page_title: Albanians
section_title: Independence of Kosovo
hierarchical_section_title: Albanians / History / Independence of Kosovo
caption_attribution_description: English: New Born sign in Pristina Kosovo.
context_page_description: The Albanians are an ethnic group native to the Balkan Peninsula and are identified by a common Albanian ancestry, culture, history and language. They primarily live in Albania, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia as well as in Croatia, Greece, Italy and Turkey. They also constitute a diaspora with several communities established across Europe, the Americas and Oceania.
  The ethnogenesis of the Albanians and their language is a matter of controversy among historians and ethnologists. They are mentioned for the first time in historical records from the 11th century as a tribe living across the mountainous region of the Mat and Drin rivers in the Western Balkans. The Albanian diaspora has its roots in migration from the Middle Ages initially across Southern Europe and eventually across wider Europe and the New World. Between the 13th and 18th centuries, sizeable numbers migrated to escape various social, economic or political difficulties. One population, the Arvanites, settled Southern Greece between the 13th and 16th centuries assimilating into and now self-identifying as Greeks.
context_section_description: Kosovo declared independence from Serbia on 17 February 2008, after years of strained relations between the Serb and predominantly Albanian population of Kosovo. It has been officially recognised by Australia, Canada, the United States and major European Union countries, while Serbia and its ally Russia refuse to recognise Kosovo's sovereignty.
  The overwhelming majority of Kosovo's population is ethnically Albanian with nearly 1.7 million people. Their presence as well as in the adjacent regions of Toplica and Morava is recorded since the Middle Ages. As the Serbs expelled many Albanians from the wider Toplica and Morava regions in Southern Serbia, which the 1878 Congress of Berlin had given to the Principality of Serbia, many of them settled in Kosovo.
  After being an integral section of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Kosovo including its Albanian population went through a period of discrimination, economic and political persecution. Rights to use the Albanian language were guaranteed by the constitution of the later formed Socialist Yugoslavia and was widely used in Macedonia and Montenegro prior to the dissolution of Yugoslavia. In 1989, Kosovo lost its status as a federal entity of Yugoslavia with rights similar to those of the six other republics and eventually became part of Serbia and Montenegro.
  In 1998, tensions between the Albanian and Serb population of Kosovo simmered and erupted into major violence and discrimination culminating into the humanitarian tragedy of the Kosovo War. The conflict led to the displacement of hundred thousands of Albanians to the neighboring countries and Europe. Serbian paramilitary forces committed war crimes in Kosovo, although the government of Serbia claims that the army was only going after suspected Albanian terrorists. The NATO launched a 78-day air campaign in 1999 to halt the humanitarian catastrophe that was then unfolding in Kosovo and finally concluded the ended the war.
caption: The Newborn monument in Pristina has been unveiled at the celebration of the Independence of Kosovo.
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