Serbia condemns Kosovo plan | 184 comments (184 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: Serbia condemns Kosovo plan (none / 0)

The ethnic-Albanian majority on the area of modern Kosovo is relatively recent, some claim it came only during WWII.

In WWII? Who claims that? According to the census of 1921, conducted by a Serb dominated government, the population of Kosovo was 75% Muslim. By language it was approximately 30% Serb. I don't see how one could spin those numbers into a Serb majority.

by MarekNYC on Sun Feb 4th, 2007 at 02:32:24 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Serbia condemns Kosovo plan (none / 0)

I don't have a source handy, but there is a claim that WWII-time Nazi puppet state Greater Albania implemented ethnic cleansing and settlement. Possibilities are (1) the claim is very exaggerated, (2) Serbia conducted its own push for changing the ethnic balance between the two world wars, (3) 25% in 1921 were Sandžak Muslims, e.g. Muslim Serbs.

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Sun Feb 4th, 2007 at 02:45:28 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Serbia condemns Kosovo plan (none / 0)

If in 1921 25% were Serb speaking Muslims then the claim of a Serb majority becomes even more tenuous since that would leave approximately 5% as Serbs. Unless we're arguing that anyone who spoke any of the non-Slovenian, non Macedonian, Slav dialects was a Serb. Of course that would mean that the overwhelming majority in Croatia and virtually everyone in Bosnia was Serb.

by MarekNYC on Sun Feb 4th, 2007 at 02:50:19 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Serbia condemns Kosovo plan (none / 0)

? I can't follow your reasoning at all.

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Sun Feb 4th, 2007 at 02:52:27 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Serbia condemns Kosovo plan (none / 0)

Well you certainly have seen some data here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographic_history_of_Kosovo
While with Bosnian Muslims it's not easy to distinguish who is who ( for outsiders) because they speak Serbian /Croatian only and their names are very often same as Serbian/Croatian with Albanians it's different story. They of course speak Albanian (and all though they used to learn Serbian at school one can always recognize them through their dialect except if they lived elsewhere in Serbia).And their names are not Slavic, so it's easy. Then again in Sandzak you have again Muslims of Serbian origin and language. If one cares to do it it's not hard to differentiation course Albanians are majority now on Kosovo but how is the story going with some USA parts where English is not even language in use anymore? End even closer to home Europe is soooo troubled that ethnic principle is not even considered to be used...

by vbo on Mon Feb 5th, 2007 at 02:45:25 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Serbia condemns Kosovo plan (none / 0)

D'oh, Wikipedia! Thanks for the link, from it appears that Serbs (who, just like the Albanians, were both Muslims and Christians) were an overall majority but city-concentrated up until the 1876 uprising and the ensuing refugee stream into the Vojvodina, and Albanians ever since.

Sidenote, I also found the origin of the claim that Albanians were a minority pre-WWII: apparently during the last census (1939), many Albanians were forced to declare themselves as Turks.

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Mon Feb 5th, 2007 at 06:51:54 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Serbia condemns Kosovo plan (none / 0)

I found a good graph that shows ethnic rather than religious identity, and it appears the answer is a combination of all three of my possibilities:

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Sun Feb 4th, 2007 at 02:55:22 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Serbia condemns Kosovo plan (none / 0)

From what I know, the populations were moved well after the 20s. It was a see-saw affair of "polite" "population exchange" almost decade by decade until the 1970s when the Albanian majority was cemented. Kosovo was depopulated of much of its Albanian population because of their support for the Nazis. At that point, and for several years, many Serb refugees moved in.

That province/country has been vexed for a very very long time.

by Upstate NY on Sun Feb 4th, 2007 at 03:41:33 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Serbia condemns Kosovo plan | 184 comments (184 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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