There is a special "country" in the Balkans in southeastern Europe. It has a small area, about 10,000 square kilometers, surrounded by four countries: Serbia, Macedonia, Albania, and Montenegro.
It is a place of internally complex religion and acute ethnic issues, which is part of Serbian territory and which unilaterally declared its independence in 2008.
Kosovo's independence is very much recognized by some Western countries and the United States, but there are still many countries that do not recognize this independence.
A land of gunsmoke
For thousands of years, because of ethnic conflicts, territorial disputes, and great power games, there have been countless wars of all sizes in the small land of the Balkan Peninsula, so why are there frequent wars in this land?
Let's first take a look at the geographical location of the Balkan Peninsula, which is located at the southeastern tip of Europe, surrounded by the Mediterranean, the Black Sea, and the Aegean Sea. At the same time, it is located in the middle of the three continents of Europe, Asia and Africa.
This pattern of direct proximity to three continents is very crucial, and it is of great strategic importance for any of its surrounding forces to control the Balkan Peninsula. It can expand its territory and sphere of influence, and it can also establish a strategic buffer zone in the face of oppression from other forces.
The geographical environment of "attacking and retreating" and the obvious conflict of interests have made the Balkan Peninsula a place of contention between great powers since ancient times.
And Kosovo, a small piece of land in the southwestern part of the Balkan Peninsula. The large number of countries bordering the Balkan Peninsula, coupled with the complex religious composition and escalating ethnic contradictions, is often the trigger for war, and it is a veritable key to war in the Balkan Peninsula.
Tracing back to the early history, before about the 4th century AD, there were a number of nomadic tribes that operated in the Corvo region. These nomads are considered "ancestors" by Albanians and "important evidence" that Albania was once active in Kosovo.
To rule Kosovo is to rule the entire Balkan Peninsula.
This view originated in the 9th century, when ethnic Serbs among the Yugoslavs established their own state, and then in the 12th century, Kosovo was annexed to the Kingdom of Serbia, when Serbs were the main population of Kosovo.
Soon, at the end of the 13th century, the mighty Ottoman Turkish Empire, noticing the strategic importance of this part of Kosovo, waged a war with the Kingdom of Serbia in the Kosovo wilderness. Serbia was defeated, and Kosovo was subsumed into the Turkish section.
At the beginning of this period, the population of Kosovo began to change, with Serbs fleeing to the west and north of the Balkans, while Albanians took the opportunity to move to Kosovo.
Time has passed, and Kosovo's sovereignty has changed again. In the Balkan scramble of 1912, the weakening Turkish Empire was defeated by Serbia and its allies. After the war, Kosovo returned to the bosom of Serbia.
However, after hundreds of years of multiplication, Albanians have become "entrenched" in Kosovo, and their proportion of the population has gradually increased.
By 1929, Albanians had accounted for about 40% of Kosovo's total population, and then because of the continuous war, Serbs continued to leave Kosovo, and the population continued to decline, and the proportion of the population continued to decline.
An objective analysis of the history of Kosovo's development shows that it is "entangled" with Serbia like a pair of lovers. However, the intervention of Albania, a third party, gave a gap in the intimacy of the lovers, and at the same time, the seeds of independence began to sprout in Kosovo.
The struggle for sovereignty, the turmoil of society
During World War II, guerrilla groups led by the Communist Parties of Yugoslavia (Serbia was part of the Yugoslav territory) and Albania fought over the ownership of Kosovo.
At a meeting of the Kosovo People's Liberation Committee held in Albania at the end of 1943 and early 1944, it was decided to annex Kosovo to Albania, but this decision was immediately opposed by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia.
In November 1944, the Yugoslav People's Liberation Army liberated Kosovo, which had been invaded by the fascists, and Kosovo was nominally part of Serbia.
But in February 1945, ethnic Albanian insurgents formed a military junta in Kosovo. On 16 March of the same year, the junta issued a decree and a resolution prohibiting Serbs and Montenegrins who had left Kosovo from returning to Kosovo again, claiming that they were adherents of the autocratic regime of Greater Serbia.
This move angered the Yugoslav side, and the Yugoslav servicemen fought fiercely with the Albanian servicemen and won the victory, and Serbia once again dominated Kosovo.
In July 1945, the People's Assembly of Kosovo decided to formally annex Kosovo to the Republic of Serbia. In the subsequent Yugoslav Constitution, Kosovo was defined as an autonomous province but under the jurisdiction of the Republic of Serbia as part of Serbian territory. The struggle for sovereignty in Kosovo has come to an end for the time being.
During the war, the Albanians in Kosovo continued to make "small moves" in a vain attempt to divide Kosovo and even get close to the fascist aggressor. Serbia was not satisfied and resorted to violent means to suppress the "dishonest Albanians". However, the violence will turn into even greater violence, and the national contradictions between the two sides will be further intensified!
Struggle for sovereignty, social unrest, and constant wars, Kosovo was like an orphan, torn between adoption and abandonment, and eventually malnourished and became the poorest region of Yugoslavia. Poverty is exacerbated by the large base of ethnic Albanians and the fact that the birth rate is much higher than that of Serbs.
Albanians are increasingly becoming the dominant population in Kosovo, and Serbs are only a small percentage, resulting in a weakening of the "blood ties" between Kosovo and Serbia. Yes, Kosovo wants to leave this nominal home.
Kosovo has belonged to Serbia many times in history and should always be an integral part of Serbian territory, which is Serbia's attitude.
However, Kosovo seems to have made up its mind to become independent. And after the outbreak of various independence conflicts, Serbia, the "patriarch", also had a headache.
With the death of Tito, the authoritative leader of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, in May 1980, the alliance between the republics became difficult to maintain and the separatist tendencies intensified. The social situation in Kosovo has also begun to be volatile, with ethnic Albanian university students in Pristina, the capital of Kosovo, even demonstrating in the streets to demand the establishment of an independent Republic of Kosovo.
The demonstrations led to clashes between police and civilians and the arrest of students. In order to maintain order, Serbia has imposed military control on Kosovo, militarized the management of demonstrators, imposed curfews, and restricted the movement of the masses. This move even provoked the contradictions between the Serbs and the Albanians, and since then, there has been no peace in Kosovo!
On 2 March 1989, the Republic of Serbia of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia announced the withdrawal of part of the legislative, managerial and judicial powers of the Autonomous Province of Kosovo. Kosovo lost its "freedom", and a mass demonstration broke out that day, which ended with the sacrifice of several demonstrators and policemen.
The flame of Kosovo's independence is burning brighter, and the Albanians are trying to establish their own order, their own independent republic of Kosovo. They held elections, elected "presidents", and established public institutions such as schools, hospitals, radio stations, etc.
The subsequent dissolution of the Yugoslav Federation gave Kosovo an opportunity for independence, and Kosovo's Albanians became more active, visiting various countries in order to gain international recognition and support, and the People's Liberation Army in Kosovo even directly demanded independence.
Albania's "anti-guest-oriented" behavior has made Serbia very dissatisfied. In 1998, Serbia launched a military operation against Kosovo to capture independence supporters, and they even directly slaughtered local civilians in order to assert its sovereignty in Kosovo. The incident triggered a mass exodus of more than 800,000 ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.
The events in Kosovo began to affect the international situation, and the UN and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization began negotiations with Serbia on the Kosovo issue. Serbia did not agree to Kosovo's desire to restore autonomy without independence, and increased its military strikes.
NATO was very dissatisfied with Serbia's attitude, and war broke out.
On 24 March 1999, NATO began bombing Serbia, a war that lasted nearly three months and destroyed hundreds of thousands of Albanian and Serb homes.
Serbia compromised and signed a peace agreement that determined that Kosovo would be administered by the United Nations. In this way, Kosovo is nominally part of Serbia, but in practice enjoys a high degree of autonomy, including all legislative and executive powers, as well as judicial administration.
After this incident, Kosovo was getting closer and closer to independence.
Independence, the fate of small countries
Finally, after decades of turmoil, Kosovo became independent from Serbia.
On 17 February 2008, Kosovo's Prime Minister, Hasin Thaci, convened a special session of the Assembly and read out the Declaration of Independence, declaring Kosovo to become independent from Serbia and "an independent, sovereign and democratic State" in accordance with the will of the people. Parliamentarians voted to adopt Kosovo's Declaration of Independence and identified Pristina as the capital.
After Kosovo declared independence, Britain, France, and the United States soon recognized Kosovo's status and established diplomatic relations with it. But Serbia has always been opposed.
As the main part of the former Yugoslavia, Serbia does not want to be divided again and lose the territory of Kosovo.
On 22 July 2010, the International Court of Justice issued an advisory opinion on the Kosovo case, finding that Kosovo's declaration of independence on 17 February 2008 "does not violate international law". Kosovo has received some international recognition.
However, Serbia has always insisted on its sovereignty over Kosovo and has claimed to lower the level of diplomatic relations with all countries that "have diplomatic relations" with Kosovo in order to show that it "will never let go" of Kosovo.
Serbia's sovereignty over Kosovo is historically retroactive and will not change because the current population of Kosovo is predominantly ethnic Albanian. However, under the pressure of the United States and the European Union, they had to accept the fact that Kosovo had become independent.
Today, more than 100 countries around the world recognize Kosovo's independent status. However, more than 90 countries, including China and Russia, do not recognize Kosovo's independent status.
Despite opposition from the mainland and Russia, Kosovo is still unable to enter the United Nations as an independent state, even though it has been recognized by most countries and will even be able to participate in the Olympics in 2016.
Kosovo became independent, but it did not gain independence in the true sense of the word, and after all, it was "illegal independence" that was not recognized by the original subject country. The independence gained from the split has also had a negative impact on other countries, and if Kosovo is recognized, a second, third, or even more "Kosovo" will gradually emerge in the world.