Kosovo and Metohija: Nine centuries after

Abstract

Kosovo and Metohija, the Serbian southern province, is marked by an extremely dynamic and turbulent history. It occupies the area where various nations and their rulers met and clashed over centuries (and millennia). In the early Middle Ages, the territory of Kosovo and Metohija was settled by the Slavs, who met and clashed with the natives called Albanians. Several centuries later, the territory came under the rule of the medieval Serbian rulers, who were replaced by the Ottoman conquerors some 300 years later. The reintegration of Kosovo and Metohija into Serbia, five hundred years later, was done in very specific, war conditions. For as long as nine centuries, two ethnic groups Serbs and Albanians, of different languages, civilizations and religions, have dwelled in Kosovo and Metohija. Love, harmony and understanding between them have almost never been enviable. The culmination of discord erupted to the surface at the end of the 20th century, resulting in the aggression of NATO forces against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia / Serbia, and in the violent secession of Kosovo and Metohija from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Serbia. Occupation of Kosovo and Metohija and the unilateral declaration of independence of Kosovo, under immediate support and assistance of the most powerful and influential international actors, have created an extremely complex situation, intractable for Serbia. Starting exactly from the above-mentioned, the author analyzes the origins of development and the currently existing situation in Kosovo, and Serbia's relations with its southern province, trying to look at possible ways out of the situation of stagnation and decline towards the state of prosperity, peace and security in the region. .