(From the kaza of the Vilayet of Kosovo to the wars, expulsions and social transformations of the 19th–21st centuries)
Written by: Nehat Hyseni
The history of Preševo cannot be understood only through the changing flags, administrations and borders. It must also be read through the city’s streets, markets, shops, houses, mosques, schools, crafts, families and everyday relationships between people.
In this sense, the Old Bazaar of Presheva constitutes one of the most important testimonies of Albanian civic life, economic development, and collective memory.
The bazaar was not just a space where goods were sold. It was the place where economics, social communication, information, family relationships, religious belief, education, and politics intertwined.
It was where the peasant who brought the produce of the land, the craftsmen who practiced their inherited profession, the merchant who connected Presheva with other centers, and the citizen who sought to understand the developments of the time met.
For this reason, the history of the Bazaar is also the history of local civilization. It helps us understand how Presheva transformed from a settlement with a pronounced rural character into a center with commercial, administrative, educational, and social functions.
But this history is not disconnected from the great upheavals of the Balkans. Since the end of the 19th century, Presheva has been involved in the processes of the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, the expansion of nation-states, the Balkan Wars, the two world wars, socialist Yugoslavia, and the post-1990 transformations. In each of these periods, civic life faced profound changes, while the Albanian population tried to preserve its identity, property, language, family, and connection to the country.
PRESHEV IN THE KOSOVO PROVINCE
AND THE FORMATION OF THE KASA (1877–1912)
The year 1877 marks an important moment in the administrative reorganization of the Ottoman space. With the formation of the Vilayet of Kosovo, Presheva was included in a new administrative framework, which reflected the efforts of the Ottoman Empire to reorganize its Balkan territories in conditions of deep political and military crisis.
In 1878, the Kazaja of Preševo was formed within the Ottoman administrative structure. This was not just a bureaucratic division. It was related to the importance of Preševo as a space between Kosovo, Vranje, Kumanovo and other communication centers. The geographical position of the city favored trade, the movement of people and the circulation of goods.
Studies on the administration of the time place the creation of the kaza in the context of major territorial changes following the Russo-Ottoman wars and the Congress of Berlin. Preševo became part of a space where political borders were changing, while economic and social ties of local populations continued to exist.
In the daily life of the city, this period can be imagined as a time when the Old Bazaar functioned as the heart of the local economy.
Its shops offered agricultural products, textiles, clothing, tools, food items, and goods brought from surrounding centers. Crafts, trade, and services created a network of relationships that gave the city its unique character.
The bazaar was a social institution before it was an architectural space. It organized the rhythm of the day, separated work time from leisure time, created relationships of trust, and conveyed information from one family to another. In a society where modern communication was still limited, the market and public spaces played an important role in shaping opinion.
The civic life of Presheva cannot be separated from religious and educational institutions either. Mosques, mejtepet, families of scholars and traditions of Islamic education were part of the cultural fabric of the city. In this environment, the Albanian language, family traditions and connections with surrounding settlements were important elements of local identity.
However, one should avoid idealizing this period. The late Ottoman society was marked by marked inequalities, weak administration, economic insecurity, and interreligious and interethnic tensions. Its crisis was not only political; it also affected the lives of ordinary people.
THE FIRST BALKAN WAR AND THE DESTRUCTION OF A CIVIL ORDER
The First Balkan War, which began in October 1912, brought one of the most painful turning points in the history of Preševo and the Albanian lands. The armies of the Balkan states, including Serbia, entered the territories previously administered by the Ottoman Empire. For the Albanian population, this change was not experienced simply as a change of administration, but as the beginning of a period of insecurity, violence, loss of property and a violent change in the demographic structure.
In contemporary historiography, the First Balkan War is also studied through violence against civilian populations. Reports and studies of the time document murders, looting, expulsions and destruction in many areas of Kosovo and Albanian territories. At the same time,
Historiography must acknowledge that the Balkan wars produced victims in diverse communities and that violence against civilians cannot be justified by ethnicity or religion,
For the Albanians of Preševo, the establishment of Serbian administration meant a new political reality. In many cases, families faced the fear of losing their property, the obligation to leave, and the uncertainty of the future. Some moved to the territories of the Ottoman Empire, others to Kosovo, Macedonia, and other areas where they had family or social ties.
These movements were not always the same. Some were violent expulsions, some fled in fear, some were forced displacements by economic and political conditions. Precisely for this reason, a serious analysis must distinguish between direct expulsion, forced flight, and subsequent migration.
The Old Bazaar, as the center of civic life, felt this shock. Trade weakened, the movement of people was interrupted, families were separated and some shops and houses were left without their owners. The change of power also brought about a change in property relations, administration and security.
This period should be seen as part of a broader process of national homogenization in the Balkans. Historical studies of the expulsions of 1877–1878 show that Muslim populations, mainly Albanians in rural areas, were expelled in large numbers from the new territories of Serbia. These experiences influenced Albanian-Serbian relations for decades.
FROM THE EXPULSIONS OF 1877–1878
ON THE 1912 DISPLACEMENTS
To understand the demographic tragedy of Albanians in Presevo, it is not enough to stop only at 1912. The processes of displacement had begun earlier, especially after the Russo-Ottoman wars of 1877–1878.
In the territories of the Sandžak of Niš, Toplica, Kosanica and other areas included in the expansion of Serbia, the Albanian population faced mass deportations. Miloš Jagodić’s study shows that the majority of Muslim emigration occurred during military operations, while another part occurred after the end of the war. He emphasizes that the Muslim population of these areas was largely Albanian in the villages, while there was also a Turkish population in the cities.
Many of the expelled settled in the Vilayet of Kosovo, including the areas around Presheva, Gjilan, Prishtina and Kumanovo. They became known as muhajirs. Their experiences, memories of losing their homes and lands, and stories of their journey to new places, remained vivid in Albanian family memory.
This history is also important for Preševo, because the city and its surroundings became part of a space where displaced families were settled, new kinship ties were created, and the economic structure of settlements was changed. In many cases, the emigrants brought with them crafts, trading experiences, agricultural traditions, and memories of a lost homeland.
But this story should not be reduced to a one-sided narrative of revenge. It should be understood as the result of a state and military policy aimed at territorial expansion and the creation of a more homogeneous national space.
New studies on the property left behind by Muslim refugees show that abandoned lands, houses, and possessions became part of processes of property reorganization and ethnic homogenization in the post-Ottoman Balkans.
For Albanian opinion, this period remains one of the earliest testimonies of the insecurity of collective existence. For Euro-Atlantic opinion, it must be read in the light of today’s human rights principles: the right to property, the right to live in one’s country of birth, the protection of civilians, and the prohibition of ethnically based deportations.
WORLD WAR II: SELF-DEFENSE AND THE RAILWAY FRONT
World War II brought another major shock to Preševo. The collapse of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, invasions, changes of administrations, and clashes between various political and military forces created a state of emergency.
During this period, the Albanians of Presheva were faced with the need to protect their families, villages, property and lives. In local memory, a special place is occupied by the organization of self-defense on the front line known as the “Railway”. This front is associated with the efforts of the Albanians to prevent the penetration of forces that threatened settlements and the civilian population.
It should be emphasized that the history of this period requires special archival study. Local names, the role of various formations, the dates of clashes and the number of victims must be verified through documents, surviving testimonies and comparative sources. Oral memory is valuable, but it must be supplemented by scientific research.
In the narrative of the inhabitants, self-defense was not necessarily a unified political project. It was first and foremost a reaction to danger. In conditions of war, people mobilized to preserve life, protect homes, and ensure the passage of families to safer places.
After the end of the war, the establishment of Yugoslav communist power did not immediately end the cycle of violence. In many areas of Kosovo and Albanian lands, the memory of murders, arrests, confiscations and political punishments remained strong. For Preševo, this period is associated with a new process of state control, changing political structures and limiting the space of action of Albanians.
In this context, massacres and killings of civilians should be treated as matters of historical responsibility, not as means of fueling hatred between peoples. A democratic society does not lose its dignity by accepting the suffering of others; on the contrary, it strengthens its own right to seek justice.
RANKOVIC PERIOD AND
DEPORTATIONS TO TURKEY
After World War II, Albanians in Yugoslavia faced a political system that, although it proclaimed the formal equality of nations and nationalities, in practice often produced discrimination, police control, and restrictions on rights.
The period of Aleksandar Ranković, especially in the security and internal affairs apparatus, is associated in Albanian memory with police pressure, the persecution of political opponents and the weakening of Albanian security. This period should be studied with documents, but the fact that many Albanian families experienced it as a time of fear and uncertainty cannot be overlooked.
One of the most important processes was the migration of Albanians to Turkey. The Yugoslav-Turkish agreements, especially those of the 1950s, created a framework that facilitated the departure of large numbers of Muslims from Yugoslavia. In practice, many Albanians were involved in this process, often under pressure from political, economic, and administrative circumstances.
The displacement was not just a geographical movement. It affected family structure, property, education, language, and memory. Families who left took with them place names, photographs, documents, customs, and stories about Preševo. Families who remained experienced the void created by the departure of relatives, friends, and neighbors.
For many Albanians, Turkey became a new place to live, but Presheva remained a place of memory. This created a transnational Albanian space, where family and emotional ties continued beyond state borders.
A responsible analysis must avoid inaccurate figures and absolute statements. The number of displaced persons, their ethnic composition and concrete motives varied according to the period and the document. But the very fact that displacement became an important social phenomenon is indisputable in the memory and history of the Albanians of Yugoslavia.
YEAR 1966: THE FALL OF RANKOVIC
AND THE OPENING OF A NEW PHASE
The year 1966 marked a turning point in the political history of Yugoslavia. After Aleksandar Ranković’s departure from the leadership, conditions were created for a review of security policies and relations between the republics and provinces.
For Albanians, this period brought relative relief in some areas of public life. Greater opportunities were created for the development of education in the Albanian language, for the strengthening of cultural institutions, and for participation in political and administrative life. The processes that led to Kosovo’s autonomy in 1974 must also be understood in the light of this opening.
However, Ranković’s fall did not immediately eliminate discrimination, nor did it solve the Albanian question. It created a new space, which Albanians used to demand more education, representation, economic development, and institutional equality.
In Preševo, this period is associated with the expansion of education, the increasing role of the school, the development of administration, and the strengthening of cultural life. The bazaar continued to be the place where people discussed politics, education, employment, and the future of children.
If the Ranković period represented fear and control, the period after 1966 represented a limited opening towards modernization. But this opening was fragile. It depended on the balances of the Yugoslav federation and on the relations between the federal center, the republics, and the provinces.
FROM LATE YUGOSLAVIA
TODAY’S FRIDAY
The 1970s and 1980s brought major changes to the life of Presheva. Education expanded, the city became urbanized, communication with surrounding centers intensified, and a part of the population turned to new professions. School, administration, trade, and temporary migration for work created a more mobile society.
During this period, the Old Bazaar continued to maintain its function, but the city began to expand beyond its traditional structure. Old shops faced competition from new forms of commerce, while younger generations sought education and employment outside the family profession.
The breakup of Yugoslavia, the wars of the 1990s, and political and economic changes brought new uncertainties. Presheva found itself in a sensitive border space, where issues of identity, security, employment, education, and political representation became part of the public debate.
However, the city did not remain just a victim of history. Its inhabitants developed new forms of political, social and economic organization. Initiatives for education, culture, local development and the protection of rights were created. In this sense, the history of Preševo is not only a history of suffering, but also a history of resistance, adaptation and reconstruction.
Today, the Old Bazaar faces new challenges: changing trade patterns, the emigration of young people, the decline of some traditional crafts, lack of investment, and the need to preserve cultural heritage. But it remains a space of extraordinary value for the city’s identity.
Preservation of the Bazaar should not be limited to the restoration of the facades. It should include:
documenting the history of shops and families;
registration of traditional crafts;
protection of architecture and toponymy;
creating a local photographic and oral archive;
involving schools in heritage education;
the development of cultural tourism and the local economy.
CONCLUSION
The Old Bazaar of Presheva is more than an architectural remnant of the past. It is a living archive of Albanian civic life, economic relations, family traditions, the memory of wars, and the efforts to survive in a space where political borders have constantly changed.
From the Preševo Kazaja of 1878, to the First Balkan War, the expulsions of Albanians, World War II, the “Railway” front, the Ranković period, 1966 and subsequent transformations, the history of the city proves that civic life has never been completely interrupted. It has been damaged, displaced, impoverished and reorganized, but it has continued to exist.
For the Albanians of Presheva, this history is a source of identity and responsibility. It needs to be preserved without romanticization, studied without prejudice, and passed on to new generations with documents, evidence, and arguments.
For the Euro-Atlantic public, the history of Presevo is a reminder that lasting peace is not built solely through political agreements. It requires respect for human rights, the protection of heritage, civic equality, and recognition of the suffering of all communities.
The Old Bazaar should remain not only a place where the past is remembered, but also a space where the future of Presheva is built.
Presevo, September 12, 2026
