Is Kosovo Serbia? We ask a historian

[prishtina]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/feb/26/k...

The Guardian,
Article history

"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

[Anonymous]

prishtina wrote:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worl d/2008/feb/26/kosovo.serbia?fb =native&CMP=FBCNETTXT9038
The Guardian,
Article history
"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

Vojvodina as a separate unit should also secede from Serbia, the sooner the better.

[prishtina]

Serbia must rewrite their history based on facts not myths !

[shiptara jebu magarca]

prishtina wrote:

Serbia must rewrite their history based on facts not myths !

your stupid, gaurdian hehehehehehe and dummy it was never shitbanian lands so read it closely now go fck your mother ,fool.

[Anonymous]

shiptara jebu magarca wrote:

<quoted text> your stupid, gaurdian hehehehehehe and dummy it was never shitbanian lands so read it closely now go fck your mother ,fool.

Yes I agree that Serbian history must be rewritten. No other way!

[prishtina]

shiptara jebu magarca wrote:

<quoted text> your stupid, gaurdian hehehehehehe and dummy it was never shitbanian lands so read it closely now go fck your mother ,fool.

hi Winnipeg, did you hear what Tadic said about "RS"?

[prishtina]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/feb/26/k...

[Malu]

We should ask a Serbian histrian because serbs know everything while everyone else doesnt know and lie!

[prishtina]

Malu wrote:

We should ask a Serbian histrian because serbs know everything while everyone else doesnt know and lie!

I`M SICK OF THEIR LIES! AND THANK GOD EVERYONE ALREADY KNOWS WHO THEY ARE AND THAT THEIR WRITTEN HISTORY IS FULL OF SHIT!
LOL!
SERBS ARE A JOKE!

[prishtina]

Serbian written history is full of shit, I cant believe what were they thinking, the truth always comes out!

[Stern des Sudens]

Of course Kosovo is not Servia ! Who thinks the opposite....

jebem ja majku, seku, sve zive i mrtve... mamicu vam kurvavu u picku da vam jebem servi - smrdi !

[prishtina]

Svrbs keep denying it

[goat lover]

Stern des Sudens wrote:

Of course Kosovo is not Servia ! Who thinks the opposite....
jebem ja majku, seku, sve zive i mrtve... mamicu vam kurvavu u picku da vam jebem servi - smrdi !

vasojevicu nismo te tako ucili.

[J Tea]

shiptara jebu magarca wrote:

<quoted text> your stupid, gaurdian hehehehehehe and dummy it was never shitbanian lands so read it closely now go fck your mother ,fool.

Guardian not good, but BBC good. F U mofo.

[Stern des Sudens]

The Republic of Kosovo, as a new country, should get rid of everything that servs built after 90's, in order of falsifying Kosovos' geography and history !

[prishtina]

Even serbs know that their entire written "history" is a BS!

[Beast]

prishtina wrote:

Even serbs know that their entire written "history" is a BS!

Albanian bitch you even doesn't have history
Caucasian Albania
http://www.youtube.com/watch...

[prishtina]

Beast wrote:

<quoted text>
Albanian bitch you even doesn't have history
Caucasian Albania
http://www.youtube.com/watch...

hahaha you and your youtube sources....lol!

[Moj Kita]

prishtina wrote:

Even serbs know that their entire written "history" is a BS!

Hahaha you have no history and Kosovo belongs to Srbija and all you stinky shitbans know it

[Beast]

prishtina wrote:

<quoted text>
hahaha you and your youtube sources....lol!

Your pathetic youtube sources -videos are even more horrible