Trading with the enemy in Mitrovica, Kosovo. - RUhosting

For the largest part of the past 600 years Kosovo has been a part of the Ottoman Empire. During this time
there were no serious conflicts between Albanians and Serbs living in Kosovo having an ethnic character.
They were poorly integrated, but there was no ethnic conflict in their history together until about a hundred
years ago (Malcolm, 2002, xlv). As previously noted Albanians and Serbs fought together at the Battle of
Kosovo in 1389 against the Ottomans and there were also Albanians and Serbs fighting on the side of the
Ottomans. In the 17 th century both Albanians and Serbs rose up together to throw of Ottoman rule, and in the
18 th century Albanian and Serbian mountain clans with a long history of intermarriage and cooperation
joined together in support of an Austrian invasion (Malcolm, 2002). These examples are to illustrate that
Kosovo's tensions and animosity between Albanians and Serbs is not a given, in fact these tensions did not
exist for the biggest part of their shared history and therefore may be even a less 'natural' state of relations
between the two peoples than cooperation and peaceful coexistence. So, where did it go wrong?
The first cracks in the relations between Albanians and Serbs in Kosovo started to grow over the past two
centuries. There were various causes for this. Blame lies with the local Albanian lords of the 18 th and early
19 th century who - although not ethnically motivated - repressed Christian Slavs for economic gain. In the
19 th century the issue between Muslim Albanians and Orthodox Slavs first became politicised. It was in this
century that a Serbian ideology created the idea of the battle of Kosovo as a defining event for the Serbian
nationality and with this followed the idea that Kosovo is a place for Serbs. Linked to this were the mass
expulsions of Albanians out of areas conquered by Serbia and Montenegro in 1877-8 that made Albanians
see Serbs as a threat to their existence. The heaviest blow to inter-ethnic relations was probably the Serbian
and Montenegrin conquest of Kosovo in 1912 (Malcolm, 2002).
“..above all, it was the policies imposed from above by the Serbian and Montenegrin governments from the
first moment of their conquest of Kosovo in 1912 that created systematic hostility and hatred on a scale that
the region had never seen before.” -Malcolm, 2002, xlvi
Albanians saw the imposition of rule by Serbia and Montenegro as a colonial power, and themselves as a
people conquered and colonised by a Christian power. Serbia's programme of moving Serbian 'colonists' to
Kosovo matches this view. Serbs however view the conquest of 1912 as a liberation war where their captive
population – the Serbs of Kosovo – were liberated from the Turkish imperial rule (Malcolm, 2002). Malcolm
(2002) argues that both views are right, which makes the case especially difficult. Serbia had a long history
in Kosovo and by this conquest requisitioned Serb-populated areas from the former Ottomans. Albanians,
also having a long history in Kosovo saw their rights being decreased. The Serbian policy became that
Albanians were immigrants, a view that is to this day very popular among Serbs (field notes).
3 http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/main/news/20703/
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