Taken from Prof. Ass. Dr. Skender Zhitia in his “The Anti-Albanian Policy of the Serbian State, Programs and Methods (XIX-XX)”.

The beginnings of the anti-Albanian policies of the Serbian state

Albanians at the time of the national awakening in the Balkans (early nineteenth century) encountered many difficulties; above all, they faced the opposition of the neighboring countries and their conquest intentions. Evidence of this is not only the national chauvinist programs implemented on Albanians in a Serbia-Bulgaria-Greece triangle (“Nachertania,” “Otoçenstvo” and “Megali-idea”) but also their genocidal practice in the occupied territories, as was Sanjak of Niš (1877- 1878).

Based on the studies so far, not only of Albanian historiography, Serbian nationalism has had its beginnings, extension and expansion based on the platform designed by the Orthodox Church for a pan-Slavic movement since 1814. The (Russian) Orthodox Church at that time expressed its eagerness for the creation and development of a Pan-Slavic empire, which would extend in latitude and longitude from the Pacific Ocean in the east to the shores of the Adriatic in the west and from the North Sea to the south, in the waters of the Indian Ocean, with Istanbul as its capital. It should be noted that this idea initiated by the Orthodox Church was soon reflected in the Balkans, where the Serbian autocephalous church ruled with influence for two centuries. In this context, among the first drafters of Pan-Slavic projects were: Adam Çartorijski and Franjo Zah.

Through these project, the “concentration of the Balkan Slavs in a pan-Slavic Empire” was planned by categorizing the developmentofeventsintotwophases. In the first phase, the war had to occur, while in the second phase, the ground had to be cleared so that living space for the Slavs was created. It should also be noted that in addition to the Slavs, many other people lived in these territories.

Regarding the methods, the form of the rise and development of Pan-Slavic ideas, studies had been done by political scientists, clergies, Slavic scholars, and so forth, and the theses over which the Pan-Slavic Empire should rule were established. One of them was based on racism, compiled in the most detailed forms, categorizing the nations under the imaginary empire according to their anthropological development.

It is worth noting that these methods and forms for creating the Pan-Slavic Empire were executed strictly by the Serbian Autocephalous Church on the nations in the Balkans, especially on the Albanians. In this regard, special programs were also compiled, which by order of the government, in cooperation with the church, had been implemented by the state army in most cases.

Viewed in historical retrospect, Albanians during the nineteenth century faced orthodox political calls for the creation of a state in the territories of the former Serbian king Tsar Dushani (1331-1355), with clear goals for a Greater Serbia (all Slavs in a state) for all southern Slavs, where Serbia would play a leading role. Albanians were subject to denial of everything non-Serb and to the call “Wherever there is a single Serb, the Serbian state must take its place.”

Based on these Serbian policies, there were campaigns for the expulsion of Albanians from their lands, such as during the years 1800-1875 on the occasion of the capture of the Paschal of Belgrade, and in 1868 when the campaign for the capture of the Sandzak of Nis took place, then that of the Vilayet of Kosovo, as well as before and after the decisions of the Congress of Berlin, (1877-1878). During this time, terrible anti-human action occurred.

Subsequently, after the occupation of the Vilayet of Kosovo, genocidal actions were taken by the Serbian and Montenegrin regions; demolition and burning of houses, harassment, murder and liquidation of innocent citizens. All this in order to displace Albanians and colonize Kosovo with Serbs.

The colonial, agrarian and cleansing policy in Kosovo (1912-1945)

Even in the early years of the XX century, Albanians were systematically confronted with new Serb programs, which went to extremes, wanting to destroy an entire nation. The Serbian regime pursued a hegemonic and destructive policy towards the Albanians. They burned the villages, massacred the population, looted the means and the property of the Albanians. In his platform regarding Kosovo and the Albanians during the years 1912-1915, Ilia Garashanin presented his basic thesis in what can be considered a purely chauvinist project titled “Naçertania”, he presented a key principle: “Serbization at any cost”. In this context, the Serbian Police Inspector in Skopje, Mihailo Ceroviç, threatened the Albanians that he “will cut off their legs and heads if they do not become Serbs”.

The aim of the Serbian policy in Kosovo was the political and economic oppression of the Albanians, to expel them from their homeland, Kosovo, and to establish a Serb colony, in order to realize this platform. Through calls, the Serbian government openly demanded in front of the then-international-opinion that the Albanians be liquidated as the nations of North Africa were liquidated. Above all, they managed to justify themselves and be accepted in the eyes of the powers of the time, especially in the London conference (1912-1913), where they managed to extend their rule over the occupied Albanian lands.

During this time the Serbian nationalist imagination goes beyond reason and human belief “Several generations of Albanians must die to forget what the Serbs did to them.” With this idea from 1912 to the end of 1913 over 120,000 Albanians were executed in various forms, and about 50,000 others moved towards Turkey. Additionally, by Serbian and Montenegrin forces 235 Albanian villages were completely burned from 1912 to 1914. During this time (1912-1915), as in the Sandzak of Nis, in 1878, after the departure of the Albanians from Kosovo, began the colonization of Albanian lands with the Slavic element.

This anti-Albanian policy had continued even after the end of the First World War, when Kosovo was reconquered by the army of the Serbo-Croatian-Slovenian Kingdom, which did not reduce the violence against Kosovo Albanians, but continued their annihilation without interruption and with a constant rhythm. Thus, between the two world wars, under constant pressure, the Albanian nation faced the idea of dismantling the Albanian nation in the Balkan way “through imprisonment, violence and murder, adding the psychosis of fear in every aspect, for the final solution of this issue.” Moreover, as a result of these repressive measures during this time began the expulsion of Albanians to Turkey.

The unceasing pressure was exerted on the idea of the state, which planned the partition of Albania between Italy and Yugoslavia, and provided for areas of interest, the assimilation of Albanians of the Catholic religion and the partition of the Albanian state. There were also ideas for the partition of Albania between Serbia and Greece, leaving aside Italy, for which it was planned that the Albanian people should be subjected to the most rude methods and forms that could be thought of.

The Albanian nation of Kosovo, despite participating in the Second World War alongside anti-fascist nations and states, despite relying on the decisions and principles of international conferences of the Atlantic, Moscow and Tehran, were under the constant threat of extinction. The best indicator of the situation in which the Albanians found themselves is the saying used by Serbian leaders “There will not be a single fez left in Kosovo”, alluding to the complete extermination of the Albanian nation.

In these circumstances of the Second World War, Kosovo Albanians found themselves in difficult, unjust and hopeless situations for the realization of their aspirations for freedom and self-determination. This was best observed with the reaction of the war governing bodies and the leaders of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia after the decisions of the National Liberation Conference for Kosovo and the Dukagjini Plain, which was held in Bujan. Such situations and circumstances influenced the Albanian patriots at certain moments to divide and begin planning the solution of the national issue in other forms.

During the end of the war, September 1944 – July 1945, the Albanian people of Kosovo experienced one of the most severe sufferings in their history. In addition to the establishment of the Military Administration in Kosovo, on the grounds of the leadership of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (CPY), allegedly obstructing and paralyzing “counter-revolutionary” forces, the Albanian people of Kosovo were subject to the re-emergence of fascist ideas from intellectuals about ethnic cleansing. The years 1944-1945 were an indication and a reminder of the earlier times that plans of the Great Serbia were in power and that they were also supported by the new Yugoslav government of that time.28 These anti-Albanian chauvinist actions were hidden by the Yugoslav communists behind the slogans of brotherhood-union, equality of nations and internationalism, a chauvinism that erupted as savage and cruel as in earlier periods.

Serbian Ultra Nationalism after World War II (1945-1989)

Systematic pressures on Albanians displaced from Kosovo continued even after World War II. The pressures were of various kinds. They were realized through state and interstate agreements. One such agreement is that of February 18, 1953, of mutual cooperation between Yugoslavia, Greece and Turkey, as well as that between the President of Yugoslavia, Josip Broz Tito, and the Turkish President, Fuad Kyperli, reached in Split, Croatia, known as the “Gentlemen’s Agreement”.

With this agreement, the Agreement of 1938 was restored to force. This agreement was signed in great confidence and J. B. Tito hired Aleksandar Rankovic for its realization. Yugoslavia, through J. B. Tito, once again expelled in the most brutal form the Albanians from all the areas where they lived. According to this agreement, until 1967, 41,200 Albanians were displaced. According to scholars in this field, during this time Kosovo continued to be colonized by a large number of Serbs and Montenegrins, for which the Serbian state had taken legal action regarding the possibility of implementing colonization and agrarian reform. The colonizers were from different parts of Yugoslavia and were mostly professionals in various fields and relatives. All were employed mainly in state and cultural organizations and institutions, etc. It is estimated that from 1945 to 1965, 12,300 Slavic families settled in Kosovo, or about 64,000 people of Slavic descent.

The years 1966-1981, especially those after the adoption of the 1974 Constitution, were a ray of hope for Kosovo Albanians. Many scholars would consider those years as the most successful years for Kosovo Albanians in all areas of life; political, social, cultural and economic. However, despite that the Albanians managed to be the bearers of some institutions through the constitution, Serbs and Montenegrins were experiencing all the benefits.

Such a situation of advancement of the Albanian people did not suit the nationalist forces of the Slavic ranks who began to declare in front of their public that Serbia was losing in freedom what it had won in the war, and other anti-Albanian slogans. All this was propagated to argue that Serbian rights were being violated, so Serbian politicians began to demand a review of the status of the autonomous provinces. During these years, anti-Albanian circles began to fabricate a political character of “pressure for displacement” on Serb and Montenegrin citizens in Kosovo, which was a serious slander on which strategic anti-Albanian projects were created.

According to Serbian sources, from 1967-1980 57,118 Serbs were displaced from Kosovo. The Serbo-Yugoslav government took advantage of this anti-Albanian climate and began militarizing Kosovo in the early 1980s, especially after the 1981 demonstrations.38 By the year 1981, actions were taken of various purposes with immediate deadlines for them to change the ethnic structure in Kosovo. To achieve this goal, the Serbian government did not hesitate tofabricate various political processes and other oppression of Albanians, on the other hand, justified all actions with “injustices’’ done to Serbs and by the nationalist and separatist intentions of the Albanians.

The Serbian regime, supported by the Yugoslav one, taking advantage of this anti-Albanian climate began to approve assessments, platforms, resolutions and programs ostensibly for the return of Serbs and Montenegrins to Kosovo, while in fact, another wave of colonization (recolonization) of Kosovo with the Slavic element was being prepared. In the context of this anti-Albanian climate, the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Serbia (ASAS) in 1986 drafted a Memorandum of Understanding.

The memorandum was a strategic document of the Serbian intelligence, which set out the direction of “resolving” the Serbian issue within the former SFR Yugoslavia. In essence, the Memorandum contained the “ideology of a Greater Serbia.” According to the Memorandum, the borders of Serbia were not in line with the ethnic composition and, as such, they should have been corrected considering that the 1974 Constitution had damaged Serbia due to the creation of the autonomous provinces of Vojvodina and Kosovo, the weakening of the Federation and because it created “artificial” administrative boundaries, which did not reflect a “real” picture.

Subsequently, the Memorandum of Understanding had a decisive impact on the development and renewal of the nationalist movement in Serbia, initially within the Communist League of Serbia. The memorandum directly influenced , or rather was a reference to the Serbian nationalists led by the head of state Slobodan Milosevic, who tried to realize the ideas presented in the memorandum through the idea of a Greater Serbia, which in the meantime caused the wars and numerous tragedies in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo.

The official policy of Serbia, based on the Memorandum of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SANU) of 1986, by the end of 1987 until 1989 organized debates for the beginning of constitutional changes, which provided for the reduction of the rights of the two Autonomous Provinces within Serbia, The Federation of Yugoslavia, respectively the Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo and the Socialist Autonomous Province of Vojvodina. During these debates there were various anti-Albanian calls, which were organized in both Kosovo and Serbia, where the main calls were: “Kosovo is Serbia!”, “Kosovo is the heart of Serbia”, “Kosovo is a sacred Serbian land!” , “We will fight for this place of the old Serbian land”, “Serbia, do not let Kosovo leave your grasp!”, etc. Serbian leaders, such as Ivan Stambolic, were heard shouting: “Do not allow them to consider Kosovo their own, it is a mine for Yugoslavia, do not allow Kosovo to secede, as it is Yugoslav territory.” After numerous rallies and debates, under the pressure of numerous police forces, which were extraordinary measures, on March 23, 1989, the next meeting of the Assembly of Kosovo began.

The main item on the agenda was the adoption of draft amendments proposed by Serbia, which provided f o r the acquisition of many competencies to the institutions of the Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo (SAPK). Following the approval by the Assembly of Kosovo of the draft amendments proposed by Serbia, on 28 March 1989 in Belgrade, the Federal Assembly of Yugoslavia, in an extraordinary and solemn session, approved the draft amendments, with the 47th amendment abolishing the Autonomy of Kosovo, which was provided for by the 1974 Constitution.

Serbian Reoccupation of Kosovo, 28 March 1989-12 June 1999

After the abolition of Kosovo’s autonomy, the Serbian government planned to restore the ethnic balance in Kosovo, terrorizing the Albanians to leave their homes, and in their place to bring Serbs and Montenegrins in order to slavify and colonize Kosovo. In this regard, by the Serbian government’s request, on February 9, 1990, the Yugoslav Assembly adopted the “Yugoslav Program for Kosovo.” The program planned to take measures in all areas, such as; political, economic, cultural, educational, health, judicial, informational, employment, urbanism, demographic development, etc.

“The Program for the Realization of Peace, Freedom, Equality and Prosperity of Kosovo’’, known as “The Program for Kosovo’’, was simply a discriminatory and racist program against the Albanian people. It provided for the creation of new jobs, employment advantages, special incentives for investment in employment programs, all of this was done for the arrival of a larger number of Serbs and Montenegrins to live and work in Kosovo as well as prevent any future relocation from Kosovo. It is foreseen to have reduced all Albanian cadres in social institutions and economic organizations. It provided for the issuance of a special law, which would establish a fund for the provision of material conditions for the development of Kosovo, in order to prevent the displacement of Serbs and Montenegrins, and the return and arrival of young people.

In terms of plans for the establishment of Slavs in Kosovo, the Serbian regime had drawn up one for the entire territory of Kosovo, which amongst other plans envisaged the construction of neighborhoods specifically for this colonization. In addition to creating these new neighborhoods, many tourist and hotel facilities during this time were occupied and turned into housing units for settlers from different countries.

In the framework of fulfilling the “Program for Kosovo”, the Assembly of the SFRY on February 16, 1990 had approved the “Law on the provision of housing for the needs of staff and the return of persons displaced from Kosovo in the period 1989 to 1993”. It had also issued the “Law on the implementation of that program.” Another step in Serbia’s pan-Slavic journey was the allocation of lands to settlers as well as the creation of funds to cover ongoing costs.

The Serbian government showed extreme determination against the Albanians with another legal act: The Law on the Territorial Organization of Serbia, drafted on January 29, 1992.53 Through this law, the Serbian government paves the way for changing the names (toponyms) of
existing settlements, roads, institutions, social, cultural and educational, as well as the formation of new municipalities.

According to this law, municipal assemblies are obliged to “reconsider the existing names of settlements and to appoint new names within one year from the day of its entry into force”. This law, which provided for the change of the names of schools, streets, squares, various organizations, as well as their naming with Serbian names, is another proof of the Serbization of Kosovo. At this time Cyrillic writing began to dominate everywhere. This is a powerful indicator of the destructive policy plans of Milosevic and the entire Serbian state apparatus. The Serbian government, through the Slavicization of the autochthonous toponyms of the Albanians, wanted to lose the historical traces and everything which had Albanian roots in Kosovo.

One of the Serbian programs that hit the Albanian population in Kosovo was the “Program for the formation of the fund for the development of Serbia”. The program was approved on August 6, 1992. Based on this, funds were provided for the continuation of the campaign for the colonization of Kosovo with Serb populations from different parts of Yugoslavia, such as: Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia, Montenegro.56 In order to realize the development fund, Serbia adopted the Law on the Transformation of Socially-Owned Property into Private Property.

Regarding Kosovo colonization other institutions contributed, among them the Association of Serbs and Montenegrins “Bozhur” from Fushe Kosova. This association projected the idea beyond the colonization campaign, demanding a ban on the activities of parties, associations and other associations that are being exposed “hostilely” in Kosovo, etc., as well as urgently requested the enactment of the law on family planning.

The Serbian government was not satisfied with the fulfillment of the plans for changing the national structure of the people of Kosovo. The Serbian government increased the intensity of systematic terror against Albanians through the action of collecting weapons.The scenario was almost the same or identical to that of the 1950s , many families were raided, beaten, persecuted, arrested and convicted.59 The Serbian government was mainly oriented against young people, with the aim of encouraging displacement. One of the forms of Serbian terror, aimed at pressuring the displacement of Albanians, was the action to collect weapons. Young people faced numerous provocations made by the police, the government, the administration and the Serb and Montenegrin population living and operating in Kosovo.

Always in the context of the colonization and Slavization of Kosovo, of the fulfillment of the pan-Slavic mission, after the dissolution of Yugoslavia, the Assembly of the so-called Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY), on March 17, 1994, approved “The law on the provision of housing for the needs of cadres and the return of displaced people in Kosovo.” According to this law, in the period from 1994 to 1998, 1,564 dwellings were built or purchased for these needs.

the construction of 61,024 previously planned dwellings was foreseen. These legal provisions also defined the conditions and criteria for the allocation of loans and housing for certain categories, such as “staff” and people returning to Kosovo. In addition, it was planned to allocate land for the construction of houses for colonies, etc.

Slobodan Milosevic directed all state mechanisms at that time to the detriment of Kosovo, always to fulfill the promises and the Pan-Slavic obligation: the expulsion of Albanians from Kosovo and its colonization with Slavs from various Yugoslav regions. On January 12, 1995, the Yugoslav government approved a decree allocating 4.1 million dinars from the 1995 federal budget for the construction of colonies in Kosovo. This decree invited all interested parties, cadres of different profiles and professions, all citizens displaced from Kosovo, who were interested in returning, that they would receive loans with a repayment period of 40 years. They would also be given free land. With the approval of this decree, it was planned to settle about 100,000 Serbs and Montenegrins in Kosovo.

Serbia intervened in every pore of life, always issuing legal acts in order to “prevent the displacement of Serbs and Montenegrins from Kosovo”, while, on the other hand, putting pressure on Albanians for displacement, with an ultimate goal: the realization of ethnic cleansing of Kosovo. To this end, Serbia issued a law defining the sale and purchase of real estate . According to this law, the decision-making authority for the sale and purchase of property, private property, was the Republican Secretariat of Finance of Serbia. The decision to sell was made only if this action did not affect the change of ethnic structure. This law applied only in Kosovo. According to it, hundreds of sales contracts were canceled. Many hectares of land and hundreds of houses and flats were taken from the Albanians.

In order to realize the colonization of Kosovo, Serbia undertook concrete actions, such as changing Kosovo’s urban plans. Despite the fact that they were in conflict with the spatial laws, the Assembly of Serbia, in this regard, approved decisions, such as: The decision to change and supplement the detailed urban plan of the neighborhoods “Ulpiana” and “Dardania” in Pristina.

With this change, it was planned that in the neighborhood “Ulpiana”, instead of sports facilities of the primary schools, 110 apartments would be built for Serbs and Montenegrins who wanted to return to Kosovo. Whereas in the neighborhood “Dardania” it was planned that instead of the locality for greenery, there were to be built 98 apartments for Serbs and Montenegrins. Within these decisions was also the one for the construction of cult houses, orthodox churches, as was the case of the church in the university premises in Prishtina.

The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY), which was dominated by Serbia, from the circumstances created after the wars in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, wanted to use the population there as a good opportunity for the fastest colonization of Kosovo and the change of ethnic status in the service of its interests. In the framework of this goal, on January 12, 1995, Serbia drafted the decree “On the manner and conditions of colonization of Kosovo”. According to this decree, for the 100,000 Slavic settlers, it was planned to give free land (to those who wanted to engage in agriculture would also be given three hectares of agricultural land), flats, houses and financial means and large sums.

In 1995, 13.895 Serbian colonists who came from Bosnia, but also from Serbia were placed in Kosovo. According to the plans, Serbian colonization, initiated by Milosevic, was planned to bring tens of thousands of Serb refugees from Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina to Kosovo. Slavic colonies, from one or two families, were also settled in the facilities of working organizations, entities, institutions, factories, etc., where they were employed. Violating every international law, Slavic colonies were also placed in archive objects, such as the Kosovo Archive (KA) and the City Archive of Prishtina (CAP), etc. The Serbian government paid the settlers high salaries and exempted them from all payments, such as electricity, telephone expenses, municipal taxes, and even travel expenses.

The Serbian government, in order to entice the Serb population to settle in Kosovo, for the Slavization of Kosovo, issued various laws, decrees and plans. One such law was the “Law on the conditions, manner and procedure of allocating agricultural land to citizens who wish to live and work in the territory of the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija .” The Serbian government, wanting at all costs to strongly advance the projects launched against Albanians, continued with harassment, beatings, obstruction of the educational process, kidnappings, rapes, imprisonment and murder of Albanians.

With the public appearance of the KLA (28.11.1997), with the beginning of hostilities, at the end of 1997 and onwards, in 1998 and 1999, the Serbian criminal regime exceeded all international laws regarding the observance of human rights, national and international rights, committing a classic genocide against the Albanian people. The Serbian army, police and paramilitary forces not only killed innocent civilians, not only did they burn and destroy everything that was Albanian, but these forces also committed one of the most serious acts against man, the act sanctioned and punished by international laws, committed the most serious and macabre act against humanity, such as sexual assault against the population, regardless of gender or age.

In war circumstances, the ruling Serbian political party, the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS), namely the “SPS Provincial Council for Kosovo and Metohija”, made plans and drafted projects for the “solution” of the Kosovo issue; its Serbization. On December 15, 1998 in Prishtina, it drafted a document entitled “Proposal of measures to solve the current problems in Kosovo and Metohija” (“Predlog mera za reshavanje aktualnih problema na Kosovë i Metohiji”). One of the infamous anti-Albanian projects in the late twentieth century was undoubtedly the military operation codenamed “Patkoi”. The operation was a project of the Yugoslav Army Headquarters and Slobodan Milosevic. This project for the destruction of Albanians is a continuation of previous anti-Albanian projects, from “Naçertanija” by Ilia Garashanini to “Memorandum…” of the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Serbia , whose creator was the chauvinist writer and politician Dobrica Qosiq.

Conclusion

In line with above, in regards to the anti-Albanian policy of the Serbian state, programs and methods of Serbian occupation and colonization, by presenting the emergence and development of nationalism in the Balkans, respectively Serbian nationalism, and by not deviating from the universal principles, it is concluded that this nationalism was in harmony with the emergence and development of nationalism throughout human society of the XIX and XX centuries. Characteristic of this nationalism was that it had the pan-Slavic program or idea as its initial guidance, which was initiated by the Orthodox Church. It is worth noting that these projects for the creation of the Pan- Slavic Empire were executed exactly by the Serbian Autocephalous Church on the nations in the Balkans, and especially on the Albanians.

Evidently, such anti-Albanian actions, since “Naçertania” were taken continuously through the programs of Nikola Pasic, Vuk Karadzic, Vasa Çubriloviqit, Ivo Andric, through the Yugoslav- Turkish Agreement of 1938, the so-called “Gentlemen’s Agreement” between J.B. Tito and the Turkish state in 1953, through the Memorandum of the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Serbia, up until the end of the last century, when Slobodan Milosevic appeared on the Serbian political scene.

It is clear that Serbian policies consistently, especially in the time of Slobodan Milosevic, were presented as a political calculation of the medieval church and diplomacy to rule over other nations. Milosevic was the protagonist of the last decade, who wanted through new fabricated projects (laws, decrees, plans, etc.), to stage once again the pan-Slavic plan of “Nachertania” and that in the most brutal form, as Serbia had done in 1877-1878 in the Sandzak of Nis against the Albanians.

The period of S. Milosevic’s rule was a continuation of the anti-Albanian program between the governments. He had finally implemented a policy of genocidal proportions, a policy for the removal and annihilation of Albanians from their lands, respectively the Serbization of Kosovo.

The Milosevic regime, after the occupation of Kosovo, from 1989 to 1998, through its own mechanisms, science, culture and education, as well as through security mechanisms, poisoned students and teachers, arrested hundreds of professors, students, political figures of science, art and culture, and in almost all Kosovar institutions dismissed thousands of workers and imposed extraordinary measures to do so. It transferred and integrated over 200 state-owned enterprises into Serbian ones, it changed the names of various schools, streets, squares, institutions and organizations, naming them after the Serbian church and state personalities, as well as after the names of Albanian collaborators. He staged cases like the one in Paraqin , on September 3, 1987, and from that year 120 Albanian youths serving in the Yugoslav army were returned in coffins, displaced and expelled from their lands, additionally, the destruction of many households occurred.

During the 1998-1999 liberation war, the Serbian regime, through the security forces, undertook genocidal actions aimed at the annihilation of the Albanian people from Kosovo, and finally the population of Kosovo with a Slavic element. Thousands of civilians have been killed, of them were hundreds of children of different ages, thousands of women and the elderly over 65 years, thousands of people are missing and thousands of differently aged men and women have been raped. Thousands of houses and ancillary facilities, dozens of cultural houses and libraries, hundreds of schools, health institutions and places of worship, mosques, tekkes, catholic churches, and tombs were also destroyed.

All these anti-Albanian actions on the scale of genocide are best illustrated by the statement of the Serbian writer and analyst Mirko Gjorgjeviç, “Hundreds of memoranda and plans have been made to resolve the Kosovo issue. When one looks at these solutions to the problem, be they communist, state or church, one will easily notice that all those plans were to resolve the issue of Kosovo, so that there are no Albanians there.” But, fortunately, such an anti-Albanian policy will be flooded with the just Liberation War during the years 1998-1999, a war led by the Kosovo Liberation Army and supported by the international factor, both political and military one.

In conclusion, the Liberation War brought freedom and paved the way for resolving the political and legal status of Kosovo.

Reference

Prof. Ass. Dr. Skender Zhitia. e-ISSN 2458-7672 https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/jhf History and Future Magazine, June 2021, Volume 7, Issue 2 691 Journal of History and Future, June 2021, Volume 7, Issue 2 Magazine History&Future. Institute of History “Ali Hadri” Prishtinë, Sreet “Arbnor and Astrit Dehari”, no.25, Prof. Ass. Dr. Lagja e Spitalit no.3, Skender ZHITIA 10 000, Prishtina, Republic of Kosovo skenderzhitia@gmail.com ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1684-9899. “The Anti-Albanian Policy of the Serbian State, Programs and Methods (XIX-XX) Anti-Albanian Policies, Programs and Methods of the Serbian State (in the 19th and 20th centuries).”