Kosovo is a disputed territory in Southeastern Europe that declared independence from Serbia in 2008. It is landlocked in the central Balkan Peninsula, bordered by Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia. Kosovo has a strategic position connecting central and southern Europe and serves as an important link between the Adriatic Sea and Black Sea. Kosovo has experienced a long history of occupation and conflict between ethnic Albanians and Serbs over sovereignty and independence.
Kosovo is a disputed territory in Southeastern Europe that declared independence from Serbia in 2008. It is landlocked in the central Balkan Peninsula, bordered by Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia. Kosovo has a strategic position connecting central and southern Europe and serves as an important link between the Adriatic Sea and Black Sea. Kosovo has experienced a long history of occupation and conflict between ethnic Albanians and Serbs over sovereignty and independence.
Kosovo is a disputed territory in Southeastern Europe that declared independence from Serbia in 2008. It is landlocked in the central Balkan Peninsula, bordered by Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia. Kosovo has a strategic position connecting central and southern Europe and serves as an important link between the Adriatic Sea and Black Sea. Kosovo has experienced a long history of occupation and conflict between ethnic Albanians and Serbs over sovereignty and independence.
XI-9 Kosovois adisputed territoryandpartially recognised stateinSoutheastern Europethatdeclared independencefromSerbiain February 2008 as theRepublic of Kosovo. Kosovo islandlockedin the centralBalkan Peninsula. With its strategic position in the Balkans, it serves as an important link in the connection between central and south Europe, the Adriatic Sea, and Black Sea. Its capital and largest city isPristina, and other major urban areas includePrizren,PejandGjakova. It is bordered byAlbaniato the southwest, theRepublic of Macedoniato the southeast,Montenegroto the west and the uncontested territory of Serbia to the north and east. While Serbia recognises administration of the territory by Kosovo's elected government,it still continues to claim it as its ownAutonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija. In antiquity, theDardanian Kingdom, and later the Roman province ofDardaniawas located in the region. The area was inhabited by several ancientIllyrian tribes. In the Middle Ages, it was part of theByzantine,BulgarianandSerbian Empires, and many consider theBattle of Kosovoof 1389 to be one of the defining moments inSerbian medieval history. Kosovo was the core of the medieval Serbian state and it has been the seat of theSerbian Orthodox Churchfrom the 14th century when its status was upgraded into a patriarchate. After being part of theOttoman Empirefrom the 15th to the early 20th century, in the late 19th century Kosovo became the centre of the Albanian independence movement with theLeague of Prizren. As a result of the defeat in the First Balkan War (191213), the Ottoman Empire ceded the Vilayet of Kosovo to the Balkan League; the Kingdom of Serbia took its larger part, while the Kingdom of Montenegro annexed the western part before both countries joined the Kingdom of Yugoslavia after World War I. After a period of Yugoslav unitarianism in the Kingdom, the post-World War II Yugoslav constitution established the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija within the Yugoslav constituent republic of Serbia. Long-term ethnic tensions between Kosovo'sAlbanianand Serb populations left the territory ethnically divided, resulting in inter- ethnic violence, culminating in theKosovo Warof 199899, part of the wider regionalYugoslav Wars.The war ended with amilitary intervention of NATO, which forced theFederal Republic of Yugoslaviato withdraw its troops from Kosovo, which became aUN protectorateunderUNSCR 1244. On 17 February 2008Kosovo's Parliament declared independence. It has since gaineddiplomatic recognitionas asovereign stateby111UN member states,Taiwan, theSovereign Military Order of Malta, theCook IslandsandNiue. Serbia refuses to recognise Kosovo as a state, although with the Brussels Agreement of 2013 it has accepted the legitimacy of Kosovar institutions. Kosovo has a lower-middle-income economy and has experienced solid economic growth over the last decade by international financial institutions, and has experienced growth every year since the onset of the global financial crisis in 2008.