Pristina

Priština (Приштина) (Serbian) or Prishtina/Prishtinë (Albanian) is the capital city of the Serbian province of Kosovo and Metohia, located at 42°65' N, 21°17' E. The population is 204,500 (2003). The city now has a majority of Albanians. Most of the city's Serb and other non-Albanian population fled after the Kosovo War.

History

In Roman times a large urban centre existed 15 kilometres (9 miles) to the south of modern day Prishtina called Ulpiana, this city was destroyed but was restored by the Emperor Justinian. Today the village of Lipijan stands on the site of the Roman city, and ruins of the old city can still be seen.

In Medieval times Prishtina grew from the ruins of the former Roman city. The city was located at a juction of roads leading in all directions throughout the Balkan peninsular and with Istanbul. For this reason Prishtina rose to become an important trading centre. It also became important for mining.

During the time of the Medieval Serbian state, Pristina was the capital of King Milutin (1282 - 1321) and of other Nemanjices, and Brankovices until the Battle of Kosovo in 1389 where an invading Ottoman army inflicted heavy casualties upon the Serbian army. From whereupon the whole of Serbia was conquested by the Ottoman Empire in 1459.

However, the town retained its almost exclusive Serb character for at least a quarter century more as the defter of 1455 would demonstrate. Following that, the town progressively became more and more Turkish, although it was noted that in the 17th century, most of the inhabitants were local Muslim converts (Slavic) rather than Albanians. After centuries of Ottoman rule the town gained a distinct Turkish caracter.

From the 1870s onwards Albanians in the region formed the League of Prizren to resist Ottoman rule, and a provisional government was formed in 1881. In 1912 Kosovo was briefly included in the newly independent state of Albania. But the following year the Great Powers forced Albania to cede the region to Serbia. In 1918 Kosovo became a part of the newly formed Yugoslavia.

Before the Second World War¹, Priština was a mixed town with a joint Turkish and Serb majority. However, Priština's Turkish caracter began to fade slowly in the late 1930's with migrations to the Republic of Turkey which was eager to settle the lands that it had just stripped bare of its Greek and Armenian inhabitants.

The Second World War saw the decline of Pristina's Serbian and Jewish communities as well as the settling of the Albanians in the town. Between 1941 and 1945 Pristina was under the Italian-occupied Greater Albanian. In 1946, Priština became the capital fo the Serbian Autonomous Province of Kosovo-Metohija. By the end of the war the Albanian share in the population grew rapidly but the Turks and Serbs jointly still formed an absolute majority².

The Communist period of the 1960's saw a massive influx of Albanians from all over the former Yugoslavia (particularly the Socialist Republics of Montenegro and Macedonia)³. Priština's non Albanian communities shrunk to just over 40% by the 1970's⁴ although still occupying most of the town quarters.

Relations between the Albanian and Serb communities were particularly tense in following the 1981 Demonstrations and eventually blew up during the Kosovo War. A large portion of the city's Albanians fled from Serb atrocities and fighting in 1999 The United Nations estimated that nearly 640,000 Albanians were forced from Kosovo between March 1998 and the end of April 1999. Most of the refugees went to Albania and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Almost all returned the by the war's end as which also saw a new wave of Albanian settlers who swelled the town's population immigrating from the rural areas of the Serb province of Kosovo as well Albania.

Footnotes

• 1 1931 census, out of a total of 18,358 inhabitants: 7,573 spoke Turkish (41%) as their mother tongue - 5,738 spoke the Serbian language (31%) - 2,351 spoke Albanian (13%) - 2,651 spoke other languages (Roma, Circassian etc.) (14%)
• 2 1953 census recorded 24,229 citizens: 9,034 Albanians (37%) - 7,951 Serbs/Montenegrins (33%) - 4,726 Turks (20%) - 2,518 Roma and other minorities (10%)
• 3 1961 census found 38,593 citizens: Albanians 19,060 (49%) - 14,695 Serbs/Montenegrins (38%) - 404 Croats (1%) - 195 Roma
• 4 1971 census found 69,514 citizens: 40,873 Albanians (59%) - 19,767 Serbs/Montenegrins (28%) - 4,119 Roma (6%)
• 5 1981 census found 108,083 citizens: - 75,803 Albanians (70%) - 21,067 Serbs/Montenegrins (19%) - 5,101 Roma (5%) - 2,504 Slavic Muslims (2%)