Battle of Kosovo commemorated

Once more Vidovdan is celebrated on Kosovo polje, Srbija - there is indeed much to celebrate and each year hence forth the gathering will be larger and larger in Serbia's southern province of Kosovo & Metohija as all return.

The folly has ended and there is much to celebrate even Belguim's foreign minister acknowledges talks will continue on finding the right way to govern Serbia's province.
http://www.serbianna.com/news/2007/01907.shtml

What a loss of time! That's what I call living in the past. Instead of promoting new avenues for the future, Serbs are parading and commemorating battles that happened some 600 years ago!

Imagine in the Quebecers would commemorate the battle des Plaines d'Abraham in Quebec when the British Empire defeated France.

I do not understand.

" I do not understand."

Exactly...
Let's just agree not to put anyone down because of their believes and for celebrating Vidovdan like every year.

Sorry Princip, but I was there on duty today and I honestly can tell you that about 250 people were in total including KPS and IPO.

You know, every day we come on to B92 more to argue with each other than read the news.

Each "Kosovo" article ends with the same continued back and forth rant between the two sides with the predictable names essentially continuing one long argument that started the day B92 created the comment section.

However yesterday in the neverending debate over the usefulness/uselessness of each ethnic group's commitment to state-building and civilization, I was struck by a conversation concerning the role of Albanians in Greece. Here's a small excerpt:

"...do you know what the language of choice in Athens was in the 1800's? You guessed it, Albanian. The leaders of the Greek Independence War and the members of the first Parlament were mostly Albanians. You owe your independence to Albanians, you should be a little more grateful."

While I don't agree with everything said or how it was understood here, I was still struck by how history is perceived and selectively remembered. Albanians have indeed lived around the Athens and Corinth areas, but I wonder whether or not they thought of themselves as Albanians, Greeks, or whether it didn't matter. The point here is that the ethnic catagorizations we ascribe to people today may not have been recognized by the same people one or two centuries ago, and whether earlier state formations were more accomodating of other ethnicities, languages, and cultures that collectively made a larger "ethnicity".

In other words, this example is one of many examples where multiethnic cooperation developed a state's history and culture and that the history of many nations hasn't been as cut and dry as "Greeks", "Serbs", or "Albanians".

The point of all of this is that on a day like Vidovdan, which has become a specific Serbian holiday celebrating the Battle of Kosovo, we tend to forget that Serbs fought alongside Hungarians, Bosnians, Croats, Vlachs, and, yes you guessed it, Albanians. The Battle of Kosovo is the perfect example of how Balkan communities have come together to fight a common cause and has only recently been manipulated by elites to be a specifically Serbian endeavor. A reexamination of this day might just be a way to show how conflicting ethnicities have cooperated in the past and how many of the histories are shared histories.

So on this Vidovdan, I wish Serbs, Albanians, Hungarians, Bosnians and others, a joyous celebration of their heritage and rich history.

who cares what that guy says he is not going to stop the serbs from celebrating and the unmik police who cares about them to thats serb land

"We learned to be true humans and a true nation here, we learned how to sacrifice for the truth, for the good and for human dignity,” Amfilohije said. "


Yes, you learned to become REALLY human...which you clearly displayed throughout the 1990's in all of the territories of the former Yugoslavia by way of murdering innocent civilians, ethnic cleansing, and plundering on a scale similar to the Hun invasions. I whole-hartedly agree with him!

well said Mike

Historically czar Lazar was a sore looser, militarily he was a weak commander and an incompetent strategist. Given all the resources he had at his disposal - a coalition of Serbs (he and Vuk Brankovic), Croats(Ivan Paližna), Bosnians (King Tvrtko) and Albanians (Pal Kastrioti and Aranit Topia), he performed miserably in the battlefield, starting from the choice itself of the place of the battle, that favored the larger Turkish army. Interestingly, what the Serbian sources fail to mention is that Serbs also fought on the side of the Sultan Murat, such as the contingent under Konstantin Dejanovic. But if you loose in battlefield the only thing left to do, is cry and create mythologies.

In no way was the Battle of Fushe-Kosova, determinant in saving Europe from the Turkish invasion, actually what saved Europe from the it, was the combined effort of Gjergj Kastrioti and Janos Hunyadi. Had they been able to join forces, they would most likely have routed the Ottoman once and forever from the Balkans. But it was the Serbian Djurad Brankovic, another Turkish ally, that prevented Scanderbeg from joining Hunyadi.

If we were to compare the military abilities of Lazar and Scanderbeg, we can conclude that Lazar was really a midget compared to the genius that was Scanderbeg. Scanderbeg held the Turks at bay for 25 years, with a very small army and limited resources, he won every single battle against them, and he even had time to go and rescue the King of Naples twice! He defeated three times the largest turkish armies headed by the sultan (once Murat II and twice the Mehmet II). It was the same Mehmet II - known also as Fatih, the victorious, that had taken the Constantinopole, and Scanderbeg's brilliance shines through if we were to compare the massive defensive land walls of Constantinopole, vs the modest castle of Kruja. Lazar was pretty much unknown outside of Serbia, while Scanderbeg was named by the Pope itself, as "Athleta Christi".

well said mike!

ADRIAN GASHI, I fully agree with true historical facts but i think you just gave Princip a dounting task to do some honest to god research and hopefully he will come to some sence and tell the truth to his beloved contry of serbia.

Look at the numbers people. Attendance this year has been one of the lowest ever. Quit fretting about meaningless things.

Adrian Gashi,

I greatly enjoyed your post of military history. Yes Scanderbeg was a legendary military man, a military genius like Napoleon. School children learned about him in most european countries. I also saw a great movie about him with my school in Hungary. We were all fascinated by Scanderbeg. Seeing the movie we all felt being Albanian just like John F. Kennedy, whe he stated in Berlin in solidarity "Ich bin a Berliner" (I am a Berliner).

Wonderful Adrian, so your Skanderbeg is Serbia's Lazar. Big surprise there. Both peoples have their heroes and both have myths and legends develop out of those individuals. Comparing who was better or more sexy or whatever doesn't help in the matter. Both Lazar and Skanderbeg are relative footnotes in the larger history of the Balkans and both were defeated by the Ottomans in the end. And yes, the Hungarians have Jan Hunyadi and the Greeks have Constantine Paleologos, and we could be sitting here forever arguing who was the best. The point here is not to judge who was better but to show that multiple ethnic groups have the same shared history. Try looking at a common narrative rather than comparing long dead princes and generals like football players.

Of course you do not understand Victor.

What significant historical event do the Albanins have in Kosovo? None! Unless you consider NATO's illegal attack on a sovereign country. And they say Kosovo is rightly theirs what a joke!

Mike, thanks you for the good words but I think Kate did say "whipping a dead horse" and so again it seems that your moderate message goes almost unheard bar from Nikshala.

Today is the celebration of Vidovdan - St Vitus day but yet the likes of Victor, Sidi, Adrian, Ahmet and Joe use this to show disrespect and a shallow and weak attempt at putting Serbs down but as you point out

The fact remains that once more the heroes of the battle in 1389 were in Kosovo & Metohija celebrated in Serbia's southern province but alas others do not wat to share this history but shun it and try to undermine the common message!

To those I have mentioned today on this holy day of St Vitus I turn the other check.

go on now ...ask all Germans to celebrate all their batles lost in europe since their history began.
Greeks nad Romans lost plenty of batles in Africa and in europe.
Egyptyians lost many
England has lost many batles as well ....but Serbs try and celebrate a batle who was lost 600 years ago, and that was a mixed army with different nationalities fighting their own nations and the Turkish.
Wars usually are not fought near the countries who are going to war - but somebody elses home land ..read the history of all wars ..from egyptians to Alexander the Great to WW1 & WW2 ...all are fought on other lands and NOT on their their own!!! 14'th cnetury batles are not excempt. Germans should claim Belgrade cos they've lost a batle there ......

Skanderbeg, Jan Hunyadi et al.

Every country has their historic figures. So what!

To: zzz,

It is not about celebrating a lost battle, in fact its honoring the fallen who lost their life in the battle. It amazes me how you people think? And bewilders me to think that you feel you can run a country unsupervised. It's like me giving my car keys to my 10 year old son.

Of course you do not understand Victor. Take some friendly advice and get out of your mental ghetto and enjoy life in one of the most beautiful cities in Canada.

Quebecois celebrate their ethnic differences every day, peacefully and with full support of the federal government of Canada. They have their own laws, their own protected language and religion and tons of government money to support their cultural events.

Most Canadians can't think of their country without Quebec and vice versa.

Kosovo within Serbia could be like Quebec, a federally recognized distinct society, with specific rights and privileges.

«Kosovo within Serbia could be like Quebec, a federally recognized distinct society, with specific rights and privileges.»

Do you really think so, after what happened in 1999? Imagine if Canada would have sent troops in Quebec in 1995 to stop the referendum, killing 1000s of Quebecers! That's what Milosevic did instead of discussing with the Albanians «a federally recognized distinct society, with specific rights and privileges.»

Thank you Nikshala, Chris, and Princip for your kudos!

@ GORDO
It would have been nice if Serbia would have applied the Canadian standards during the last 40-50 years when it comes to minorities and human rights.
Unfortunately they picked the opposite path. Thats why Yugoslavia went to hell.

What an excellent comment from Mike. Well said.

Hanukkah is a celebration of the victory of the Jews over the armies of Antiochus IV.

I commend cultures that celebrate history (and many do) - battles won, battles lost - sacrifices made for freedom and the greater good. It emboldens love of nation, proudness of history, etc.

If you can't be proud of who you are there is no reason to continue being.

I was there people and what I saw was poor. During the religious part, there were only 200 hundred people, 50 of them journalists. I want to say that Kosovo Police did a great work, by controling everyonw who entered in Gazimestan. Serbs sipmly had do follow the rules made by Albanians, so they could go and celebrate a defeat, which from that time only brought them another defeats, and soon the definitve losing of Kosova. May peace be upon you!

Canadien: "What significant historical event do the Albanins have in Kosovo? None!"


The League of Prizren - 1878
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/League_of_Prizren

Pjeter Bogdani - The leader to the uprising of 1686
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pjeter_Bogdani
"After arranging for the publication of the Cuneus Prophetarum, Bogdani returned to the Balkans in March 1686 and spent the next years promoting resistance to the armies of the Ottoman Empire, in particular in Kosovo. He contributed a force of 6,000 Albanian soldiers to the Austrian army which had arrived in Prishtina and accompanied it to capture Prizren. There, however, he and much of his army were met by another equally formidable adversary, the plague. Bogdani returned to Prishtina but succumbed to the disease there in December 1689. His nephew Gjergj reported in 1698 that his uncle's remains were later exhumed by Turkish and Tatar soldiers and fed to the dogs in the middle of the square in Prishtina. So ended one of the great figures of early Albanian culture, the writer often referred to as the father of Albanian prose."

The Albanians in Yugoslavia in light of historical documents
http://www.alb-net.com/juka2.htm

Library of Congress - History of Albania
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/altoc.html

1913, Leo Freundlich: Albania's Golgotha: Indictment of the Exterminators of the Albanian People
http://www.albanianhistory.net/texts/AH1913_1.html

The entire discussion is just in vain. Kosova has been, is and will be Albanian. If there are 200 people that gather and celebrate a lost battle in Albanian land, this just shows how tolerant Albanians are. During the entire history of Albania, the orthodox churches in Kosova have been protected by Albanians, otherwise there would be none of them in place today; this is another sign of tolerance from Albanians. By the way, can you imagine if 200 Albanians would go in Belgrade and celebrate with their flags and songs and prayers, that would have been unacceptable.

Mike: "The point here is not to judge who was better but to show that multiple ethnic groups have the same shared history. Try looking at a common narrative..."

Exactly Mike, for nearly a century the official Serb propaganda, has tried to depict Albanians as a foreign element in the Balkans, brought in by the Turks, as a people without history or culture, that naturally don't deserve any collective rights. While Serbs have always been, according to "THEIR" narrative the valiant defenders of Christiany, brought there by God to beat up on the renegade Albanians and Bosnians (surprisingly they also got the Croats and Hungarians, but maybe that was because they were subscribing to a different brand of Christianity)

Historically such a narrative is fictional of course - who can deny for example that one of the most powerful Grand Viziers of the Ottoman, was actually a Serb, Sokolu Mehmed Pasha, and that all the ethnicities in the Balkans served the Ottomans as they saw fit.

But no matter how much fictional this narrative is, it is a propagandistic artifact and has served the aggressive Serbian governments in their thinly veiled justifications to eradicate the Albanian factor from the territories they forcefully invaded in 1912.

I was reading on this website about and it says "Novi Pazar is tucked in a valley surrounded by rolling green mountains, which are home to some of the Serbian Orthodox Church’s earliest historical sights.

Petrova Crkva (the Church of St. Peter), a small church perched atop a picturesque green hill, lies on the outskirts of town, a 3 km walk from the center square. Built in the 8th or 9th century, Petrova Crkva is the only pre-Nemanjić church in Serbia and was used as a meeting place for an early Serbian council held in 1196. In 1957 it was discovered that the church was also built on the site of the grave of a 5th century Illyrian prince." Carefully note that the only pre-Nemanjic church in Serbia is built on the grave of an Ilyrian prince. This is very interesting and shows that Illyrians/Albanians were in what is today Serbia long time ago. I think it is in Albanian's right to claim Kosovo at the very least.

You're right Adrian, Serbs and Albanians fought against the Turks pre-1389, and worked with them in some fashion afterwards. Mehmed Sokoglu Pasha was a Bosnian Serb who became one of the most powerful viziers, and it was this same Mehmed who gave autonomy to the Serbian Orthodox Church in 1557, appointing his brother Makarije Patriarch of Pec. He was also the vizier historically attributed to funding the building of the famous bridge in Mostar. Albanians became one of the Ottoman Empire's most trusted shock troops and were frequently hired as mercenaries. And yes, the League of Prizren and other historical facts that you brought up all attest to Albanian contributions to the history of the region too. I cannot and will not deny any of those.

So you see, Kosovo is much more than medieval battles and one side trying to dominate and beat up on the other. The history is so much more than what political elites selectively tell the rest of us to believe and follow. That's why Kosovo's history can only be logically and rightfully considered a shared history between Serbs, Albanians, Turks, and others, and the land cannot be rightfully considered the property of one community.

Well, very informative replies! Congratulations to all of you who are posting here historical details and data - it seems to me that history has a chance to continue to be a hobby for many people, despite the existence of MTV and Hollywood :)))
Myself (Romanian) a passionate amateur of history, I want just to stress the multicultural/multinational character of the anti-otoman alliance who fought at Kosovo Polje Battle, in 1389: they were Serbs, Hungarians, Albanians, Bosniaks, and Wallachians (no less than 500 hundred light cavalry troops were sent by King Mircea the Elder, ruler of Wallachia, one of the three historical Romanian provinces together with Moldavia and Transilvania). Having this in mind, maybe we all (especially people from the area) we should see in the battle more of a rallying point, not a source of division...

Once more Vidovdan is celebrated on Kosovo polje, Srbija - there is indeed much to celebrate and each year hence forth the gathering will be larger and larger in Serbia's southern province of Kosovo & Metohija as all return.

The folly has ended and there is much to celebrate even Belguim's foreign minister acknowledges talks will continue on finding the right way to govern Serbia's province.
http://www.serbianna.com/news/2007/01907.shtml

What a loss of time! That's what I call living in the past. Instead of promoting new avenues for the future, Serbs are parading and commemorating battles that happened some 600 years ago!

Imagine in the Quebecers would commemorate the battle des Plaines d'Abraham in Quebec when the British Empire defeated France.

I do not understand.

" I do not understand."

Exactly...
Let's just agree not to put anyone down because of their believes and for celebrating Vidovdan like every year.

Sorry Princip, but I was there on duty today and I honestly can tell you that about 250 people were in total including KPS and IPO.

You know, every day we come on to B92 more to argue with each other than read the news.

Each "Kosovo" article ends with the same continued back and forth rant between the two sides with the predictable names essentially continuing one long argument that started the day B92 created the comment section.

However yesterday in the neverending debate over the usefulness/uselessness of each ethnic group's commitment to state-building and civilization, I was struck by a conversation concerning the role of Albanians in Greece. Here's a small excerpt:

"...do you know what the language of choice in Athens was in the 1800's? You guessed it, Albanian. The leaders of the Greek Independence War and the members of the first Parlament were mostly Albanians. You owe your independence to Albanians, you should be a little more grateful."

While I don't agree with everything said or how it was understood here, I was still struck by how history is perceived and selectively remembered. Albanians have indeed lived around the Athens and Corinth areas, but I wonder whether or not they thought of themselves as Albanians, Greeks, or whether it didn't matter. The point here is that the ethnic catagorizations we ascribe to people today may not have been recognized by the same people one or two centuries ago, and whether earlier state formations were more accomodating of other ethnicities, languages, and cultures that collectively made a larger "ethnicity".

In other words, this example is one of many examples where multiethnic cooperation developed a state's history and culture and that the history of many nations hasn't been as cut and dry as "Greeks", "Serbs", or "Albanians".

The point of all of this is that on a day like Vidovdan, which has become a specific Serbian holiday celebrating the Battle of Kosovo, we tend to forget that Serbs fought alongside Hungarians, Bosnians, Croats, Vlachs, and, yes you guessed it, Albanians. The Battle of Kosovo is the perfect example of how Balkan communities have come together to fight a common cause and has only recently been manipulated by elites to be a specifically Serbian endeavor. A reexamination of this day might just be a way to show how conflicting ethnicities have cooperated in the past and how many of the histories are shared histories.

So on this Vidovdan, I wish Serbs, Albanians, Hungarians, Bosnians and others, a joyous celebration of their heritage and rich history.

who cares what that guy says he is not going to stop the serbs from celebrating and the unmik police who cares about them to thats serb land

"We learned to be true humans and a true nation here, we learned how to sacrifice for the truth, for the good and for human dignity,” Amfilohije said. "


Yes, you learned to become REALLY human...which you clearly displayed throughout the 1990's in all of the territories of the former Yugoslavia by way of murdering innocent civilians, ethnic cleansing, and plundering on a scale similar to the Hun invasions. I whole-hartedly agree with him!

well said Mike

Historically czar Lazar was a sore looser, militarily he was a weak commander and an incompetent strategist. Given all the resources he had at his disposal - a coalition of Serbs (he and Vuk Brankovic), Croats(Ivan Paližna), Bosnians (King Tvrtko) and Albanians (Pal Kastrioti and Aranit Topia), he performed miserably in the battlefield, starting from the choice itself of the place of the battle, that favored the larger Turkish army. Interestingly, what the Serbian sources fail to mention is that Serbs also fought on the side of the Sultan Murat, such as the contingent under Konstantin Dejanovic. But if you loose in battlefield the only thing left to do, is cry and create mythologies.

In no way was the Battle of Fushe-Kosova, determinant in saving Europe from the Turkish invasion, actually what saved Europe from the it, was the combined effort of Gjergj Kastrioti and Janos Hunyadi. Had they been able to join forces, they would most likely have routed the Ottoman once and forever from the Balkans. But it was the Serbian Djurad Brankovic, another Turkish ally, that prevented Scanderbeg from joining Hunyadi.

If we were to compare the military abilities of Lazar and Scanderbeg, we can conclude that Lazar was really a midget compared to the genius that was Scanderbeg. Scanderbeg held the Turks at bay for 25 years, with a very small army and limited resources, he won every single battle against them, and he even had time to go and rescue the King of Naples twice! He defeated three times the largest turkish armies headed by the sultan (once Murat II and twice the Mehmet II). It was the same Mehmet II - known also as Fatih, the victorious, that had taken the Constantinopole, and Scanderbeg's brilliance shines through if we were to compare the massive defensive land walls of Constantinopole, vs the modest castle of Kruja. Lazar was pretty much unknown outside of Serbia, while Scanderbeg was named by the Pope itself, as "Athleta Christi".

well said mike!

ADRIAN GASHI, I fully agree with true historical facts but i think you just gave Princip a dounting task to do some honest to god research and hopefully he will come to some sence and tell the truth to his beloved contry of serbia.

Look at the numbers people. Attendance this year has been one of the lowest ever. Quit fretting about meaningless things.

Adrian Gashi,

I greatly enjoyed your post of military history. Yes Scanderbeg was a legendary military man, a military genius like Napoleon. School children learned about him in most european countries. I also saw a great movie about him with my school in Hungary. We were all fascinated by Scanderbeg. Seeing the movie we all felt being Albanian just like John F. Kennedy, whe he stated in Berlin in solidarity "Ich bin a Berliner" (I am a Berliner).

Wonderful Adrian, so your Skanderbeg is Serbia's Lazar. Big surprise there. Both peoples have their heroes and both have myths and legends develop out of those individuals. Comparing who was better or more sexy or whatever doesn't help in the matter. Both Lazar and Skanderbeg are relative footnotes in the larger history of the Balkans and both were defeated by the Ottomans in the end. And yes, the Hungarians have Jan Hunyadi and the Greeks have Constantine Paleologos, and we could be sitting here forever arguing who was the best. The point here is not to judge who was better but to show that multiple ethnic groups have the same shared history. Try looking at a common narrative rather than comparing long dead princes and generals like football players.

Of course you do not understand Victor.

What significant historical event do the Albanins have in Kosovo? None! Unless you consider NATO's illegal attack on a sovereign country. And they say Kosovo is rightly theirs what a joke!

Mike, thanks you for the good words but I think Kate did say "whipping a dead horse" and so again it seems that your moderate message goes almost unheard bar from Nikshala.

Today is the celebration of Vidovdan - St Vitus day but yet the likes of Victor, Sidi, Adrian, Ahmet and Joe use this to show disrespect and a shallow and weak attempt at putting Serbs down but as you point out

The fact remains that once more the heroes of the battle in 1389 were in Kosovo & Metohija celebrated in Serbia's southern province but alas others do not wat to share this history but shun it and try to undermine the common message!

To those I have mentioned today on this holy day of St Vitus I turn the other check.

go on now ...ask all Germans to celebrate all their batles lost in europe since their history began.
Greeks nad Romans lost plenty of batles in Africa and in europe.
Egyptyians lost many
England has lost many batles as well ....but Serbs try and celebrate a batle who was lost 600 years ago, and that was a mixed army with different nationalities fighting their own nations and the Turkish.
Wars usually are not fought near the countries who are going to war - but somebody elses home land ..read the history of all wars ..from egyptians to Alexander the Great to WW1 & WW2 ...all are fought on other lands and NOT on their their own!!! 14'th cnetury batles are not excempt. Germans should claim Belgrade cos they've lost a batle there ......

Skanderbeg, Jan Hunyadi et al.

Every country has their historic figures. So what!

To: zzz,

It is not about celebrating a lost battle, in fact its honoring the fallen who lost their life in the battle. It amazes me how you people think? And bewilders me to think that you feel you can run a country unsupervised. It's like me giving my car keys to my 10 year old son.

Of course you do not understand Victor. Take some friendly advice and get out of your mental ghetto and enjoy life in one of the most beautiful cities in Canada.

Quebecois celebrate their ethnic differences every day, peacefully and with full support of the federal government of Canada. They have their own laws, their own protected language and religion and tons of government money to support their cultural events.

Most Canadians can't think of their country without Quebec and vice versa.

Kosovo within Serbia could be like Quebec, a federally recognized distinct society, with specific rights and privileges.

«Kosovo within Serbia could be like Quebec, a federally recognized distinct society, with specific rights and privileges.»

Do you really think so, after what happened in 1999? Imagine if Canada would have sent troops in Quebec in 1995 to stop the referendum, killing 1000s of Quebecers! That's what Milosevic did instead of discussing with the Albanians «a federally recognized distinct society, with specific rights and privileges.»

Thank you Nikshala, Chris, and Princip for your kudos!

@ GORDO
It would have been nice if Serbia would have applied the Canadian standards during the last 40-50 years when it comes to minorities and human rights.
Unfortunately they picked the opposite path. Thats why Yugoslavia went to hell.

What an excellent comment from Mike. Well said.

Hanukkah is a celebration of the victory of the Jews over the armies of Antiochus IV.

I commend cultures that celebrate history (and many do) - battles won, battles lost - sacrifices made for freedom and the greater good. It emboldens love of nation, proudness of history, etc.

If you can't be proud of who you are there is no reason to continue being.

I was there people and what I saw was poor. During the religious part, there were only 200 hundred people, 50 of them journalists. I want to say that Kosovo Police did a great work, by controling everyonw who entered in Gazimestan. Serbs sipmly had do follow the rules made by Albanians, so they could go and celebrate a defeat, which from that time only brought them another defeats, and soon the definitve losing of Kosova. May peace be upon you!

Canadien: "What significant historical event do the Albanins have in Kosovo? None!"


The League of Prizren - 1878
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/League_of_Prizren

Pjeter Bogdani - The leader to the uprising of 1686
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pjeter_Bogdani
"After arranging for the publication of the Cuneus Prophetarum, Bogdani returned to the Balkans in March 1686 and spent the next years promoting resistance to the armies of the Ottoman Empire, in particular in Kosovo. He contributed a force of 6,000 Albanian soldiers to the Austrian army which had arrived in Prishtina and accompanied it to capture Prizren. There, however, he and much of his army were met by another equally formidable adversary, the plague. Bogdani returned to Prishtina but succumbed to the disease there in December 1689. His nephew Gjergj reported in 1698 that his uncle's remains were later exhumed by Turkish and Tatar soldiers and fed to the dogs in the middle of the square in Prishtina. So ended one of the great figures of early Albanian culture, the writer often referred to as the father of Albanian prose."

The Albanians in Yugoslavia in light of historical documents
http://www.alb-net.com/juka2.htm

Library of Congress - History of Albania
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/altoc.html

1913, Leo Freundlich: Albania's Golgotha: Indictment of the Exterminators of the Albanian People
http://www.albanianhistory.net/texts/AH1913_1.html

The entire discussion is just in vain. Kosova has been, is and will be Albanian. If there are 200 people that gather and celebrate a lost battle in Albanian land, this just shows how tolerant Albanians are. During the entire history of Albania, the orthodox churches in Kosova have been protected by Albanians, otherwise there would be none of them in place today; this is another sign of tolerance from Albanians. By the way, can you imagine if 200 Albanians would go in Belgrade and celebrate with their flags and songs and prayers, that would have been unacceptable.

Mike: "The point here is not to judge who was better but to show that multiple ethnic groups have the same shared history. Try looking at a common narrative..."

Exactly Mike, for nearly a century the official Serb propaganda, has tried to depict Albanians as a foreign element in the Balkans, brought in by the Turks, as a people without history or culture, that naturally don't deserve any collective rights. While Serbs have always been, according to "THEIR" narrative the valiant defenders of Christiany, brought there by God to beat up on the renegade Albanians and Bosnians (surprisingly they also got the Croats and Hungarians, but maybe that was because they were subscribing to a different brand of Christianity)

Historically such a narrative is fictional of course - who can deny for example that one of the most powerful Grand Viziers of the Ottoman, was actually a Serb, Sokolu Mehmed Pasha, and that all the ethnicities in the Balkans served the Ottomans as they saw fit.

But no matter how much fictional this narrative is, it is a propagandistic artifact and has served the aggressive Serbian governments in their thinly veiled justifications to eradicate the Albanian factor from the territories they forcefully invaded in 1912.

I was reading on this website about and it says "Novi Pazar is tucked in a valley surrounded by rolling green mountains, which are home to some of the Serbian Orthodox Church’s earliest historical sights.

Petrova Crkva (the Church of St. Peter), a small church perched atop a picturesque green hill, lies on the outskirts of town, a 3 km walk from the center square. Built in the 8th or 9th century, Petrova Crkva is the only pre-Nemanjić church in Serbia and was used as a meeting place for an early Serbian council held in 1196. In 1957 it was discovered that the church was also built on the site of the grave of a 5th century Illyrian prince." Carefully note that the only pre-Nemanjic church in Serbia is built on the grave of an Ilyrian prince. This is very interesting and shows that Illyrians/Albanians were in what is today Serbia long time ago. I think it is in Albanian's right to claim Kosovo at the very least.

You're right Adrian, Serbs and Albanians fought against the Turks pre-1389, and worked with them in some fashion afterwards. Mehmed Sokoglu Pasha was a Bosnian Serb who became one of the most powerful viziers, and it was this same Mehmed who gave autonomy to the Serbian Orthodox Church in 1557, appointing his brother Makarije Patriarch of Pec. He was also the vizier historically attributed to funding the building of the famous bridge in Mostar. Albanians became one of the Ottoman Empire's most trusted shock troops and were frequently hired as mercenaries. And yes, the League of Prizren and other historical facts that you brought up all attest to Albanian contributions to the history of the region too. I cannot and will not deny any of those.

So you see, Kosovo is much more than medieval battles and one side trying to dominate and beat up on the other. The history is so much more than what political elites selectively tell the rest of us to believe and follow. That's why Kosovo's history can only be logically and rightfully considered a shared history between Serbs, Albanians, Turks, and others, and the land cannot be rightfully considered the property of one community.

Well, very informative replies! Congratulations to all of you who are posting here historical details and data - it seems to me that history has a chance to continue to be a hobby for many people, despite the existence of MTV and Hollywood :)))
Myself (Romanian) a passionate amateur of history, I want just to stress the multicultural/multinational character of the anti-otoman alliance who fought at Kosovo Polje Battle, in 1389: they were Serbs, Hungarians, Albanians, Bosniaks, and Wallachians (no less than 500 hundred light cavalry troops were sent by King Mircea the Elder, ruler of Wallachia, one of the three historical Romanian provinces together with Moldavia and Transilvania). Having this in mind, maybe we all (especially people from the area) we should see in the battle more of a rallying point, not a source of division...