Kosovo and Metohija
Kosovo and Metohija ( Serbian Косово и Метохија Kosovo i Metohija , Albanian Kosova dhe Metohia ) is an autonomous province in Serbia according to the Serbian constitution (Serbian Autonomna Pokrajina Kosovo i Metohija ; Albanian Krahina Autonome e Kosovës dhe Metohisës ). Kosovo and Metohija are sometimes also abbreviated as Космет / Cosmet . The status of the province is disputed internationally. 114 states, including all German-speaking countries, view the province as an independent state of Kosovo .
Geography and population
The province borders Albania in the west, Montenegro in the northwest , central Serbia in the north and east and North Macedonia in the south . The area has two large landscapes enclosed by mountains: in the east the central Kosovo Polje ( blackbird field ) with the center Pristina and in the west Metochien with the center Prizren .
Kosovo is mostly inhabited by Albanians . Other ethnic groups represented in the province in addition to the Serbs are Turks , Bosniaks , Torbeschen , Gorans (sometimes viewed as independent ethnic groups) and Roma .
history
Kosovo was one of the core regions of medieval Serbia from the 13th century. On June 28, 1389, the battle on the Amselfeld took place here, in which the Ottoman Empire under Sultan Murad I defeated Serbia, ruled by Prince Lazar Hrebeljanović , and thus ushered in the fall of the Kingdom of Serbia.
After the First Balkan War (1912), the centuries-long rule of the Ottomans ended in Kosovo and the province was incorporated into the Kingdom of Serbia through military conquest . It later became part of Yugoslavia .
As part of socialist Yugoslavia , the territory initially formed an autonomous district and from 1963 an autonomous province within the framework of the Socialist Republic of Serbia . Autonomy was expanded again by the 1974 constitution, but was effectively abolished in 1989 under Slobodan Milošević . Between 1974 and 1989 the province was called the Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo (Socijalistička Autonomna Pokrajina Kosovo), omitting the part of the name Metohija .
In 1999 Kosovo and Metohija were the scene of the Kosovo War and as a result of which it was occupied by international KFOR troops and de facto removed from the control of the Serbian government in Belgrade . In February 2008, the Republic of Kosovo unilaterally declared its independence, but some regions - particularly in northern Kosovo - are de facto still not under the control of the government in Pristina and are participating in Serbian elections, for example.