Articles by Jocelyn Woods

For the past 628 years, the countries in the Balkans have experienced ethnic conflict. Many times it was a clash in religion, prejudices, and want of power by the leaders. These are the basis for many of the conflicts that still happen as we speak. The Yugoslav nation have many times been in the middle of battles between two religions. The history of Yugoslavia's war has been based on prejudice discrimination between religious groups: specifically the Orthodox Christian church and the Moslem followers of Islam.

The pre-dominantly Orthodox Christian Europe and the Turkish Ottoman Moslems have been in conflict for 628 years. Battles have raged between these two groups just because of ethnic conflict. But it goes deeper than that - it also involves kings', leaders', and political figures' - want of power, control, and territory.

The Serb, Croat, Slovene, and Montenegrin people have been split up by war throughout their histories. Although there have been attempts to join them, the attempts have mainly been the result of a leader's want for power, and many of the strong people have succeeded above the strength of the leaders and gained freedom, independence, and autonomy from a ruler that suppressed them or tried to hold power on them.

The area has gone through different hands since the beginning, from Roman control to a shuffle of Orthodox, then Moslem, then Orthodox control and dominion. In ancient times the region of Yugoslavia was a part of the Byzantine Empire, which was run by the Eastern Orthodox leaders. The Serbian state broke free of the Byzantine control under Stefan Nemanja, who rallied up the Serbs, and Serbia became a kingdom for the first time, while the Ottoman Empire in Turkey was expanding. The believers of Islam, which were predominant in the Ottoman Empire, came in control of the area in 1389, after the Orthodox Christians were defeated at the most significant single battle in the history of Serbia, the Battle of Kosovo.

Yes, the Battle of Kosovo. It brings to mind a much more real, relevant conflict that has recently made an impression on our minds. With some people it hasn't been a pleasant experience, but it is something that has made an impact on us that will be engraved in our memories for our whole lives. For others it has had more of a smaller effect, but still has caused an impact in their minds, still evoked thoughts of contemplation, almost confusion, as they try to put together the pieces of a puzzle that seem horrid, ruthless, and ironic. Irony is a word that best describes the history of the Balkans. But it was this war that happened in 1389, this older, seemingly far away Battle of Kosovo, that seems less real, somehow, but all the same startlingly recent. It was because of this history, this Battle of Kosovo and power thrown back from the European Orthodox rule to the Ottoman Moslem power that led up to these more vivid times. It is because of this war torn history that has built from the beginning in a vicious cycle of power and blood that the ethnic discrimination is still fresh in the minds of Yugoslavia's people today.

The Battle of Kosovo was a significant start to many years of war that would follow, because many wars, battles, and bloodshed happened in the small region of Kosovo, the little province of Serbia. Kosovo became a battleground for conflicts, disputes, and crazy slaughter over power and religion.

The Ottoman rule lasted up into the 1800s, not two centuries ago. United again, this time under Karadjordje (Djordje Petrovic), the Serbs led a nine-year rebellion against the control, but the Empire regained their hold again in 1813. There was yet another revolt, this time under Milos Obrenovic, another leader, and soon Serbia was free of Ottoman control. Serbia became a limited self-government, but their form of government was very much a totalitarian monarchy.

There was a second, and even a third Battle of Kosovo. The Ottoman army invaded in Kosovo, and killed on a large scale, sending a massive migration of Serbs fleeing Kosovo to Bosnia and other places. A second migration of Orthodox Christians began again, when Austrian force came into Pristina.

Serbia has long had Russia as an ally. Even before the iron curtain was dropped, even way back into the 1800s, when Serbia and Russia first officially joined forces against the Ottomans in the Balkans and again, war raged in the Russo-Ottoman war. In 1878, Serbia was recognized as independent, but subservient to Austria-Hungary, an empire in the east that was growing. Resistance, fleeing and migration seem numerous in Yugoslavia's history.

This subservient position, partially under Austro-Hungary rule, lasted into the turn of the century, into the early 1900s. Wars continued, and Serbian relations with Austria deteriorated horribly. 1901 brought Albanian bands pillaging several cities in Serbia and massacring the people. Two years later they suppressed Orthodox Christian uprisings with violence and grossness. Then Ottomans returned to drive 150,000 people from Kosovo, and 100,000 were Serbs. It was nearly one-third of Kosovo's Serb population. But more than one-third of Kosovo's ethnic Albanians were to flee in modern times, for almost 1 million men, women, and children were displaced from their homes in the war of recent. This small displacement seems minute compared to the mass killings and fleeing of late.

More years passed and the first Balkan war erupted. The Albanians, who had adopted the Moslem religion, allied with the Moslem Turks and fought the armies of the Balkans. Serbia's army pushed the Turks out of the Balkans, except for a certain area, and they "liberated" Kosovo from 16,000 Ottomans. But "liberate" could be looked at differently from the other side, because the Serbs committed atrocities against Albanians, reportedly killing 25,000. No, mass killings are not new to the Balkans.

Serbia gained prestige and yet more power in the Balkan Wars. They now had control over territory in Macedonia and the area of Novi Pazar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and most significantly they now had power over Kosovo, whose name technically is the province of Kosovo-Metohija. Austria-Hungary became alarmed, for Serbia's strength was growing in the Balkans, and there is a thought expressed by an observer of the times, who said "There remains in the heart of the Balkan Peninsula an ulcer poisoning the European system, and bidding fair to render inevitable a bloody operation." It was certainly bloody. And an Albanian leader of the era vowed to fertilize the land of Kosovo "with the bones of Serbs;" the times were horrible, but it wasn't just the times, it was the madness of the mobs, the craze of the persecutors, and the terror of the people.

A year later, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian power was assassinated with his wife. A Serb radical, Gavrilo Princip, in Sarajevo, Bosnia, supposedly killed them. The Austro-Hungarian government held Serbia responsible for the crime and declared war, invading. Serbia stood strong, however, and resisted the invaders until 1915, when yet another country, this time Bulgaria, invaded. By winter, the country was occupied by a group of allied countries formed during World War I, the Central Powers. The Serbs fled to Corfu, a Greek island. Their government and army were now in exile. The number of deaths from this resistance and war were costly: the casualties were 302,000 on the Austrians, 120,000 Serbian soldiers died in a retreat through Kosovo and the Albanian Alps. Catastrophic deaths among the civilian refugees were numerous. The USA recognized the Serbians as heroes for their colossal sacrifices from warfare. 650,000 civilians perished, 45,000 KIA deaths, 80,000 deaths outside of the battle, and 131,148 lives perished in the WIA.

The Serbs and Albanians have a history of turning against each other. In fact, the Serb-Albanian war occurred from 1918-21, and was filled with massacres and bloodshed. In between the world wars, 100,000 Albanians were driven out of Kosovo.

An Official Yugoslavia, But Not for Long

The government in exile, still on the Greek island in 1918, came to an agreement of the Corfu Declaration. This called for unity among the Slavic regions, and finally, after years of conflicts, wars, and disputes, the leaders of Serbia, Croatia, and Montenegro declared the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. They were one nation that became the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1929. It was not long ago, only seventy years ago that Yugoslavia officially became a country.

Then came the forties, and with it brought World War II. Germans invaded and occupied Kosovo. They encouraged Albanian reprisals against Serbs, and again thousands are killed and even more families are forced the flee their home. 6,500 Albanian volunteers who had come together under one name killed Christian civilians. Deaths within the province of Kosovo were 20,000, including both Albanians and Serbs. The country was not yet at peace. Albanians forced around 100,000 civilians out of Kosovo.

The Language of Force

Serbia became a pro-Fascist puppet state, which involved supreme loyalty to the government, as well as submission to political regulations, limiting the rights of individuals. Conflicts were supposed to be solved by subordination to the state. Submission; resignation; giving up their freedom. That is what is required in a country of this kind. But Serbia defeated the Powers, and Yugoslavia became a constituent republic.

Over 1 million deaths occurred when WWII hit in Yugoslavia. Pro-Nazi, communistic, government influenced and political minded Croatian Utasha massacred tens of thousands of Serbs.

Pressure Rises Between Albanians & Serbs

Resistance persisted in Kosovo. The tension was rising between Albanian and Serb. In the mid-fifties the Yugoslavia Udba (Yugoslavia's secret police) terrorized Kosovo's Albanians. It became a battle of ethnic and religious difference, years of war, and a bitter drive to kill. Yugoslavia became under the rule of a strict, ruthless Communistic Dictator, Tito. Josep Broz Tito. Tito pushed 175,000 Moslems from Yugoslavia, and they were re-located in Turkey. Even more civilians of Yugoslavia emigrated in the following years from Kosovo to other regions.

Kosovo Granted Autonomy

To many it is a startling fact, to many it is unknown that Kosovo actually was granted autonomy at one time. In 1974, it was officially granted to them. They became a free and independent region. The relationship of Albanian and Serb had worsened, and the majority of the ethnic Albanian population found it difficult to accept Serbians and Montenegrins throughout that decade. Serbia continued to try to gain control of the region once again, and relations between Yugoslavia and Albania were strained.

Slobodan Milosevic, A New Era, & Control of Kosovo

In 1989 Kosovo lost their autonomy. The same year, Slobodan Milosevic became president of Serbia. He brought with him more communistic mentality. He is a Communist leader, even though the government of Yugoslavia is now currently supposed to be more democratic than the days of old, many of the same communist leaders were reelected and kept the same communistic mentality. Milosevic was to play a large role in the wars that followed, as Slovenia declared independence, as Croatia proclaimed independence, as Bosnia and Herzegovina fought for autonomy, as would Kosovo later appeal for autonomy. Milosevic would be involved in a conflict as families were driven out of their homes, loved ones murdered because of their ethnic origin, and as a country would be under bombing. Years of war, corruption and bloodshed led up to this, when Slobodan Milosevic became president in that year of 1989, when Kosovo's autonomy was revoked.