. Kosovo was the center of Serbian statehood, medieval Empire and the birthplace of the Serbian Orthodox Church. Numerous medieval churches and monasteries, which Albanians are now destroying, testify to the centuries of Serbian religion, culture, history and civilization in the area.
• The center of Serbian statehood was Raska further north not Kosova. This ideology was changed only in the late 19th century so to make claim in those lands Kosova was in Serbian hands for a couple centuries. Just because there are old Serbian churches it doesn’t make it Serbian by default. Because there are ottoman mosques in Serbia does it make it Turk land? Or Roman ruins in England and France does it make them Italian lands?
Fact 4. In 1389 Serbs fought the Ottoman Turks at Kosovo, not Albanians. When Kosovo was not part of Serbia (from 1389 till 1912), it was part of the Ottoman Turkish Empire, not part of Albania.
• The forces against the Ottomans were not only comprised of Serbs. There were also Bulgarians, Bosnians, Albanians, Poles, and Hungarians. The Ottomans also had Serbians with them as the Turkish army was helped by the Serbians such as a noble Konstantin Dejanovic. But Serbians are the only ones to use this as a nationalistic anchor. Check history books.
Fact 5. From 1912 till 1999 Kosovo was part of Serbia and, later, Yugoslavia.
• The Young Turk movement supported a centralist rule and opposed any sort of autonomy desired by Kosovars, and particularly the Albanians. In 1910, an Albanian uprising spread from Pristina and lasted until the Ottoman Sultan’s visit to Kosovo in June of 1911. In 1912, during the Balkan Wars, most of Kosova was captured 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 occurred. This was described by Leon Trotsky, who was a reporter for the Pravda newspaper at the time. The Serbian authorities planned a recolonization of Kosova. Numerous colonist Serb families moved into Kosova, equalizing the demographic balance between Albanians and Serbs. Kosova’s status within Serbia was finalised the following year at the Treaty of London.] In the winter of 1915-1916, during World War I, Kosova saw a large exodus of the Serbian army which became known as the Great Serbian Retreat, as Kosova was occupied by Bulgarians and Austro-Hungarians. In 1918, the Serbian Army pushed the Central Powers out of Kosova. After World War I ended, the Monarchy was then transformed into the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians on 1 December 1918. In the conference of ambassadors Kosova was not inclued in the Serbian realms.
Fact 6. Until the beginning of WW 2, Serbs were the absolute majority population in Kosovo. Fact 7. The only time Kosovo had EVER been part of Albania was under a Greater Albanian state created by Hitler during WW 2. That should hardly count as relevant.
• Serbs never even in the zenith of the empires were comprised more than 20% of the Kosovo population. The 1918–1929 period of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians witnessed a rise of the Serbian population in the region. Kosova was split into four counties, three being a part of Serbia (Zvečan, Kosova 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 and the territories of Kosovo were reorganised among the Banate of Zeta, the Banate of Morava and the Banate of Vardar. The Kingdom of Yugoslavia lasted until the World War II Axis invasion of 1941, when the greatest part of Kosova became a part of Italian-controlled Albania, and smaller bits by the Tsardom of Bulgaria and German-occupied Military Administration of Serbia. After numerous uprisings of Partisans led by Fadil Hoxha, Kosova 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.
Fact 8. The genocide of Serbs by Albanians in WW 2, followed by Tito’s Communism – which favored relations with Albanian dictator Enver Hoxha thus forbidding Kosovo Serbs to return to Kosovo after the war, the decades of flow of illegal aliens from Albania proper into Kosovo, along with the fact most Albanians have 8 or 10 members per family, and the rise of Albanian separatism and later terror, all contributed to the decrease of the Serbian population and to the increase of the Albanian population in Kosovo. That does not make it automatically their land.
• Genocide has been done to both ethnicities I’ll not disagree on that. But there were not a lot of Albanian migrations from Albania as are claimed by Serbian authorities. During Enver Hoxha’s regime Albania’s borders were closed thus isolated and mass migrations were not possible. Since Kosovar Albanians were primarily rural and rural areas have a higher population growth than urban areas the rate of growth was greater than the mainly urban Serbs. The growth rate was systematic with growth in rural areas of Bosnia, Serbia etc. The area had always more Albanians that Serbians.
Fact 9. According to UN Resolution 1244 adopted in 1999, Kosovo is legally still part of Serbia and Yugoslavia (now the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro), and it’s officially and internationally still called Kosovo, not Kosova, as the Albanians insist on calling it. In a similar way, the Albanians of Kosovo should not be called Kosovars, because that implies to a separate nation or state, which is not the case. They should be called Kosovo Albanians.
• UN resolution 1244 was made to make a temporary stability in the region so the future was to be determined. There is no Union of Serbia & Montenegro since Montenegro is an independent country. It is called Kosovo since it had been administered by FYR and it was called Kosovo in that language. Kosova is in Albanian. We as Albanians form Albania call Kosovo Albanians as Kosovars or Albanian. There is no difference to us.
Fact 10. If Kosovo is given independence, by the same criteria the Basque region, Corsica, Chechnya, Kurdistan, the Tamil-Tiger controlled part of Sri Lanka, Kashmir, perhaps even Texas and many other places in the world should be given independence.
• Kosovo won its independence militarily and morally. Military due to NATO intervention. Morally through the despicable actions of the Serbs. All of the nations above if they can fulfill these criteria they can win independence just like Serbia did against the Turks with Russian help. Serbs lost Kosovo/a. That’s the end of Argument. If they want to regain it, there’s 2 ways. 1. to attack and occupy it. 2. To get into the EU with Kosova as independent nations, remove barriers and enter the European community of nations. Otherwise stop on who was first or who built what and when and face reality as hard as it seems Kosova is Independent. Nothing will change that. It’s a simple argument and a simple answer. Stop acting like a kid that lost its lollypop because he threw it in the trashcan. Complain all you want but it’ll not solve anything. Work together for a common resolve.
