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Demographic history of Kosovo

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Template:Use dmy dates This article includes information on the demographic history of Kosovo.

Prehistory and antiquity

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The Dardani (Template:IPAc-en; Template:Langx; Template:Langx) were a Paleo-Balkan tribe who lived in a region named Dardania after their settlement there.<ref>"Δαρδάνιοι, Δάρδανοι, Δαρδανίωνες" Dardanioi, Georg Autenrieth, "A Homeric Dictionary", at Perseus</ref><ref>Latin Dictionary</ref> The eastern parts of the region were at the Thraco-Illyrian contact zone. In archaeological research, Illyrian names are predominant in western Dardania (present-day Kosovo), and occasionally appear in eastern Dardania (present-day south-eastern Serbia), while Thracian names are found in the eastern parts, but are absent from the western parts. Thus, their identification as either an Illyrian or Thracian tribe has been a subject of debate; the ethnolinguistic relationship between the two groups being largely uncertain and debated itself as well.<ref name="Papazoglu131">Template:Harvnb</ref><ref name="WM">Template:Cite book</ref> The correspondence of Illyrian names, including those of the ruling elite, in Dardania with those of the southern Illyrians suggests a "thracianization" of parts of Dardania.<ref name="RoismanWorthington2011">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Wilkes-1992-85">Template:Harvnb</ref>

Roman antiquity

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After the Roman conquest of Illyria in 168 BC, Romans colonized and founded several cities in the region, such as Ulpiana, Theranda and Vicianum,<ref>Hauptstädte in Südosteuropa: Geschichte, Funktion, nationale Symbolkraft by Harald Heppner, page 134</ref> later incorporating it into the Roman province of Illyricum in 59 BC. Subsequently, it became part of Moesia Superior in AD 87. The region was exposed to an increasing number of 'barbarian' raids from the 4th century AD onwards, culminating with the Slavic migrations of the 6th and 7th centuries. Archaeologically, the early Middle Ages represent a hiatus in the material record.Template:Sfn The decrease in material finds corresponds to the effects which the plague of Justinian probably had throughout the Balkans as millions of people died and many regions became depopulated. The population decrease in the Balkans partially influenced the Slavic migrations of the following centuries.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Early and High Middle Ages

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The region had been part of the Roman and the Byzantium until the first major Slav raids took place in the middle of Justinian's reign. In 547 and 548 the Slavs invaded the territory of modern Kosovo, and then got as far as Durrës on the Northern Albanian coast and reached all the way down to Greece.Template:Sfn

Although the Balkans had been raided by Slavic tribes, the early Slavic settlement and power in Kosovo did not become largeTemplate:Sfn until the region was later absorbed into the Bulgarian Empire in the 850s, when Christianity and a Byzantine-Slavic culture was cemented in the central and eastern Balkans. This era represents the formation of most Slavic toponyms in Kosovo which reflect Old Bulgarian development.<ref name="Ducellier">Template:Cite book</ref> The Gorani people in Kosovo represent the last population in Kosovo which still speaks a Bulgarian/Macedonian dialect.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Following the collapse of the Bulgarian Empire, the region again became part of the Byzantine Empire after the empire fully re-established itself. It would stay under Byzantine rule for nearly two centuriesTemplate:Sfn until Serbian Grand Prince Stefan Nemanja, who had expanded his empire south and into Kosovo, conquered it by the end of the 12th century.<ref>Fine 1994, p. 7 Template:Blockquote</ref>

According to Serbian scholars, although Albanians lived between Lake Skadar and the Devoll river in the 1100s, Albanian migration into the plains of Metohija (Template:Langx) commenced at the end of the century.<ref name="Madgearu">Template:Cite book</ref> Some of the arriving Albanians were assimilated by Serbs and Montenegrins.<ref name="Madgearu" />

According to historian Noel Malcolm the Vlach-Romanian and Aromanian languages originated in the region from Romanized Illyrians and Thracians, and was a contact zone between the Albanian and Romanian language.Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Vlach-Romanian and Aromanian toponyms are present in the surrounding areas, such as Surdul in Southern Serbia. Katun is a living style associated with Eastern Romance people. Katun means 'village' in the Albanian, Aromanian and Romanian languages.

When King Stefan of Dečani founded the Visoki Dečani Monastery in the 1330s, he referred to "villages and katuns of Vlachs and Albanians" in the area of the white Drin.Template:Sfn Dečanski granted the monastery pasture land along with Vlach and Albanian katuns around the Drim and Lim rivers, which carried salt and provided serf labour for the monastery.<ref name="Wilkinson183">Template:Cite journal</ref>

Dušan's Code, the legal system established in 1349, included a prohibition of intermarriage between Serbs and Vlachs.Template:SfnTemplate:Page needed<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> The protection of Slav peasants by the Dušan's Code forced many Vlachs to migrate from Serbia.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Several Albanian personal names and place names appear in various parts of Kosovo and North Macedonia in the 13th century, the first identifiably Albanian place name appearing in Kosovo, attested in a 1253 statement by Serbian knez Miroslav.<ref name="Madgearu" /> By 1330, the frequency of identifiably Albanian names in a 1330 chrysobull describing estates in Decan is "many", although attempts to ascertain reliable percentages of the Albanian population relative to Serbs at this period or later are described by Madgearu as "difficult".<ref name="Madgearu" />

The presence of Vlach villages in the vicinity of Prizren is attested in 1198–1199 by a charter of Stephan Nemanja.<ref name="Madgearu" /> An old Albanian population lived in the region before the Ottoman period.<ref>A Hanzic – Nekoliko Vijesti o Arbanasima na Kosovu i Metohiji</ref><ref>Milan Sufflay – Povijest Sjevernih Arbanasa, p. 61-2</ref><ref name="Madgearu"/>

9th–13 century

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Bulgarian rule

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Between ca. 830 and ca. 1015 the region was Bulgarian. According to historian Richard J. Crampton, the development of Old Church Slavonic literacy during the 10th century had the effect of preventing the assimilation of the South Slavs into the Byzantine culture, which promoted the formation of a distinct Bulgarian identity in that area.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Afterwards it was ceded to the Byzantine empire as a province called Byzantine Bulgaria.

Byzantine rule

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In 1072 an unsuccessful rebellion led by local Bulgarian landlord Georgi Voiteh arose in the area and in 1072 in Prizren he was crowned "Tsar of Bulgaria". At the end of the 11th century, the Byzantine domains in the Balkans became an arena of fierce hostilities. At the end of the 12th century, formally Byzantium was still the sovereign. The disintegration of Byzantium was complete when in 1204 the Fourth Crusade captured Constantinople.

Late Middle Ages

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Chrysobulls related to tax rights for Orthodox monasteries form the vast majority of the existing sources for the available demographics of Kosovo in the 14th century. The Dečani chrysobulls (1321–31) of Serbian king Stefan of Dečani contains a detailed list of landholdings and tax farming rights which the Serbian Orthodox monastery of Visoki Dečani held over settlements and various communities in an area which spanned from southern Serbia (modern Sandzak), Kosovo, Montenegro and parts of northern Albania. The chrysobulls were signed by King Stefan of Dečani who confirmed existing rights and gave new ones to the monastery.Template:Citation needed The chrysobulls listed that Visoki Dečani held tax farming rights over 2,097 households of meropsi (dependent farmers-serfs), 266 Vlach households (pastoral communities) and 69 sokalniki (craftsmen).<ref name="Fine">Template:Citation</ref> Among the settlements over which Dečani held tax rights in modern-day Kosovo, find Serbs living alongside Albanians and Vlachs. In the golden bull of Stefan Dušan (1348) a total of nine Albanian villages are cited within the vicinity of Prizren among the communities which were under tax obligations.Template:Sfn<ref name="Wilkinson183" /> During this period, among a part of the Albanians a degree of Serbianization and conversions to Serbian Orthodoxy seems to have taken place.Template:Sfn

The Ottoman cadastral tax census (defter) of 1455 in the District of Branković (defter Vuk-ili) is one of the oldest Ottoman tax registers in the Balkans. The District of Branković at the time of the defter included parts of central Serbia (present-day Toplica District and the historical Raška Region), part of northeastern Montenegro and parts of eastern Kosovo (the Kosovo Plain).<ref name="Bobic">Template:Cite book</ref> The vast majority of names recorded in Vuk-ili by the Ottomans in 1455 are Slavic.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

The defters of 1485–87 of the Sanjak of Shkodra and parts of the former Branković areas recorded:

  • Vushtrri district:
    • 16,729 Christian households (412 in Pristina and Vushtrri)
    • 117 Muslim households (94 in Pristina and 83 in rural areas)
  • District of Peja:
    • Peja (town)
    • 121 Christian households
    • 33 Muslim households
  • Suho Grlo and Metohija:
    • 131 Christian households
  • Donja Klina – nationalities not clear according to Ottoman records based on religion
  • Deçan – nationalities not clear according to Ottoman records based on religion
  • Rural areas:
    • 6,124 Christian households (99%)
    • 55 Muslim households (1%)

Scholarship on Kosovo has encompassed Ottoman provincial surveys that have revealed the 15th-century ethnic composition of some Kosovo settlements. However, both Serbian and Albanian historians using these records have made much of them while proving little.<ref name="Anscombe">Template:Cite journal</ref> Madgearu (2008) argues that the series of defters from 1455 onward "shows that Kosovo... was a mosaic of Serbian and Albanian villages", while Prishtina and Prizren already had significant Albanian Muslim populations, and that the same defter of 1455 indicates the presence of Albanians in Tetovo.<ref name="Madgearu" /> During the 15th century, Albanians moved to the town of Novo Brdo to work on the mines.<ref name="Madgearu" />

16th century

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1520–1535

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  • Vushtrri: 19,614 households
    • Christians
    • 700 Muslim households (3.5%)
  • Prizren
    • Christians
    • 359 Muslim households (2%)

1591

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Ottoman defter from 1591:<ref>TKGM, TD № 55 (412), (Defter sandžaka Prizren iz 1591. godine).</ref>

  • Prizren – Christian majority, significant Muslim minority
  • Gora – No nationalities are recorded. only religious affiliations of dwellers.
  • Opolje – Christian majority, significant Muslim minority

17th–18th centuries

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In 17th century reports indicate western Kosovo and parts of central Kosovo was Albanian speaking while the Eastern region was Slavic speaking.Template:Sfn<ref name="Anscombe" /> A wave of Catholic Albanian colonists arrived in the 17th century to the towns of Pristina and Gjakova.<ref name="Madgearu" />

In the 17th century the towns of Peja, Prizren, Prishtina were majority Muslim.Template:Sfn

Catholic bishop Pjetër Mazreku noted in 1624 that the Catholics of Prizren were 200, the Serbs (Orthodox) 600, and Muslims, almost all of whom were Albanians, numbered 12,000.Template:Sfn

During the Great Austro-Turkish War, Albanian Catholic leaders Pjetër Bogdani and Toma Raspasani rallied Kosovo Albanian Catholics and Muslims to the pro-Austrian cause. Reports of 20,000 Albanians in Kosovo that had turned their weapons against the Turks.Template:Sfn After the Austrians were forced to retreat, reprisals on the population followed as a result. In the 1690s Raspasani wrote that most of the Catholics in Kosovo had fled to Budapest where most of them died of hunger or disease.Template:Sfn

Significant clusters of Albanian populations lived in Kosovo especially in the west and centre before and after the Habsburg invasion of 1689–1690.<ref name="Anscombe" />Template:Sfn Due to the Ottoman-Habsburg wars and their aftermath, some Albanians from contemporary northern Albania and Western Kosovo settled within the wider Kosovo area in the second half of the 18th century, at times instigated by Ottoman authorities.Template:Sfn<ref name=Maynard2009>Geniş, Şerife, and Kelly Lynne Maynard (2009). Formation of a diasporic community: The history of migration and resettlement of Muslim Albanians in the Black Sea Region of Turkey." Middle Eastern Studies. 45. (4): 556–557.</ref> There were also movements and forcible movements of Orthodox Serbs into Kosovo instigated by Ottoman authorities and as such, historians have concluded these events affected all categories of the populations rather than one eroding the other.Template:SfnTemplate:Page neededTemplate:Sfn

Significant Albanian clusters also existed in Eastern Kosovo. Some of the towns had a large Muslim Albanian population that did not regain their pre-1690 levels until the mid 19th century.Template:Sfn

Early reports state that hundreds of villages between the area of Trepca, Vushtrri and Prishtina region of eastern Kosovo were abandoned, while villages in the western part of Kosovo were still inhabited.Template:Sfn

Successive persecutions of Serbs by the Ottomans in the southern Balkans resulted in migrations to areas under the control of the Habsburg monarchy, in particular during the Great Turkish War of 1683–1699.<ref>Template:Citation</ref> During that war between the Ottomans and the Habsburgs, it led to the flight of a substantial numbers of Serbs and Albanians who had sided with the Austrians, from within and outside Kosovo, to Austrian held Vojvodina and the Military Frontier – Patriarch Arsenije III, one of the refugees, referred to 30,000 or 40,000 souls, but a much later monastic source referred to 37,000 families. Serbian historians have used this second source to talk of a Great Migration of Serbs. Wars in 1717–1738 led to a second exodus of refugees (both Serbian and Albanian) from inside and outside Kosovo, together with reprisals and the enslavement and deportation of a number of Serbs and Albanians by the victorious Ottomans.Template:Sfn

19th century

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File:Albania-ethnique1898.jpg
Ethnographic map of Balkans (detail), Atlas Général Vidal-Lablache, Paris, 1898.

Kosovo was part of the Kosovo Vilayet, which included Kosovo, parts of northern and northwestern North Macedonia, parts of modern eastern Montenegro and much of the Sandzak region. Nineteenth-century data about the Kosovo Vilayet tend to be rather conflicting, giving sometimes numerical superiority to the Serbs and sometimes to the Albanians. The Ottoman statistics are regarded as unreliable, as the empire counted its citizens by religion rather than nationality, using birth records rather than surveys of individuals.

A map published by French ethnographer G. Lejean<ref name=Wilkinson>H.R. Wilkinson, Maps and Politics; a review of the ethnographic cartography of Macedonia, Liverpool University Press, 1951</ref> in 1861 shows that Albanians lived on around 57% of Kosovo Vilayet while a similar map, published by British travellers G. M. Mackenzie and A. P. Irby<ref name=Wilkinson/> in 1867 shows slightly less; these maps don't show which population was larger overall. Nevethless, maps cannot be used to measure population as they leave out density.

File:EthnicAlbania1911.jpg
Ethnic distribution of Albanians, The Historical Atlas, New York, 1911

Maps published by German historian Kiepert<ref name=Wilkinson/> in 1876, J. Hahn<ref name=Wilkinson/> and Austrian consul K. Sax,<ref name=Wilkinson/> show that Albanians live on most of the territory of what is now Kosovo, however, they do not show which population is larger. According to these, the regions of Kosovska Mitrovica and Kosovo Polje were settled mostly by Serbs, whereas most of the territory of western and eastern parts of today's province was settled by Muslim Albanians.

An Austrian statistics<ref>Detailbeschreibung des Sandzaks Plevlje und des Vilajets Kosovo (Mit 8 Beilagen und 10 Taffeln), Als Manuskript gedruckt, Vien 1899, 80–81.</ref> published in 1899 estimated about the population of the Kosovo Vilayet:

  • 349,350

of which national affiliation is not mentioned according to the source

During and after the Serbian–Ottoman War of 1876–78, between 49,000 and 130,000 Albanians were expelled by the Serb army from the Sanjak of Niș (located north-east of contemporary Kosovo) and fled to the Kosovo Vilayet.<ref>Pllana, Emin (1985). "Les raisons de la manière de l'exode des refugies albanais du territoire du sandjak de Nish a Kosove (1878–1878) [The reasons for the manner of the exodus of Albanian refugees from the territory of the Sanjak of Niš to Kosovo (1878–1878)] ". Studia Albanica. 1: 189–190.</ref><ref>Rizaj, Skënder (1981). "Nënte Dokumente angleze mbi Lidhjen Shqiptare të Prizrenit (1878–1880) [Nine English documents about the League of Prizren (1878–1880)]". Gjurmine Albanologjike (Seria e Shkencave Historike). 10: 198.</ref><ref>Şimşir, Bilal N, (1968). Rumeli’den Türk göçleri. Emigrations turques des Balkans [Turkish emigrations from the Balkans]. Vol I. Belgeler-Documents. p. 737.</ref><ref name=Elsie2010>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Stefanović, Djordje (2005). "Seeing the Albanians through Serbian eyes: The Inventors of the Tradition of Intolerance and their Critics, 1804–1939." European History Quarterly. 35. (3): 470.</ref> Serbs from the Lab region moved to Serbia during and after the war of 1876 and incoming Albanian refugees (muhaxhirë) repopulated their villages.Template:Sfn Apart from the Lab region, sizeable numbers of Albanian refugees were resettled in other parts of northern Kosovo alongside the new Ottoman-Serbian border.Template:Sfn<ref name="Uka194286"/><ref name="Osmani4850">Template:Harvnb.</ref> Most Albanian refugees were resettled in over 30 large rural settlements in central and southeastern Kosovo.Template:Sfn<ref name="Uka194286"/><ref name="Osmani444750515460">Template:Harvnb.</ref> Many refugees were also spread out and resettled in urban centers that increased their populations substantially.<ref>Template:Cite journal para. 30.</ref><ref name="Uka194286">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Osmani4364">Template:Cite book</ref> Western diplomats reporting in 1878 placed the number of refugee families at 60,000 families in Macedonia, with 60–70,000 refugees from Serbia spread out within the vilayet of Kosovo.<ref name="Malcolm228229"/> The Ottoman governor of the Vilayet of Kosovo estimated in 1881 the refugees number to be around 65,000 with some resettled in the Sanjaks of Üsküp and Yeni Pazar.<ref name="Malcolm228229">Template:Harvnb</ref>

In the late Ottoman period, Kosovo vilayet contained a diverse population of Muslim Albanians and Orthodox Serbs that was split along religious and ethnic lines.<ref name="Gawrych34"/>

Muslim Albanians formed the majority of the population in Kosovo vilayet that included an important part of the urban-professional and landowning classes of major towns.,<ref name="Gawrych35"/> while Serbs were a majority in Eastern Kosovo, with a sizable Bulgarian minority in the south as well.<ref name="GawrychQuot">Template:Harvnb: "On the Christian side of the ledger, the Serb Orthodox community constituted the largest group in the northern half of Kosova, forming a majority in the eastern areas. No more than several thousand Orthodox Vlachs inhabited the province. Bulgarians occupied the southern half of Kosova."</ref> Western Kosovo was composed of 50,000 inhabitants and an area dominated by the Albanian tribal system with 600 Albanians dying per year from blood feuding.Template:Sfn The Yakova (Gjakovë) highlands contained 8 tribes that were mainly Muslim and in the Luma area near Prizren there were 5 tribes, mostly Muslim.<ref name="Gawrych34"/> The population of the tribal areas were composed of Kosovar Malisors (highlanders).<ref name="Gawrych34"/> The town of İpek had crypto-Christians who were of the Catholic faith.<ref name="Gawrych34"/>

Muslim Bosniaks whose native language was Slavic formed a sizable number of Kosovo vilayet's population and were concentrated mainly in Yenipazar sanjak.<ref name="Gawrych35"/> Circassian refugees who came from Russia were resettled by Ottoman authorities within Kosovo vilayet in 1864, numbering some 6,000 people by the 1890s.<ref name="Gawrych35"/>

In the northern half of Kosovo vilayet Orthodox Serbs were the largest Christian group and formed a majority within the eastern areas.<ref name="Gawrych35"/> Several thousand Aromanians inhabited Kosovo vilayet.<ref name="Gawrych35"/> Bulgarians lived in the southern half of Kosovo vilayet.<ref name="Gawrych35">Template:Harvnb</ref>

Ottoman provincial records for 1887 estimated that Albanians formed more than half of Kosovo vilayet's population concentrated in the sanjaks of İpek, Prizren and Priştine.<ref name="Gawrych34"/> In the sanjaks of Yenipazar, Taşlica and Üsküp, Albanians formed a smaller proportion of the population.<ref name="Gawrych34">Template:Harvnb</ref>

In 1897, the Ottoman authorities ordered a religious census for Kosovo, which found that there were 633,765 Muslims and 333,406 Christians in Kosovo at the time, meaning that Christians formed 35% of the population.Template:Sfn Christians were severely underrepresented in the local governments and administration, with only a few officials being Christians in the entirety of Kosovo.Template:Sfn Paolo Maggiolini attributes the decline of the Christian population to failure of the 1878 uprising, which was used by the Ottoman authorities to justify forced conversions and expulsions of the Catholic and Orthodox communities in Kosovo.<ref name="Paolo">Template:Cite journal</ref>

According to Ger Duijzings, the middle of the 19th century marked the first time when Albanian speakers formed a majority in Kosovo, with 1870s marking the point at which relations between the Serbs and Albanians of Kosovo turned highly hostile and violent.<ref name="GER">Template:Cite book</ref> He argues that less than half of Kosovo was ethnically homogenous at the time - constant settlement and migration greatly undermined the local and tribal identities of Kosovo, with most Albanians being poorly integrated and Serbs either living in segregated Christian enclaves or assimilating into the Albanian majority:

Template:Blockquote

Because the process of religious conversion was violent and forced, Kosovo Albanians were also only nominally Muslims, with converts becoming fully only Islamicized after several generations.<ref name="GER 15-16"/> Duijzings also questions the concept of "Great Exodus of Serbs" of Kosovo propagated by Serbian historians, arguing that the main reason for sharp decline of Christianity in Kosovo was the dismantlement of ecclesiastical structures undertaken by the Ottoman administration in 18th and 19th century, resulting in "a process of Islamicization and Albanianization of Serbs."<ref name="GER 15-16"/>

Note: Territory of Ottoman Kosovo Vilayet was quite different from modern-day Kosovo.

Early 20th century

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File:Ethnic Kosovo 1911.gif
Ethnic composition of Kosovo in 1911

According to Aram Andonyan and Zavren Biberyan, in 1908, the Kosovo Vilayet, which included modern Kosovo and the northwestern part of modern North Macedonia, had a total population of 908,115, of which the largest group were Albanians with 46,1%, followed by Bulgarians at 29.1%, Serbs at 12.4% and Turks at 9.8%.

German scholar Gustav Weigand gave the following statistical data about the population of Kosovo,<ref name=Weigand>Gustav Weigand, Ethnographie von Makedonien, Leipzig, 1924; Густав Вайганд, Етнография на Македония (Bulgarian translation)</ref> based on the pre-war situation in Kosovo in 1912:

  • Pristina District: 67% Albanians, 27% Serbs
  • Prizren District: 63% Albanians, 36% Serbs
  • Vushtrri District: 90% Albanians, 10% Serbs
  • Ferizaj District: 70% Albanians, 30% Serbs
  • Gnjilane District: 75% Albanians, 23% Serbs
  • Mitrovica District: 60% Serbs, 40% Albanians
  • Kaçanik District: almost exclusively Albanian
  • Gjakova & Metohija District: almost exclusively Albanian.<ref name=Weigand/>

Ottoman population records

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The Ottoman population records for 1895 indicate male population of 132,450 Muslims and 73,924 Christians for the Sanjak of Pristina, 73,708 Muslims and 24,101 Christians for the Sanjak of Prizren and 24,852 Muslims and 9,468 Christians for the Sanjak of Ipek, or a total of some 462,000 Muslims (of both sexes), or 68.2%, and some 215,000 Christians (of both sexes), or 31.8%, for the three sanjaks that form the majority of Kosovo.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> However, the data includes the large Kalkandelen kaza in the region of Macedonia, while the "Christians" category also includes Roman Catholics.

According to the 1905–1906 census of the Ottoman Empire, the population of the Sanjak of Pristina consisted of 278,870 Muslims and 111,328 Serbian Patriarchists, of the Sanjak of Prizren of 221,882 Muslims, 25,482 Serbian Patriarchists and 19,320 Bulgarian Exarchists (data includes the large Kalkandelen kaza in the region of Macedonia) and of the Sanjak of Ipek of 121,264 Muslims and 30,210 Serbian Patriarchists.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Data for the Kalandelen kaza is only available for the 1881-1882 census of the Ottoman Empire. It lists male population of 29,212 Muslims (or some 58,000 Muslims of both sexes), 4,990 Patriarchists (or some 10,000 of both sexes) and 9,830 Bulgarian Exarchists (or some 20,000 of both sexes).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Thus, the population of the three sanjaks, minus the Kalkandelen kaza, for 1905/1906 consisted of 564,016 Muslims (78.2%) and 157,020 Serbian Patriarchists (21.8%). No data is provided about the third major confessional group in Kosovo, Roman Catholics.

Balkan Wars and First World War (Montenegro and Serbia)

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Kosovo was part of the Ottoman Empire and following the Balkan Wars (1912–1913), the western part was included in Montenegro and the rest within Serbia.<ref name="Qirezi384553">Template:Harvnb</ref> Citing Serbian sources, Noel Malcolm also states that in 1912 when Kosovo came under Serbian control, "the Orthodox Serb population [was] at less than 25%" of Kosovo's entire population.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Beginning from 1912, Montenegro initiated its attempts at colonisation and enacted a law on the process during 1914 that aimed at expropriating 55,000 hectares of Albanian land and transferring it to 5,000 Montenegrin settlers.<ref name="Qirezi53"/> Some Serb colonisation of Kosovo took place during the Balkan Wars.<ref name="Hadri5960">Template:Cite journal</ref> Serbia undertook measures for colonisation by enacting a decree aimed at colonists within "newly liberated areas" that offered 9 hectares of land to families.<ref name="Qirezi53"/>

Yugoslav Interwar period

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In the aftermath of the First World War, Serbian control over Kosovo was restored and the Kingdom pursued a policy to alter the national and religious demographics of Kosovo and to Serbianise the area through colonisation.<ref name="Karoubi175176"/><ref name="Iseni312">Template:Harvnb</ref><ref name="LeurdijkZandee13"/> Kosovo was an area where Serbs were not a majority population and the state sought demographic change in those areas through land reform and a colonisation policy.<ref name="GulyasCsullog230231">Template:Harvnb</ref> A new decree issued in 1919 and later in 1920 restarted the colonisation process in places where Albanians lived in Kosovo and Vardar Macedonia.<ref name="Qirezi53"/>

1921 census

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File:Distribution of Races on the Balkans in 1922 Hammond.png
Ethnographic map of Europe in 1922, C.S. Hammond & Co.
File:Distribution of races in the Balkans c.1910.jpg
Distribution of Races in the Balkan Peninsula and Asia Minor in 1923, William R. Shepherd Atlas
  • The 1921 Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes population census for the territories comprising modern-day Kosovo listed 439,010 inhabitants:
By religion:
By native language:

In the Yugoslav census of 1921, Albanians formed the majority population of Kosovo at around 64 percent with some 72 percent belonging to the Muslim faith.<ref name="LeurdijkZandee13">Template:Harvnb</ref> Government sponsored colonisation of Kosovo and Vardar Macedonia was initiated in 1920 when on 24 September the Assembly of the Yugoslav Kingdom passed the Decree on the Colonisation of the Southern Provinces of Yugoslavia.<ref name="Bokovoy254"/><ref name="LeurdijkZandee13"/><ref name="Boskovska163164">Template:Harvnb.</ref> The decrees were intended as a reward to former soldiers and chetniks for their service during the Balkan Wars and World War One with incentives offered to settle in Kosovo that allowed them to claim between 5 and 10 hectares of land.<ref name="Clark10"/><ref name="Qirezi53">Template:Harvnb</ref><ref name="GulyasCsullog231"/> The military veterans that settled in Kosovo were known as dobrovoljac (volunteers) and were a politically reliable group for the state.<ref name="GulyasCsullog231"/> The colonisation process also entailed the arrival of Serbian bureaucrats to Kosovo along with their families.<ref name="GulyasCsullog231">Template:Harvnb</ref> During 1919–1928 some 13,000 to 15,914 Serbian families came to live in Kosovo as stipulated to the conditions of the decrees.<ref name="Qirezi5354">Template:Harvnb</ref> Between 1918 and 1923, as a result of state policies 30,000 and 40,000 mainly Muslim Albanians migrated to the Turkish regions of İzmir and Anatolia.<ref name="Iseni313">Template:Harvnb</ref> According to Antonio Baldacci, the Yugoslav census of 1921 significantly underestimated the number of Albanians living in Kosovo.Template:Sfn

1931 census

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  • According to the 1931 Kingdom of Yugoslavia population census, there were 552,064 inhabitants in today's Kosovo.
By religion:
File:Map of Serbian colonization in Vardar Macedonia 20 century.jpg
Serbian colonisation in Kosovo and Vardar Macedonia between 1920 and 1930. Colonised areas are in thick hatched black lines and colonised settlements are shown as black squares
By native language:

By the 1930s, the efforts and attempts at increasing the Serb population had failed as the Yugoslav census (1931) showed Albanians were 62 percent of the Kosovan population.<ref name="Karoubi175176"/><ref name="LeurdijkZandee14"/><ref name="Boskovska168">Template:Harvnb</ref> Colonisation had managed to partially change the demographic situation in Kosovo and the share of Albanians had decreased from 65 percent (289,000) in 1921 to 61 percent (337,272) in 1931 and Serbs increased from 28 percent (114,000) to 32 percent (178,848).<ref name="GulyasCsullog231"/> State authorities attempted to decrease the Albanian population through "forced migration", a process that grew during the decade.<ref name="Karoubi175176">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="LeurdijkZandee14"/> The second phase of Yugoslav colonisation began in 1931, when the Decree on the Colonisation of the Southern Regions was issued on 11 July.<ref name="Bokovoy254">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Boskovska164">Template:Cite book</ref> This phase of colonisation was considered unsuccessful because only 60 to 80 thousand people (some 17–20 thousand families) showed a willingness to become settlers and gained land, of whom many failed to follow through.<ref name="Clark10">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="GulyasCsullog231"/>

Based in Ankara, the data gathered for 1919–1940 by the Yugoslav Legation shows 215,412 Albanians migrated to Turkey, whereas data collected by the Yugoslav army shows that until 1939, 4,046 Albanian families went to live in Albania.<ref name="Qirezi47">Template:Harvnb</ref> For 1918 to 1921, Sabrina Ramet cites the estimate that the expulsions of Albanians reduced their numbers from around 800,000 – 1,000,000 within Kosovo down to some 439,500.<ref name="Ramet198">Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Sfn Between 1923 and 1939, some 115,000 Yugoslav citizens migrated to Turkey and both Yugoslavian and Turkish sources state that Albanians composed most of that population group.<ref name="Gingeras161">Template:Harvnb.</ref> Yugoslav sources downplayed the number of Albanians who left the region. Official Yugoslav sources claimed that between 1927 and 1939 some 23,601 Muslims from Kosovo left for Turkey (19,279) and Albania (4,322). The exact number of Albanians who were expelled is difficult to determine but between 200,000 and 300,000 migrants moved from Yugoslavia mostly to Turkey between WWI and WWII. From 1923 to 1939, Albanians comprised about 100,000 in the total population which left Yugoslavia.<ref name="Gingeras161"/>

Albanian scholars from Albania and Kosovo place the number of Albanian refugees from 300,000 upward into the hundreds of thousands and state that they left Yugoslavia due to duress.<ref name="Gingeras164"/><ref name="Iseni312313">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Mulaj69"/> Other estimates given by scholars outside the Balkans for Kosovan Albanians that emigrated during 1918–1941 are between 90,000 and 150,000 or 200,000–300,000.<ref name="LeurdijkZandee14">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Mulaj69">Template:Harvnb</ref> To date, access is unavailable to the Turkish Foreign Ministry archive regarding this issue and as such the total numbers of Albanians arriving to Turkey during the interwar period are difficult to determine.<ref name="Gingeras164">Template:Cite book.</ref>

World War II

[edit]
File:Map of Kosovo during WW II.png
Kosovo in 1941

During World War II, a large area of Kosovo was attached to Italian controlled Albania.<ref name="Sullivan15"/><ref name="CakajKrasniqi154155"/> Kosovo Albanians sought to redress the past policies of colonisation and Slavization and power relations between Albanians and Serbs were overturned in the new administration.<ref name="Sullivan15"/><ref name="CakajKrasniqi154155"/> It resulted in local Serbs and other Serbs that had arrived previously as part of the colonisation plan to be targeted by groups of armed Albanians.<ref name="CakajKrasniqi154155"/> Campaigns aimed toward Serbs followed and included the destruction of property, killings, murders and deportations.<ref name="Sullivan15"/><ref name="Ramet198"/><ref name="CakajKrasniqi154155">Template:Cite book</ref> The majority of Montenegrin and Serb settlers consisting of bureaucrats and dobrovoljac fled from Kosovo to Axis occupied Serbia or Montenegro.<ref name="Sullivan15">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="GulyasCsullog236"/> One estimate places the number of Serbs that were forced to leave at 70,000-100,000.<ref name="Ramet198"/> Serbian historiography estimates that some 100,000 Serbs left Kosovo during 1941–1945.<ref name="GulyasCsullog236">Template:Cite journal</ref> Other Serb sources place the number at 250,000.<ref name=Annexe>Annexe I Template:Webarchive, by the Serbian Information Centre-London to a report of the Select Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.</ref> During this period, Vickers estimates the Italian occupation force facilitated the settlement of up to 72,000 Albanians from Albania to Kosovo.Template:Sfn

A three-dimensional conflict ensued, involving inter-ethnic, ideological, and international affiliations, with the first being most important. Nonetheless, these conflicts were relatively low-level compared with other areas of Yugoslavia during the war years, with one Serb historian estimating that 3,000 Albanians and 4,000 Serbs and Montenegrins were killed, and two others estimating war dead at 12,000 Albanians and 10,000 Serbs and Montenegrins.Template:Sfn An official investigation conducted by the Yugoslav government in 1964 recorded nearly 8,000 war-related fatalities in Kosovo between 1941 and 1945, 5,489 of whom were Serb and Montenegrin and 2,177 of whom were Albanian.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Communist Yugoslavia

[edit]

Following the Second World War and establishment of communist rule in Yugoslavia, the colonisation programme was discontinued, as President Tito wanted to avoid sectarian and ethnic conflicts.<ref name="Sells54">Template:Cite book</ref> Tito enacted a temporary decree in March 1945 that banned the return of colonists, which included some Chetniks and the rest that left during the war seeking refuge.<ref name="Qirezi49"/><ref name="Lampe228"/> Two weeks later Tito issued another decree and followed it with a law in August 1945 that permitted a conditional return for a minority of the colonists.<ref name="Qirezi49"/><ref name="Lampe228">Template:Cite book</ref> In total, cases of return numbered 11,168, with 4,829 cases confirmed, 5,744 cases partially confirmed alongside 595 cases being denied.<ref name="Qirezi49">Template:Harvnb</ref> A small proportion of the previous colonist population came back to Kosovo and repossessed land, with a greater part of their number (4,000 families) later leaving for other areas of Yugoslavia.<ref name="Qirezi49"/> From 1945 to 1948, the Yugoslav government opened the border to Albania with an estimated 25,000 Albanians crossing over and settling in Kosovo. The majority of these post-war migrants were family members of Albanians settled in Kosovo during the Second World War by the Italian occupation force.Template:Sfn

After the Second World War and the Yugoslavia-Albania split, Yugoslav authorities attempted to downplay links between Albanians of Albania and Kosovo and to implement a policy of "Turkification" that encouraged Turkish language education and emigration to Turkey among Albanians.<ref name="Mulaj45"/><ref name="Qirezi50"/> In 1953, an agreement was reached between Tito and Mehmet Fuat Köprülü, the foreign minister of Turkey that promoted the emigration of Albanians to Anatolia.<ref name="Mulaj45"/><ref name="Qirezi50"/> Forced migration to Turkey increased and numbers cited by Klejda Mulaj for 1953–1957 are 195,000 Albanians leaving Yugoslavia and for 1966, some 230,000 people.<ref name="Mulaj45"/> Historian Noel Malcolm placed the number of Albanians leaving for Turkey at 100,000 between 1953 and 1966.<ref name="Qirezi50"/> Factors involved in the upsurge of migration were intimidation and pressure toward the Albanian population to leave through a campaign headed by Yugoslav police chief Aleksandar Ranković that officially was stated as aimed at curbing Albanian nationalism.<ref name="Mulaj45"/><ref name="Qirezi50"/> Kosovo under the control of Ranković was viewed by Turkey as the individual that would implement "the Gentleman's Agreement".<ref name="Qirezi50">Template:Harvnb</ref> At the same time, a new phase of colonisation occurred in the region as Montenegrin and Serb families were installed in Kosovo.<ref name="Mulaj45"/> The situation ended in 1966 with the removal of Ranković from his position.<ref name="Mulaj45">Template:Cite book</ref>

From 1961 to 1981, the ethnic Albanian population of Kosovo almost doubled as a result of high birth rates, illegal migration from communist Albania and rapid urbanisation. Throughout the same period, the population of ethnic Serbs of Kosovo reduced by half, stimulated by an exodus of ethnic Serbs from the region.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Censuses

[edit]

1948 census

[edit]
File:Zabrana povratka kolonistima.jpg
In 1945, the decree temporarily banning the return of the colonists was published in the government periodical Službeni list

727,820 total inhabitants

1953 census

[edit]

808,141 total inhabitants

1961 census

[edit]

963,959 total inhabitants

  • 646,604 Albanians (67.08%)
  • 227,016 Serbs (23.55%)
  • 37,588 Montenegrins (3.9%)
  • 8,026 Ethnic Muslims (0.83%)
  • 7,251 Croat (0.75%)
  • 5,203 Yugoslavs (0.54%)
  • 3,202 Romani (0.33%)
  • 1,142 Macedonians (0.12%)
  • 510 Slovenes (0.05%)
  • 210 Hungarians (0.02%)

1971 census

[edit]

1,243,693 total inhabitantsTemplate:Citation needed

  • 916,168 Albanians or 73.7%<ref name="Annexe"/>
  • 228,264 Serbs (18.4%)
  • 31,555 Montenegrins (2.5%)
  • 26,000 Slavic Muslims (2.1%)
  • 14,593 Romani (1.2%)
  • 12,244 Turks (1.0%)
  • 8,000 Croats (0.7%)
  • 920 Yugoslavs (0.1%)

1981 census

[edit]

1,584,558 total inhabitants<ref name="Political Parties of Eastern Europe" />

  • 1,226,736 Albanians (77.42%)
  • 209,498 Serbs (13.2%)
  • 27,028 Montenegrins (1.7%)
  • 2,676 Yugoslavs (0.2%)

1991 census

[edit]
Registered population
[edit]

Official Yugoslav statistical results, almost all Albanians and some Roma and ethnic Muslims boycotted the census following a call by Ibrahim Rugova to boycott Serbian institutions.

359,346 total inhabitants<ref name="Political Parties of Eastern Europe">Template:Cite book</ref>

By ethnicity:

  • 194,190 Serbs
  • 57,758 Muslims (minority boycotted)
  • 44,307 Roma (minority boycotted)
  • 20,356 Montenegrins
  • 9,091 Albanians (majority boycotted)
  • 10,446 Turks
  • 8,062 Croats (Janjevci, Letnicani)
  • 3,457 Yugoslavs
By religion:
  • 216,742 (60,32%) Orthodox
  • 126,577 (35,22%) Muslims
  • 9,990 (2,78%) Catholics
  • 1,036 (0,29) Atheist
  • 4,417 (1,23) Unknown
Estimated population
[edit]

Statistical office of Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija estimated total number of Albanians, Muslims and Roma.

1,956,196 total inhabitants

By ethnicity:

  • 1,596,072 Albanians (81.6%)
  • 194,190 Serbs (9.9%)
  • 66,189 Muslims (3.4%)
  • 45,745 Roma (2.34%)
  • 20,365 Montenegrins (1.04%)
  • 10,445 Turks (0.53%)
  • 8,062 Croats (Janjevci, Letnicani) (0.41)
  • 3,457 Yugoslavs (0.18%)
  • 11,656 others (0.6%)

The corrections should not be taken to be fully accurate. The number of Albanians is sometimes regarded as being an underestimate. On the other hand, it is sometimes regarded as an overestimate, being derived from earlier censa which are believed to be overestimates. The Statistical Office of Kosovo states that the quality of the 1991 census is "questionable." [1].

In September 1993, the Bosniak parliament returned their historical name Bosniaks. Some Kosovar Muslims have started using this term to refer to themselves since.

Milošević government (1990s)

[edit]

By 1992, the situation in Kosovo deteriorated and politicians from both sides were at an impasse toward solutions for the future of the region.<ref name="JanjicLalajPula290"/> Concerns increased among Serbs and an organisation was created called the Serb Block for Colonizing Kosovo in Pristina that aimed to get state officials based in Belgrade to raise the Serb population within Kosovo.<ref name="JanjicLalajPula290"/> As such, the state made available loans for building apartments and homes along with employment opportunities for Montenegrins and Serbs that chose to relocate to the region.<ref name="JanjicLalajPula290"/> In March 1992, nearly 3,000 people from the Serb minority in Albania had emigrated to Kosovo after accepting the government offer.<ref name="JanjicLalajPula290">Template:Cite book</ref> At the time, the government under President Slobodan Milošević pursued colonisation amidst a situation of financial difficulties and limited resources.<ref name="JanjicLalajPula290"/> Laws were passed by the parliament of Serbia that sought to change the power balance in Kosovo relating to the economy, demography and politics.<ref name="Mertus466"/> The parliament of Serbia on 11 January 1995 passed the Decree for Colonisation of Kosovo of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.<ref name="Bellamy115"/> It outlined government benefits for Serbs who desired to go and live in Kosovo with loans to build homes or purchase other dwellings and offered free plots of land.<ref name="Bellamy115"/><ref name="Mertus466">Template:Cite journal</ref> Few Serbs took up the offer due to the worsening situation in Kosovo at the time.<ref name="Bellamy115">Template:Cite book</ref>

Around 10,000 Serb refugees from Krajina and over 2000 from Bosnia were resettled in Kosovo, due to the Yugoslav Wars.<ref name="ChronKosAlb"/> In 1995, the government attempted to alter the ethnic balance of the region through the planned resettlement of 100,000, later reduced to 20,000 Serbian refugees from Krajina in Croatia to Kosovo.<ref name="ChronKosAlb">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="vanSelm45"/> Some of the Serb refugees opposed going to Kosovo.<ref name="vanSelm45"/> In 1996, official government statistics placed the number of refugees in Kosovo at 19,000.<ref name="vanSelm45"/> Most of the Serb refugees left thereafter and a few remained.<ref name="Bellamy115"/> In early 1997, the number of resettled Serb refugees in Kosovo was 4,000<ref name="vanSelm45">Template:Cite book</ref> and 6,000 in early 1999.<ref name="HumanRightsWatch"/> As the sociopolitical situation deteriorated, Kosovo Albanians numbering some 300,000 fled during this period for Western Europe.<ref name="Qirezi52">Template:Harvnb</ref> After the outbreak of conflict between the Milošević government and the Kosovo Liberation Army, in early 1997, an estimated 9,000 Serb refugees and 20,000 local Serbs left Kosovo.<ref name="OSCE226">Template:Cite web</ref>

Kosovo War (1999)

[edit]

During the Kosovo war (March–June 1999), Serb forces, apparently, expelled between 800,000 – 1,000,000 Albanians from Kosovo employing tactics such as confiscating personal documents to make it difficult or prevent any future return.<ref name="Qirezi5153">Template:Cite book</ref> Kosovo Albanians later returned following NATO intervention and the end of the war.

In 1999 more than 11,000 deaths were reported to the office of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia prosecutor Carla Del Ponte.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Around 10,317 civilians in total were killed during the war, of whom 8,676 were Albanians, 1,196 Serbs and 445 Roma and others in addition to 3,218 killed members of armed formations.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Template:As of, some 3,000 people were still missing, of which 2,500 are Albanian, 400 Serbs and 100 Roma.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In the days after the Yugoslav Army withdrew, over 80,000 (almost half of 200,000 estimated to live in Kosovo) Serb and other non-Albanians civilians were expelled from Kosovo.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Wills">Template:Cite book</ref> Estimates of the number of Serbs who left when Serbian forces departed from Kosovo vary from 65,000<ref>European Stability Initiative (ESI): The Lausanne Principle: Multiethnicity, Territory and the Future of Kosovo's Serbs (.pdf) Template:Webarchive, 7 June 2004.</ref> to 250,000.<ref>Coordinating Centre of Serbia for Kosovo-Metohija: Principles of the program for return of internally displaced persons from Kosovo and Metohija.</ref> In addition, less than one hundred of the Serb refugees from Croatia remained in Kosovo.<ref name="HumanRightsWatch">Template:Cite web para. 35.</ref>

Contemporary

[edit]

2011 census

[edit]

In the 2011 census there were 1,739,825 inhabitants. ECMI "calls for caution when referring to the 2011 census", due to the boycott by Serb-majority municipalities in North Kosovo and the partial boycott by Serb and Roma in southern Kosovo.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> According to the data, this is the ethnic composition of Kosovo:

As of 2014, there are around 96,000 Kosovo Serbs and about 3/4 of them live in North Kosovo.<ref name="Cocozelli">Template:Harvnb</ref>

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]

Template:Reflist

Sources

[edit]
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