Kosovo: A Brief Chronology

by Flamur Vehapi

reviewed by Antonia Young

Already an acclaimed author, Flamur Vehapi’s chronological work on Kosovo has earned him widespread appreciation. The author is at great pains to give a balanced view of Kosovo’s history of all too frequent mass attacks and expulsions. To this end he has carefully resourced documentation from a wide spectrum of writers and observers, contemporary and historical, predominantly foreign, but with several renowned indigenous writers. As Paul Fattig notes in his Introduction: “despite this chronology’s brevity, it is weighty”.

The Chronology for “one of the newest countries in the world” starts with the Classical Period, from ca. l000BCE, noting that the Illyrians, a collection of tribes of ancient Indo-European background, settled in the Balkan Peninsula. This is followed by the Medieval Period (500s to 1400s), and the beginning of Ottoman rule in 1392.  

During the Early Modern Period and Ottoman rule (1400s-1912), note is made that the Gazi Ali Beg Mosque was constructed in Vushtrri (1410), and in 1426 a small Turkish quarter is found in the mining town of Trepça. By 1455, all of Kosovo came under Ottoman rule. By 1490, Ottoman authorities record 64,328 tax-paying households in Kosovo. Within the next decade six Jewish households are reported as living in the town of Novobërda. The 1690 Serbian Great Migration registers refugees moving northward to the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Around 1830, Vehapi records that the Ottoman system of Turkish-language state schools is introduced. But by l857, Serbian-sponsored national-religious extremism, as well as anti-Ottoman rhetoric begins to spread in Kosovo. Throughout the later nineteenth century, increasingly hostile interactions between Serb and Albanian populations are recorded. In 1908 Albanian intellectuals meeting in Bitola choose the Latin alphabet as the standard script for the Albanian language, which has remained since that date. Details are given of the Balkan Wars of 1912-13.

In the section Yugoslavia and Beyond (1913-99), covering the period of two world wars and the several wars of the break-up of Yugoslavia, we learn that in 1919, Serbia shuts down Albanian-speaking schools, while 252 schools teaching in Serbian remain. In the decade from 1923, due to political pressure and discrimination, 115,000 Yugoslav citizens of Albanian descent migrate from Kosovo to Türkiye. In 1941, German occupiers designate the Trepça mines and factories as a special zone, enabling them to send 500 tons of lead and zinc concentrate per day to supply German war industries.

Between 1939 and 1945, over 1,000 European Jews were given safe haven by individual families in Albania. In the 1950s, records show that over 100,000 Kosovar Albanians (branded as Turks) were forced to leave Kosovo for Türkiye. In contrast, in the early sixties, under a new Yugoslav constitution, the systemic suppression of Kosovar Albanian communities noticeably decreased. Yugoslav relations with Albania were re-established in 1971. The death of Tito in 1980 led to irreversible changes for the worse for the Albanian community, despite the census of 1981 showing the Albanian population to be over 77% in the country as a whole.

During this period, Vehapi notes that “some 40 blood feud related murders” occurred, following the Kanun law. This theme is analysed by Howard Clark in his book, Civil Resistance in Kosovo (Pluto Press, 2000). Clark worked with War Resisters’ International and as a founder of the Balkan Peace Team that promoted Serbian-Albanian dialogue throughout the 1990s. Vehapi might have given more focus to the extraordinary event of an unannounced ceremony of blood feud forgiveness led by the remarkable, renowned, blood feud conciliator, Anton Çetta. Clark witnessed this event, where a crowd of 500,000 gathered by word of mouth, and in the face of extreme Serbian oppression on 1 May 1990 on the plain of Deçani. Clark notes: “Some 1,000 feuds involving death, 500 of wounding and 700 other disputes” set the tone for Albanian civil resistance.

Oppression of the Albanian community further increased, leading to a Declaration of Independence under the leadership of Ibrahim Rugova in 1992. Vehapi gives dates for all the actions leading up to Serbia’s enforcement of the dissolution of Yugoslavia, noting that the omission of Kosovo from the Dayton Accords of 1995 (missing from the Index) led to the increasing actions of the Kosovo Liberation Army and further Serbian aggressive action and massacres, culminating in NATO’s 10-week attack on the Serbian military. (A misprint on numbers of Albanians killed in Albania’s anarchy of 1997 should read 2,000, not 200).

The period of Kosovo under UN Administration (June 1999-November 2007), details the complications of international negotiating for the future status of Kosovo as a potential country in its own right. Finally Independence to Present brings us up to December 2022, concluding that “Former Munich Security Conference Chairman, Wolfgang Ischinger, blames the government of Serbia for igniting tensions in Kosovo”.

The fully referenced book with over 600 footnotes contains a Foreword by Dren Qerimi, an Introduction by Paul Fattig, an Index, three very clear and relevant maps, a useful list of abbreviations, a glossary of terms and a remarkable 14-page bibliography for the hundreds of references, the majority being international, as the author explains, to try to present the material objectively. There is also an Appendix listing over 100 massacres in Kosovo committed by Serbs during the war (from end of February 1998 to 12 June l999), and a note that this is an incomplete list.  Other appendices include a summary of the Ahtisaari Plan, lists of Kosovo’s Presidents (1992-2022), Ottoman Caliphs/Sultans (1299-1924) and the Albanian alphabet and transliteration chart.

This is a work of extraordinary importance for anyone wishing to understand or research Kosovo’s complicated history and current situation.

Kosovo: A Brief Chronology is published by Crescent Books, Portland, Oregon.

The book is available in the UK and costs £12.90.