Is Kosova Serbia? We ask a historian !!

Noel Malcolm The Guardian, Tuesday February 26 2008

"Kosovo is Serbia", "Ask any historian" read the unlikely placards, waved by angry Serb demonstrators in Brussels on Sunday. This is rather flattering for historians: we don't often get asked to adjudicate. It does not, however, follow that any historian would agree, not least because historians do not use this sort of eternal present tense.

History, for the Serbs, started in the early 7th century, when they settled in the Balkans. Their power base was outside Kosovo, which they fully conquered in the early 13th, so the claim that Kosovo was the "cradle" of the Serbs is untrue.

What is true is that they ruled Kosovo for about 250 years, until the final Ottoman takeover in the mid-15th century. Churches and monasteries remain from that period, but there is no more continuity between the medieval Serbian state and today's Serbia than there is between the Byzantine Empire and Greece.

Kosovo remained Ottoman territory until it was conquered by Serbian forces in 1912. Serbs would say "liberated"; but even their own estimates put the Orthodox Serb population at less than 25%. The majority population was Albanian, and did not welcome Serb rule, so "conquered" seems the right word.

But legally, Kosovo was not incorporated into the Serbian kingdom in 1912; it remained occupied territory until some time after 1918. Then, finally, it was incorporated, not into a Serbian state, but into a Yugoslav one. And with one big interruption (the second world war) it remained part of some sort of Yugoslav state until June 2006.

Until the destruction of the old federal Yugoslavia by Milosevic, Kosovo had a dual status. It was called a part of Serbia; but it was also called a unit of the federation. In all practical ways, the latter sense prevailed: Kosovo had its own parliament and government, and was directly represented at the federal level, alongside Serbia. It was, in fact, one of the eight units of the federal system.

Almost all the other units have now become independent states. Historically, the independence of Kosovo just completes that process. Therefore, Kosovo has become an ex-Yugoslav state, as any historian could tell you.

· Noel Malcolm is a senior research fellow at All Souls College, Oxford. He is the author of Kosovo: A Short History


http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008.../kosovo.serbia

Noel Malcolm - of the Bosnian Institute?
I'm not saying it is biased, but there could be some propensity... I am going to read my Texas history from Spain, and overlook the predisposition involved.

"there is no more continuity between the medieval Serbian state and today's Serbia than there is between the Byzantine Empire and Greece."
Do you believe this? lol

__________________
"Gimme some truth, now whose side are we on? Whatever you say, turn on the boob tube I'm in the mood to obey" Jack Johnson

Well he is more credible then any "he say.... she say" that goes on in here with the "geocities.com" or *.ru webpage to back their story up..... it's common sense.... no???

I believe the facts stated are credible albeit personified, but the 'Byzantine empire' quip sets the tone of the entire story for me. Historians know to leave these kinds of things out and he does not, which makes me question his judgment as a historian.

__________________
"Gimme some truth, now whose side are we on? Whatever you say, turn on the boob tube I'm in the mood to obey" Jack Johnson

White people are Native Americans.

__________________
And he said unto them, Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country.

And he said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country.

The writer trying to make a comparison aside. I think that's the general jist I've seen from multiple sources. Slavs/Serbs show up in the general area in the fifth century, get into their current spot in the 7th, conquer Kosovo in 12th, lose it in the 15th to the Ottomans, conquer it again in the 20th century through Yugoslavia, lose it again in the 21st century.

I would think the "cradle" of the Serbs would actually be Lusatia(in germany), Thessaly(greece), or maybe Smederevo.

Um what? Just get to your point.

Just making a similar comparison that the writer did. And I'm 1/8th so back off.

__________________
And he said unto them, Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country.

And he said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country.

Malcolm was referring to the empire - not the ethnicity - which began in Serbia. To say the Serbian kingdom and its separated delineate - Serbia today, is comparable to the Byzantine Empire and Greece is a stretch at best. If anything, Serbia and Hellenic nations are more friends than comparable constituents of empires. I see no credibility in an obvious opinion such as the aforementioned one from this 'credible' source of history. Besides this, the Kosovar facts seem accurate within reason.

Tip: when historians use terminology such as truths and untruths, they usually have subjective views. It can be stated in other ways which do not provoke arguments in the historical stage.

__________________
"Gimme some truth, now whose side are we on? Whatever you say, turn on the boob tube I'm in the mood to obey" Jack Johnson

I'm wondering if anyone sees the comparison.

__________________
And he said unto them, Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country.

And he said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country.

"Until the destruction of the old federal Yugoslavia by Milosevic"



So much to the accuracy of the whole article! It was the other way around, Milosevic as democratic elected leader tryed to keep the country together while anti-western forces wanted to have Yugoslavia shattered into pieces!

The so called "historian" is either incompetent or straight outright dishonest!

__________________
In times of universal deceit the love of truth becomes the most radical of all ideologies.

Still a Caveman? - Your Mind is Controlled - The Brainwashing of the West - Your thoughts are not your own

Veritax Vox Liberabit