Does Kosovo belong to Serbia or Albania?

[Lena]

It's a no brainer... Kosovo is Serbia.

[Ivo Arandur]

Of course I vote Serbia if the choice is b/w Serbia and Albania...If any country has a historical right to Kosovo - that's Serbia...but if the question is about an independent Kosovo - then I'm 50:50...I strongly support the right to self-determination for any and all people in the world but I guess there should be some restrictions on this right to self-determination...like in the case of Kosovo which has a very special place in Serbian history and is considered a core Serbian land by all Serbs - in cases like this you can't just tear a country apart...cos then what's stopping (let's say) the Mexican immigrants in the States to start fighting for independent Mexican California (or whatever)...

[Panopticon]

These threads never attract stimulating discussion. I'll give it a shot though.

1. Kosova had not been part of Serbia since 1455. In 1912, that was changed as Serbia invaded Kosova. Kosova had a majority Albanian population by then and it has an Albanian majority today. Therefore, Kosova cannot arbitrarily be a part of Serbia. The idea that Kosova arbitrarily belongs to Serbia is ludicrous. In fact, if Serbia had managed to annex northern Albania into the Serbian state in 1912, there would have been the same claims that we see over Kosova arbitrarily belonging to Serbia today, just that this did not happen. Invading an area and then claiming it to be an arbitrary part of your state is wrong.

2. According to the Serbian constitution itself, no changes to Serbia's borders are to be made without an assembly to ratify the annexation of Kosova f.e. This never happened. Therefore, Kosova would not have been a legal part of Serbia from the beginning and could therefore not make any legal claims. It did become a legal part of Yugoslavia, however. So it was a part of Yugoslavia, at least by law, but not Serbia. Which is why Kosova became independent of Yugoslavia, not Serbia.

3. Rather than seceding, Kosova becoming independent was a move that was the last piece in the dissolution of Yugoslavia. As Kosova had only been a legal part of Yugoslavia and that Kosova, while nominally considered an autonomous province of Serbia, had all of the functions of a Yugoslav republic and was essentially one of the states that Yugoslavia consisted of. When other republics had left the Yugoslav state, they had not seceded from Serbia, it had been a dissolution of Yugoslavia itself. All of this means that Kosova did not secede from Serbia, it had seceded from Yugoslavia, just as every other state before it had.

[Kanuni]

^This is important,and if they can afford themself to go back in twelve century to justify about todays Kosovo territory i am eager to go deeper in ancient time.

[angel]

Kosova

There's no such place as "Kosova". It's proper spelling is Косово, which logically transliterates as Kosovo.

Serbia invaded Kosova

Serbia didn't invade any place. The war broke out as a result of the existence of the Ottoman regime, which for centuries had enslaved and terrorised the Balkans. The Turks started the war by refusing to grant autonomy to Macedonia and Thrace and to halt the mobilization of their army. You guys lost in a fair fight that you started, so don't try to rewrite the history. Kosovo was not occupied by Slavs, but solely by the Turks. It was legally reunited with Serbia at the Conference of Ambassadors in London.

So it was a part of Yugoslavia, at least by law, but not Serbia.

Yugoslavia was not a single country, but a federated republic of several countries. Kosovo was not a part of this federation, but an integral part of the Serbian republic.

All of this means that Kosova did not secede from Serbia, it had seceded from Yugoslavia, just as every other state before it had.

It's false to equate Kosovo to Serbia because the former was never a constituent republic of Socialist Yugoslavia. It did not and does not hold any rights beyond the jurisdiction of the Serbian republic.

[Dacul]

I was wondering how is possible that albanians and serbians lived for hundreds of years in peace in Kosovo and now,suddenly they had such violent incidents between them?
I saw some materials on inet that say that the people here were enraged between them by people not from Albania or Serbia.

[Dacul]

Greece population now is kept in misery,however,they have not done anything like war or so.
And is clear,real christian orthodox countries are attacked,see what happens in Siria (which also have a Sirian greek orthodox church with patriarch).
Romania was asked by IMF to destroy the population and the economy of our country with those measures that we were forced to adopt...
Because Albania was messed also with that internal "revolution" that was not that many years ago.
The european balkanic muslims from Kosovo or Bosnia never destroyed christian orthodox churches till recent years.
It is very possible that someone enraged these people (serbians from Kosovo versus albanians from Kosovo) to do such things.

EDIT:
If Balkan nations and Romania stay divided soon Kosovo will not belong to either Serbia or Albania but to foreign investors.
You do not see it?

[Panopticon]

^This is important,and if we can afford ourself to go back in twelve century to justify about todays Kosovo territory i am eager to go deeper in ancient time.

Exactly. Fantasizing about a greater state which has no-to-little consistency with reality is fine as long as it stays a fantasy and not actually attempted to be brought to life. Most of these claims are silly. And this works both ways, of course. They have a very weak case on that part.

There's no such place as "Kosova". It's proper spelling is Косово, which logically transliterates as Kosovo.

I can see that you have little interest in a balanced discussion. Whether I say Kosovo or Kosova is of little importance. Try arguing the actual case.

Serbia didn't invade any place.

It did indeed invade other places. Kosova and (northern) Albania included.

The war broke out as a result of the existence of the Ottoman regime, which for centuries had enslaved and terrorised the Balkans. The Turks started the war by refusing to grant autonomy to Macedonia and Thrace and to halt the mobilization of their army. You guys lost in a fair fight that you started, so don't try to rewrite the history. Kosovo was not occupied by Slavs, but solely by the Turks. It was legally reunited with Serbia at the Conference of Ambassadors in London.

The Turks might have provoked the war, that has little to do with this though. We are talking about Albanians, not Turks.

It was not legally reunited with Serbia at the Conference of Ambassadors in London as it was never ratified by Serbia. There was also the Treaty of Istanbul in 1914, but Serbia never ratified these decisions in either of the treaties. And as I said earlier, there never was a national assembly to ratify the annexation of Kosova, which is required by the Serbian constitution. Therefore, Kosova was legally not part of Serbia by either international law or its own laws. Furthermore, one could say that the inclusion of Kosova into Serbia and Serbia holding onto Kosova is unconstitutional.

Keep to the topic. Little of what you said has any relevance to this discussion, the last sentence being the exception.

Yugoslavia was not a single country, but a federated republic of several countries. Kosovo was not a part of this federation, but an integral part of the Serbian republic.

Which means little other than that Yugoslavia was a larger state consisting of several smaller parts (states or republics); Yugoslavia was a country. The USA is a federation as well, yet it is a country.

Kosova was also part of this federation, it would have been so either as a part of Serbia or not. How Kosova was part of this federation is what is important. Kosova was indeed a constituent unit of the Yugoslav federation in all ways, except for nominally, which is not important.

It's false to equate Kosovo to Serbia because the former was never a constituent republic of Socialist Yugoslavia. It did not and does not hold any rights beyond the jurisdiction of the Serbian republic.

It actually was a constituent unit of Yugoslavia. And it does hold any rights beyond the jurisdiction of the Serbian republic.

[Adrian]

I was wondering how is possible that albanians and serbians lived for hundreds of years in peace in Kosovo and now,suddenly they had such violent incidents between them?

This applies for the entire Yugoslavia.

After Tito's death has began the growth of nationalism. Serbian nationalism was more evident than the nationalism of the others. First was launched in Slovenia to continue with Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo. In all these wars were Serbs against the others.

Kosovo, the same as Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Slovenia; was unable to continue coexistence in such an artificial creature...and here we are today.

[Ushtari]

Except that Albanians have ethnically cleansed most of the non-Albanians from the province.

Source?