Kosovo: How the Kosovar territory can get developing economically and culturally through its

After the First World War country was united with other Slav territories to form Yugoslavia. At the time, the population of Bosnia consisted of over 1,300,000 Serbs which were Orthodox Catholic Christians, million Muslim Bosnians and around 700,000 of Croats. They all were strong attached to this land by the historical and local claims. After the death of Josip Broz Tito, elections in 1990 brought nationalists to power in Slovenia, Macedonia and Croatia, which declared independence in 1991 and were recognised internationally. The Leader of Bosnia’s, Alija Izetbegovic called for independence too, and the country was recognised as independent by the USA and the EU in 1992. However, Bosnia’s Serbs weren’t happy because they wanted to be part of “Greater Serbia”. a Serbian named Slobodan Milosevic, a former Communist responded to Bosnian’s declaration of independence by attacking and bombarding the capital city, Sarajevo. Serbs shot down civilians in the streets, including over 3,500 children.

Serbians held an “ethnic cleansing” for anyone who was non-Serbian. Most non-Serbians did not correspond with the political and religious background which led to war and the Bosnian Genocide(”Bosnian” 1). The two genocides were both influential in making the world come together and work for the better good, yet they do differ in how they were conducted. Although the genocides of the Jewish ethnicity and Bosnian Muslims have comparisons, there are many differences in the processes on how and why people were killed.

One of the youngest nations of Europe, Yugoslavia was created after World War I as a homeland for several different rival ethnic groups. The country was put together mostly from remnants of the collapsed Ottoman Empire and Austria-Hungary. Demands for self-determination by Slovenes, Croats, Serbs, and others were ignored. Yugoslavia thus became an uneasy association of peoples conditioned by centuries of ethnic and religious hatreds. World War II aggravated these rivalries, but Communist dictatorship after the war controlled them for 45 years. When the Communist system failed, the old rivalries reasserted themselves; and in the early 1990s the nation was rent by secessionist movements and civil war. Within several years these conflicts

Albania, a small country located in Southeastern Europe, is a nation that does not have a true identity – its people are Muslim and Christian, it is a country that is both and poor, it is as much urban as it is rural, and has evolved from monarchy to socialism and now to fledgling democracy. In other words, Albania and its people have seen it all. The extremes of Albanian society are vivid, and underlying tensions are evident. But Albania is not "another Yugoslavia" – there is no doubt that the internal environment of Albania has been and somewhat continues to be tense, although the breaking point has never been fully reached. Albania is a country with a fervently tense past (especially

The Bosnian-Herzegovina genocide or “ethnic cleansing” went on from April 1992 to December 1995 around the end of the Second World War. When Bosnia became its own independent nation on April 5th 1922 it wanted to “cleanse” its country of any non Serbian residents. The killing of Bosnian Muslims during this time was stated by international tribunals to be an ethnic cleansing however the events that took place in July 1995 in Srebrenica was so horrific it was deemed a genocide. The United Nations should have intervened a lot sooner than they did and should have sent more than just peace keepers to protect the human beings that were being slaughtered.

During this time, Civilians were forced to leave the only place they knew as home. As Serbian police force Albanians out of their homes, Priština, Kosovo’s capital is being drained of its ethnic identity. One refugee being forced to move to the Macedonia border said, “Then at two o’clock we were in the train. So many people it was difficult to survive. Very difficult. I thought I saw death with my eyes” (BBC news). These series of events depict the issues and struggles Albanians endure during the Kosovo War. Albanians fear is being able to create a safety environment for their own families. A main concern as well was if these Albanian families will ever return to their homes. The war for ethnic cleansing in Kosovo was already in progress. Furthermore, Serbians would also be put in a difficult decision, whether to end the war within Kosovo or to endure inescapable NATO air strikes.

Also, during this time “Ethnic Fault Lines” were created resulting in stronger violence along these areas. Reference the attached map of Yugoslavia in the Cited Sources section to view the map of ethnic majorities within the Yugoslavian region. This is a perfect example of how all the ethnicities were spread out across the region and not simply contained to one area allowing for the violent ethnic fault lines. Along with the historical perspective of ethnic tensions causing nationalism in Yugoslavia, new evidence from historians have shown that the Bosnian Civil War was not a one-time deal in the area. This had been considered a very active region, in the case of violence, during the 20th century making some historians to think that this conflict was bound to happen as it had occurred various other times in the past. Historically, another reason for the ethnic tensions occurred due to the fall of Communism. Although this is somewhat indirect, different ethnicities side with different governmental views causing deeper tensions to rise after the vacuum of the major world power in the Eastern Europe region. As stated earlier, Slobodan Milosevic believed he could push his agenda without any international policing of his actions due to the recent fall of communism and power vacuum. On this note, governmental influences are also another way that nationalism caused the Bosnian Civil War.

After Bosnia-Herzegovina became independent, Bosnian Serb Radovan Karadzic set up his own government. Known as the “Serbian National Assembly” (“Bosnian Genocide” par. 3), this government was loyal to Yugoslavia. Backed by the Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, Karadzic had a vision of both “Bosnia and Croatia becoming part of a larger Serbian state. In 1992,

In his “Safe Area Gorazde” Joe Sacco describes his experience visiting a Muslim enclave during the Bosnian War of 1991-1995. Tragically, this work is based on testimonies of residents of Gorazde, allegedly a UN-protected area where Bosnian Muslims are able to take refuge to avoid the ethnic cleansing perpetrated by the Serbian army. Gorazde is anything but protected which Sacco demonstrates throughout the book by ridiculing the UN and the US who are able to and responsible for protecting the residents of such enclaves, but instead turn a blind eye to what was going on. “…the U.N. extended safe area status to other Bosnian enclaves, including Gorazde. But the U.N. had yet to work out what the concept

The Albanians were the majority and the Serbians being the minority. In this situation, the Serbians oppressed the Albanians. In retaliation, the Albanians formed a terrorist group known as the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) which was a terrorist group that fought for the rights of the Albanians. The various actions taken by the KLA caused NATO involvement. Their involvement required a series of air raids and bombings to flush the Serbian people out of Kosovo. However, the story gets much deeper than that.

Bosnia & Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, and Hungary border it. Serbia still claims Kosovo as part of the country even though it declared itself an independent country due to the amount of Serbians that still reside in the country. Depending on which region of the country you are in the terrain varies, Serbia consists of rich fertile plains, limestone and granite ranges and basins and nearly half of the country contains

The allies thought that Serbia deserved to be rewarded. The U.S, British, and French governments all officially recognized Serbian valor during the ward, and the Battle of Kosovo became the subject of many sermons throughout the world as a valiant effort to defend Christianity (Vickers 1998: 97). WWI activated, mobilized, and politicized a Serbian notion of identity that would plant the seeds for future conflict (Harzl 2011: 56). WWI further consolidated the imagery of Serbians as victims, an imagery that would undergird the discourse of intellectuals in the late twentieth century. Serbia staggering amount of human loss particularly in Kosovo placed them well to argue that they needed the region to reestablish their cultural identity. National identity does not just have positive components, but needs negative moments and history that deprives that identity of something that is required for its full establishment. This was the backdrop for future arguments made by the Serbian elite and intellectuals to push for Serbian control over Kosovo (Shigeno 2004:

Furthermore, these wars cannot be fully understood without a basic knowledge of the former Yugoslavia. Formally known as the Soviet Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, it was a federation that was comprised of six socialist republics: Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia. Additionally, two autonomous provinces, Vojvodina and Kosovo, were established in Serbia. Many different ethnic groups called Yugoslavia home, namely the Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, Bosniaks, Albanians, and Montenegrins. However, the presence of large ethnic minorities across republic lines made things complicated, especially with the advent of rising nationalism among these different peoples. The borders of the republics had originally been of little significance; Josip Tito, the beloved leader of the Communist Party in Yugoslavia, decided the borders with little opposition from anyone, as the federation was supposed to be a centralized “dictatorship of the proletariat”. Only with later decentralization and democratization would any concern for the individual republics and nationalities be voiced and nationalism become an issue. Tito’s death in 1980 seemed to suddenly remind all the Yugoslav peoples that they had in fact retained their separate ethnic identities and that the ethnic identity of Tito’s successor would certainly affect them, whether positively or negatively, and inter-republic relations began deteriorating quickly. Tito and his communist

Serbia feels a cultural tie to Kosovo because it has many monasteries, churches, and religious sites that are significant to the orthodox Christian faith, which is the main religion for Serbs (Malcolm). The Serbian claim conflicts with the Albanian majority who believes they have a claim to Kosovo because of they are the largest group. Throughout history Kosovo has been profitable because it have many natural resources, such as metals like nickel, and it is known for its abundance of silver, which has caused conflict because many countries have wanted to claim it. During World War Two, Hitler used the mines in Kosovo for profit (Malcolm). Mostly, Kosovo has been coveted because it is in a good location with many mountains guarding it and has always been a checkpoint for many trade routes, which made it prone to conquests. Conflict can always be understood through history, and Kosovo’s strategic location is one main reason for the fighting.

As one of the most troubled region of the Balkans in Central Europe, the Balkans were affected by strife and hostility. The problems in the Balkans not only affected the people living in this region, but also other large European powers that fueled many of the major conflicts and events of Europe at the time. The First Balkan War and its profound effects on European history will be discussed, while also exploring the future conflicts in both the Balkans and the rest of Europe.