Војно дело (Jan 2016)
The seizure of Kosovo and Metohija from Serbia permanently disrupts geopolitical stability of the Balkans
Abstract
When Serbs inhabited Balkan region they established provinces called “Sclavinia” there and received Christianity from the Byzantine Christian Orthodox Church. Stephan Nemanja was a first ruler who succeeded to establish an independent Serbian state in the middle of 12th century. Then Kosovo and Metohija became the part of the Serbian state and soon following that it became Serbian central state and church domain. Ever since the establishment of the Serbian state in the Balkans the Serbs have struggled for their existence and survival. An analysis of historical documents regarding the expulsion of the Serbs from Kosovo and Metohija throughout last three centuries (1690-2006) leads to the conclusion that there have been 1,150,000 Serbs expelled by force from Old Serbia (it is the former name of today’s Kosovo and Metohija), that about 200,000 of them were murdered and that 150,000 - 200,000 of them were “arbanized” or converted into Islamic faith. In the Middle Ages there was not a separate name for this province in existence other than its general name Serbia. Throughout 16th and 17th centuries travel writers, and among them some Arbanasian travel writers, too, mentioned the territory of Kosovo and Metohia under the name of Serbia. Although the fact is that at the beginning of 21st century Shqiptars form a majority of population of Kosovo and Metohija, the population data rate strength of some national community is not determined by the number of its population in one part of some state, but by its number of population in the whole state, and so on the basis of this criterium the Albanians are a national minority in Serbia. So far nowhere in the world has happened that a national minority gained right to form their own state. One national community can not determine for itself whether it is a nation or a national minority.
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