Kosovo Serbs

Kosovo Serbs
Serbët në Kosovë (Albanian)
косовски Срби (Serbian)
kosovski Srbi (Serbian)
Girls from Štrpce in Serbian traditional clothing
Regions with significant populations
 Kosovo ca. 95,000[1][2][3]
 Serbia68,514[4]
Languages
Serbian
Religion
Serbian Orthodox Church
Related ethnic groups
Other South Slavs, especially other Serbs.
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Kosovo Serbs are one of the ethnic groups of Kosovo and they form the largest ethnic minority community in Kosovo (5–6%).[1][2][5][6][7][8] The precise number of Kosovo Serbs is difficult to determine as they have boycotted national censuses. However, it is estimated that there are about 95,000 of them, nearly half of whom live in North Kosovo.[3][9] Other Kosovo Serb communities live in the Southern municipalities of Kosovo.[6][10]

The medieval Kingdom of Serbia (1217–1346) and the Serbian Empire (1346–1371) included parts of the territory of Kosovo until its annexation by the Ottomans following the Battle of Kosovo (1389), considered one of the most notable events of Serbian history.[11][12] Afterwards, it was a part of the Serbian Despotate. Modern Serbian historiography considers Kosovo in this period to be the political, religious and cultural core of the medieval Serbian State.[13]

In the Ottoman period (1455–1913), the situation of the Serb population in Kosovo went through different phases. In the 16th century, the Serbian Patriarchate of Peć was re-established and its status strengthened even more. At the end of 18th century, the support of the Patriarchate to the Habsburgs during the Great Turkish War of 1683–1699 triggered a wave of Serb migrations to locations under the control of the Habsburg monarchy.[14] After the independence of the Principality of Serbia to its north, Kosovo came increasingly to be seen by the mid-19th century as the "cradle of Serb civilization" and called the "Serbian Jerusalem". Kosovo was annexed by the Kingdom of Serbia in 1912, following the First Balkan War.

As a region of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Kosovo was divided in several banovinas. In the pre-World War II period, the Yugoslav colonisation of Kosovo took place which aimed to increase the number of Serbs in Kosovo with colonists from Central Serbia and Montenegro. After World War II, Kosovo's districts were reunited. They were referred to as the Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo. Serbs were one of the people of the province within the Socialist Republic of Serbia (1944–1992). As a result of the Kosovo War and following by its declaration of independence, in 2008 it is partially recognized by the international community. Serbs are the second largest community in Kosovo.[6][10]

More than half of Kosovo's pre-1999 Serb population (226,000),[15] including 37,000 Romani, 15,000 Balkan Muslims (including Ashkali, Bosniaks, and Gorani), and 7,000 other non-Albanian civilians were expelled to central Serbia and Montenegro, following the Kosovo War.[16] According to the 2013 Brussels Agreement the establishment of a Community of Serb Municipalities, a self-governing association of municipalities with a majority Serb population in Kosovo is proposed.

  1. ^ a b Cocozelli 2016, p. 267
  2. ^ a b Judah, Tim (7 November 2019). "Kosovo's demographic destiny looks eerily familiar". Balkan Insight.
  3. ^ a b "Statistics, lies and confusion in Kosovo" (PDF). esiweb.org. European Stability Initiative. 19 February 2024.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference UNHCR2019 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ "Kosovo Population 2019". 28 July 2019. Archived from the original on 28 July 2019. Retrieved 11 July 2021.
  6. ^ a b c Khakee, Anna; Florquin, Nicolas (1 June 2003). "Kosovo: Difficult Past, Unclear Future" (PDF). Kosovo and the Gun: A Baseline Assessment of Small Arms and Light Weapons in Kosovo. 10. Small Arms Survey: 4–6. JSTOR resrep10739.9. Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 June 2022. Retrieved 3 March 2023. Kosovo—while still formally part of the so-called State Union of Serbia and Montenegro dominated by Serbia—has, since the war, been a United Nations protectorate under the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK). [...] However, members of the Kosovo Serb minority of the territory (circa 6–7 per cent in 2000) have, for the most part, not been able to return to their homes. For security reasons, the remaining Serb enclaves are, in part, isolated from the rest of Kosovo and protected by the multinational NATO-led Kosovo Force (KFOR).
  7. ^ "Kosovo Demographics". CIA Factbook. 28 December 2021.
  8. ^ "Community Profile: Serb Community" (PDF). ECMI Kosovo. 2013. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 January 2017. Retrieved 29 January 2017.
  9. ^ Cocozelli 2016, p. 267.
  10. ^ a b Keil, Soeren (December 2017). "The Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Kosovo" (PDF). European Review of International Studies. 4 (2–3). Leiden and Boston: Brill Nijhoff: 39–58. doi:10.3224/eris.v4i2-3.03. ISSN 2196-7415. JSTOR 26593793.
  11. ^ Cox 2002, p. 29.
  12. ^ Šuica 2011, p. 152-174.
  13. ^ Ivić 1995.
  14. ^ Casiday, Augustine (2012), The Orthodox Christian World (PDF), Routledge, p. 135
  15. ^ "Интерно расељена и прогнана лица са Косова и Метохије".
  16. ^  • Vladisavljević, Nebojša (2012). "Kosovo and Two Dimensions of the Contemporary Serb-Albanian Conflict". In Hudson, Robert; Bowman, Glenn (eds.). After Yugoslavia: Identities and Politics Within the Successor States. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 29–30. doi:10.1057/9780230305137_3. ISBN 9780230201316. Retrieved 12 December 2022.
     • Wills, Siobhán (2009). Protecting Civilians: The Obligations of Peacekeepers. Oxford University Press. p. 219. ISBN 978-0-19-953387-9. Retrieved 12 December 2022.
     • "Abuses against Serbs and Roma in the new Kosovo". Human Rights Watch. August 1999. Archived from the original on 13 November 2022. Retrieved 12 December 2022.
     • "The Violence: Ethnic Albanian Attacks on Serbs and Roma". Human Rights Watch. July 2004. Archived from the original on 12 July 2022. Retrieved 12 December 2022.
     • "Kosovo Crisis Update". UNHCR. 4 August 1999. Archived from the original on 2 July 2022. Retrieved 12 December 2022.
     • "Forced Expulsion of Kosovo Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians from OSCE Participated state to Kosovo". OSCE. 6 October 2006. Archived from the original on 28 May 2022. Retrieved 12 December 2022.