Why the Serbs Lost Their "Holy Land"
The Great Migration of Serbs across the Danube. Drawing by Franz Juza
The Ottoman factor
The Ottoman conquest of the Balkan Peninsula in the 14th–16th centuries ranged from the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, when Serbia became a vassal of the Ottoman rulers, to the 15th century, when the Turks subjugated southern Serbia, occupied Smederevo, the Serbian capital, and effectively destroyed Serbian statehood. In 1521, the Turks captured Belgrade, then controlled by the Hungarians. From then until 1878, Serbia remained under Turkish rule, gaining its freedom following Russia's victory in the Russo-Turkish War.
The Serbian lands were utterly devastated and devastated. Slavic feudal lords perished, fled, or converted to Islam. Churches were relegated to Muslim use. Orthodox Christians were restricted in their civil rights. An exodus of Orthodox Christians began across the Danube and Sava rivers, to the lands of modern-day Croatia and Hungary, which were under the rule of the House of Habsburg.
During brutal wars and uprisings, when the Ottoman Turks literally massacred the population of rebellious regions, towns, and villages, the exodus of Slavic populations to neighboring areas free of Ottoman rule, the policy of Islamization of the remaining Slavs, and the settlement of the region by Muslim warriors and Albanians who received privileges and tax exemptions, the proportion of Serb Slavs steadily declined, especially in the southern part of Serbia—Raška, Kosovo, and Metohija. Raška received the Turkish name Sandžak.
At the same time, Constantinople essentially shaped the Albanian people, who were originally composed of Slavs and ancient indigenous mountain populations. Islamization and assimilation were facilitated by the migration of Turkic people from Asia Minor, mountaineers from the Caucasus, and Semites from the Middle East.
Constantinople relied on the loyal Muslim population, the Albanians, since the Serbs refused to convert en masse to Islam and supported Christian troops during the Porte's wars with the European powers. The Albanians resettled in historical Serbia (Old Serbia), and the Serbs fled further north. The Ottoman authorities intensified pressure on the Orthodox Church, which was the core of Serbian national identity. Monasteries and churches were destroyed and looted.
As a result, during the subsequent confrontation between the Sublime Porte and the Habsburg Empire over the Balkans in the 17th and 18th centuries, a significant number of Serbs left the Kosovo region, fleeing to Christian rulers. This process was called the Great Exodus (migration). Serbs constituted a significant portion of the Austrian army, defending the southern border from the Ottomans. The so-called granicari were Austria's irregular, border, and light troops, a kind of Serbian Cossacks.
Some Serbs and other Orthodox Christians, burdened by the Austrian Empire's pressure to convert to Catholicism or join the Union, even moved to Russia, under the auspices of the Orthodox dynasty. In 1751, Empress Elizabeth Petrovna announced to Colonel Ivan Horvat (who was busy advocating for his fellow countrymen) that "no matter how many of the Serbian people wish to join the Russian Empire, all of them, as co-religionists, will be accepted into service and citizenship."
In Novorossiya, New Serbia was established in the Dnieper steppes (now the Kirovohrad region) and Slavoserbia on the southern bank of the Seversky Donets (Luhansk region and Voronezh province). Serbs and other Orthodox warriors helped the Russians hold back the Crimean Tatars and Turks.
As a result, by the mid-19th century, Muslims constituted more than half the population, especially in the western part of the region (Metohija). During subsequent wars, the decline, and retreat of the Ottoman Empire, Muslims, including Albanians, fled Serbia for Kosovo.
After the First World War, the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the establishment of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs (SCS) in 1918, which soon united with the Kingdom of Serbia to form the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, which was transformed into the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1929, the process of displacement of Albanians from Kosovo took place.
During World War II, when Yugoslavia was occupied by the Wehrmacht and Kosovo was incorporated into "Greater Albania"—a puppet state under the control of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany—the region was actively resettled by Albanians. A policy of genocide was carried out against the Serbs, the Orthodox population. In Kosovo alone, more than 10 Serbs were killed, and over 100 became refugees.
Borders of "Greater Albania" in 1941-1945
Tito's mistakes
In the second half of the 20th century, the ratio of Serbs to Albanians in Kosovo was decisively influenced by the policies of Josip Broz Tito, who led Yugoslavia from 1945, when Russian troops liberated the Balkans from the Nazis, until his death in 1980.
In theory, Tito should have acted like Stalin in East Prussia and Königsberg, which became the Kaliningrad region and Kaliningrad: by evicting the Germans and settling the new region with Russians (“The land of this part of East Prussia is stained with Russian blood."). The Polish authorities did the same when they returned the historical Slavic regions that had belonged to Germans for several centuries. The Germans were expelled to Germany, and their place was taken by Slavs.
And that's it—the problem is solved. Harshly, but within the bounds of historical justice and political expediency. The Serbs are returning to their historical lands, the "Serbian Holy Land," and the Albanians are returning to their homeland. The enemies of socialist Yugoslavia (NATO) are deprived of the support of a potential "fifth column" in the form of the Albanian population hostile to Belgrade.
However, Tito sacrificed the national interests of the Serbs in favor of illusory internationalism, essentially continuing the policies of the Trotskyists. Kosovo Serbs were prohibited from returning to their homeland. At the same time, wanting to bring Albania into a federal Yugoslavia, Tito supported the policy of resettling Albanians in Serbia, creating a host of problems for the future Belgrade.
An extremely lenient policy was pursued toward the Albanians. After Belgrade's good relations with Moscow broke down, followed by Belgrade's break with Tirana, thousands of Albanian refugees resettled in Yugoslavia.
From that time on, the ethnic balance in Kosovo was decisively tipped in favor of the Albanians. At the same time, the Albanians, who retained the traditional family structure, outnumbered the Serbs, who had become an urban (industrial) society. In the 80s, they experienced a population boom driven by improved living conditions and advances in medicine. The Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija became the "youngest" in Yugoslavia.
The Albanian intelligentsia developed its own "own" history of Kosovo and the Balkans. Albanians were said to be the peninsula's original inhabitants, while Serbs were newcomers, invaders. The ancestors of modern Albanians had always lived here, and the Slavs arrived during the Great Migration of Peoples in the sixth century.
At the same time, the region was traditionally a subsidized region, dragged into the future by the rest of Yugoslavia. Naturally, this further exacerbated political and national issues in Yugoslavia and Kosovo. This led to the collapse of Yugoslavia itself and a series of armed conflicts involving the "collective West."
As a result, the US and NATO turned Kosovo into their largest base in the Balkans. And the idea of a "Greater Albania," represented by ethnic Albanian gangs, drug gangs, and nationalists, experienced a resurgence.
According to Tito's plan, the country was to become a centralized federation based on the principles of "proletarian internationalism."
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