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111-709: Suva Reka is located 18 km (11 mi) from the city of Prizren , and 57 km (35 mi) from Kosovo's capital, Pristina . Suva Reka means "dry river" in the Serbian language . The Albanian spellings are Suharekë or Suhareka (derived from the Slavic form), while an alternative Therandë , was adopted from an unlocated ancient site (possibly in Suhareka or Lubizhda in the Mirusha valley. The municipality includes several medieval sites and old settlements, such as

222-610: A military technical agreement . International negotiations began in 2006 to determine the final status of Kosovo, as envisaged under UN Security Council Resolution 1244 , which ended the Kosovo conflict of 1999. While Serbia's continued sovereignty over Kosovo was recognised by much of the international community at the time, a clear majority of Kosovo's population preferred independence. The UN-backed talks, led by UN Special Envoy Martti Ahtisaari , began in February 2006. While progress

333-700: A nose on an Albanian up there!' Not a pretty sight for a British officer." Eventually Durham visited a northern Albanian outpost in Kosovo where she met captured Ottoman soldiers whose upper lips and noses had been cut off. After the First Balkan War of 1912, the Conference of Ambassadors in London allowed the creation of the state of Albania and handed Kosovo to the Kingdom of Serbia , even though

444-542: A 1348 chrysobull of Stefan Dušan that lists those who pray at the monastery of St. Michael and Gabriel in Prizren as well as some of the inhabitants of the city itself and the surrounding villages. In one of Stefan Dušan's documents in 1355, a soldier with Albanian anthroponomy is exclusively mentioned as one of the people who must continuously pay the Monastery of St. Nicholas in the village of Billushë near Prizren. In

555-465: A FR Yugoslav military convoy between Suva Reka and Štimlje on 5 November 1998. On 8 January 1999, KLA members ambushed a MUP convoy near Suva Reka, killing three Serbian policemen. In 10–16 January 1999, FR Yugoslav forces conducted counter-insurgency operations in Suva Reka. The UNHCR estimated on 18 March 1999 that the Suva Reka municipality had 6,100 displaced and 5,600 returnees. On 25 March,

666-480: A dominant feature in the town. The name of the city has been linked with that of Petrizen, a Dardani fort mentioned by Procopius in the 6th century. Hamp has suggested that the name of the city roughly meant " ford-horned animal " with the IE root *ḱrn "horn, horned-thing" (cf. Oxford ). According to Curtis, Prizren follows Albanian phonetic sound rules. Prizren has been traditionally identified with Theranda,

777-441: A lack of structural capacity to grow. Education is poor, financial institutions basic, and regulatory institutions lack experience. Securing capital investment from foreign entities cannot emerge in such an environment. Due to financial hardships, several companies and factories have closed and others are reducing personnel. This general economic downturn contributes directly to the growing rate of unemployment and poverty , making

888-564: A major Albanian cultural centre and the coordination political and cultural capital of the Kosovar Albanians. In 1871, a long Serbian seminary was opened in Prizren, discussing the possible joining of the old Serbia's territories with the Principality of Serbia . It was an important part of Kosovo Vilayet between 1877 and 1912. During the late 19th century, the city became a focal point for Albanian nationalism and in 1878, it

999-596: A monastery. Aside from many war crimes and atrocities committed by the Serbian Army on the Albanian population , colonist Serb families moved into Kosovo, while the Albanian population was decreased. As a result, the proportion of Albanians in Kosovo declined from 75 percent at the time of the invasion to slightly more than 65% percent by 1941. The 1918–1929 period under the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes

1110-492: A number of leading Yugoslav Communists had allegedly had contacts with the accused. The nine accused were all convicted and sentenced to long prison sentences, but were released and declared innocent in 1968 with Kosovo's assembly declaring that the trial had been "staged and mendacious." The town of Prizren did not suffer much during the Kosovo War but its surrounding municipality was badly affected during 1998–1999. Before

1221-742: A reaction against the Congress of Berlin, which had given some Albanian-populated territories to Serbia and Montenegro, Albanians, mostly from Kosovo, formed the League of Prizren in Prizren in June 1878. Hundreds of Albanian leaders gathered in Prizren and opposed the Serbian and Montenegrin jurisdiction. Serbia complained to the Western Powers that the promised territories were not being held because

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1332-700: A republic within Yugoslavia . Those protests were harshly contained by the centralist Yugoslav government. In 1986, the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SANU) was working on a document, which later would be known as the SANU Memorandum . An unfinished edition was filtered to the press. In the essay, SANU portrayed the Serbian people as a victim and called for the revival of Serb nationalism, using both true and exaggerated facts for propaganda. During this time, Slobodan Milošević rose to power in

1443-440: A revenge for the crimes committed during the war from the Serbian army and all remaining Serb population was evicted from Prizren. Simultaneously Islamic cultural heritage and mosques were destroyed and damaged. The municipality of Prizren is still the most culturally and ethnically heterogeneous city of Kosovo, retaining communities of Bosniaks , Turks , and Romani in addition to the majority Kosovo Albanian population. Only

1554-485: A small number of Kosovo Serbs remain in Prizren and its surrounds; residing mainly in small villages. Prizren's Turkish community is socially prominent and influential, and the Turkish language is widely spoken even by non-ethnic Turks. Prizren is located on the foothills of the Šar Mountains ( Albanian : Malet e Sharrit ) in southern Kosovo on the banks of Prizren River . Prizren Municipality borders Albania to

1665-620: A town dating from the Roman Empire . However, recent research suggests that Therand may have been located at present-day Suva Reka . Archaeological research has shown that the site of the Prizren Fortress has had several eras of habitation since prehistoric times. In its lower part, material from the upper part of the fort has been deposited over the centuries. It dates from the Middle Bronze Age (c. 2000 BCE) to

1776-570: Is Gheg , typical of northern Albanians. The language of state institutions, education, books, media and newspapers is the standard dialect of Albanian, which is closer to the Tosk dialect. The vast majority of Kosovo Albanians are Sunni Muslims . There are also Catholic Albanian communities estimated between 60,000 to 65,000 in Kosovo, concentrated in Gjakova , Prizren , Klina and a few villages near Peja and Viti . Converting to Christianity

1887-477: Is twinned with: Turkey and Hungary have also a general consulate in Prizren. For a long time the economy of Kosovo was based on the retail industry fueled by remittance income coming from a large number of immigrant communities in Western Europe . Private enterprise, mostly small business, is slowly emerging. Private businesses, like elsewhere in Kosovo, predominantly face difficulties because of

1998-645: Is August with an average temperature of 22.2 °C (72.0 °F), while the coldest month is January with an average temperature of 0.0 °C (32.0 °F). Prizren is a municipality governed by a mayor–council system . The mayor of Prizren with the members of the Prizren Municipal Council are responsible for the administration of Prizren Municipality. The municipality is encompassed in Prizren District and consists of 76 adjacent settlements with Prizren as its seat. Prizren

2109-449: Is also a public university in Prizren, offering lectures in Albanian, Bosnian, and Turkish. The primary health care system includes 14 municipal family health centres and 26 health houses. The primary health sector has 475 employees, including doctors, nurses and support staff, 264 female and 211 male. Regional hospital in Prizren offers services to approximately 250,000 residents. The hospital employs 778 workers, including 155 doctors, and

2220-531: Is among the most densely populated municipalities of Kosovo. In terms of ethnicity, Prizren Municipality was 81.96% Albanian , 9.5% Bosniak , 5.11% Turkish , 1.63% Romani , 0.76% Ashkali , 0.37% Gorani , 0.13% Serbian , 0.09% Egyptian and 0.45% of other ethnicities or refugees (such as Afghans , Syrians , Ukrainians and others). By religion, there were 170,640 (95.98%) Muslims , 5,999 (3.37%) Roman Catholics , 250 (0.14%) Orthodox , 807 (0.45%) of other religions and 85 (0.05%) irreligious . Besides

2331-429: Is characterized by use of çiftelia (an authentic Albanian instrument), mandolina , mandola and percussion . Folk music is very popular in Kosovo. There are many folk singers and ensembles. Modern music in Kosovo has its origin from western countries. The main modern genres include pop , hip hop/rap , rock , and jazz . Kosovo Radio televisions such as RTK , RTV21 and KTV have their musical charts. Education

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2442-568: Is equipped with emergency and intensive care units. As of the Kosovo Agency of Statistics (KAS) estimate from the 2011 census, there were 177,781 people residing in Prizren Municipality, representing the second most populous city and municipality of Kosovo. Its urban population was approximately 94,500, while the rural population was around 83,000. With a population density of 283,5 people per square kilometre, Prizren

2553-407: Is expected to further strain the local economy. Market saturation, high unemployment, and a reduction of financial remittances from abroad are negative economic indicators. There are three agricultural co-operatives in three villages. Most livestock breeding and agricultural production are private, informal, and small-scale. There are nine operational banks with branches in Prizren, ProCredit Bank ,

2664-497: Is growing among Kosovo Albanian Muslims in Kosovo. Kosovafilm was the film industry, which releases movies in Albanian, created by Kosovar Albanian movie-makers. The National Theatre of Kosovo is the main theatre where plays are shown regularly by Albanian and international artists. Music has always been part of Albanian culture. Although in Kosovo music is diverse (as it was mixed with the cultures of different regimes dominating Kosovo), authentic Albanian music does still exist. It

2775-660: Is part of a series of forts that were built or reconstructed in the same period by Justinian along the White Drin in northern Albania and western Kosovo in the routes that linked the coastal areas with the Kosovo valley . At this time, the Prizren fortress likely appears in historical record as Petrizen in the 6th century CE in the work of Procopius as one of the fortifications which Justinian commissioned to be reconstructed in Dardania . Konstantin Jireček concluded, from

2886-540: Is the last Byzantine archbishop of Ohrid to include Prizren in his jurisdiction until 1219. Stefan Nemanja had seized the surrounding area along the White Drin between the 1180s and 1190s, but this may refer to the areas Prizren diocese rather than the fort and the settlement itself and he may have lost control of them later. The ecclesiastical split of Prizren from the Patriarchate of Constantinople in 1219

2997-458: The eyalet of Rumelia , and from 1864 as a separate province ( vilayet ). During this time, Islam was introduced to the population. Today, Sunni Islam is the predominant religion of Kosovo Albanians. The Ottoman term Arnavudluk (آرناوودلق) meaning Albania was used in Ottoman state records for areas such as southern Serbia and Kosovo. Evliya Çelebi (1611–1682) in his travels within

3108-543: The 1997 Albanian civil unrest , the KLA was enabled to acquire large amounts of weapons looted from Albanian armories. The KLA also received large funds from Albanian diaspora organizations. The KLA-led campaign continued into January 1999 and was brought to the attention of the world media by the Račak massacre , the mass killing of about 45 Albanians (including 9 KLA insurgents) by Serbian security forces. An international conference

3219-659: The Banate of Zeta , the Banate of Morava and the Banate of Vardar . The Kingdom lasted until the World War II Axis invasion of April 1941. After the Axis invasion, the greater part of Kosovo became a part of Italian-controlled Fascist Albania , and a smaller, Eastern part by the Axis allied Tsardom of Bulgaria and Nazi German-occupied Serbia . Since the Albanian Fascist political leadership had decided in

3330-529: The Bronze Age . Prizren has been traditionally identified with the settlement of Theranda in Roman Dardania , although other locations have been suggested in recent research. In late antiquity it was part of the defensive fortification system in western Dardania and the fort was reconstructed in the era of eastern Roman Emperor Justinian . Byzantine rule in the region ended definitively in 1219-20 as

3441-523: The Church of Holy Salvation , Church of St. George (the city's largest church), Church of St. George (Runjevac), Church of St. Kyriaki, Church of St. Nicolas (Tutić Church), the Monastery of The Holy Archangels , as well as Prizren's Orthodox seminary of Saint Cyrillus and Methodius. Also, during that riot, the entire Serb quarter of Prizren, near the Prizren Fortress , was completely destroyed, as

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3552-664: The Comintern , and became a province of Serbia within the Democratic Federal Yugoslavia . The Autonomous Region of Kosovo and Metohija was formed in 1946 to placate its regional Albanian population within the People's Republic of Serbia as a member of the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia under the leadership of the former Partisan leader, Josip Broz Tito , but with no factual autonomy. This

3663-525: The Conference of Bujan that Kosovo would remain a part of Albania they started expelling the Serbian and Montenegrin settlers "who had arrived in the 1920s and 1930s". Prior to the surrender of Fascist Italy in 1943, the German forces took over direct control of the region. After numerous Serbian and Yugoslav Partisans uprisings, Kosovo was liberated after 1944 with the help of the Albanian partisans of

3774-584: The People's Republic of Serbia , a constituent state of the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia . The Province was renamed to Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo in 1974, remaining part of the Socialist Republic of Serbia , but having attributions similar to a Socialist Republic within the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia . The former status was restored in 1989, and officially in 1990. For many years after

3885-727: The Raiffeisen Bank , the NLB Bank , TEB Bank , Banka për Biznes (Bank for Business), İşbank , Banka Kombëtare Tregtare (National Trade Bank), Iutecredit, and the Payment and Banking Authority of Kosovo (BPK). All the main roads connecting the major villages with the urban centre are asphalted. The water supply is functional in Prizren town and in approximately 30 villages. There are 48 primary schools with 28,205 pupils and 1,599 teachers; 6 secondary schools with 9,608 students and 503 teachers; kindergartens are privately run. There

3996-702: The Serbian–Ottoman War (1876–78) . Many settled in Kosovo, where they and their descendants are known as muhaxhir , also muhaxher ("exiles", from Arabic ' muhajir' ), and some bear the surname Muhaxhiri/Muhaxheri or most others the village name of origin. During the late Ottoman period, ethno-national Albanian identity as expressed in contemporary times did not exist amongst the wider Kosovo Albanian-speaking population. Instead collective identities were based upon either socio-professional, socio-economic, regional, or religious identities and sometimes relations between Muslim and Christian Albanians were tense. As

4107-950: The United Nations Security Council , had been rewritten four times to try to accommodate Russian concerns that such a resolution would undermine the principle of state sovereignty. Russia, which holds a veto in the Security Council as one of five permanent members, has stated that it will not support any resolution that is not acceptable to both Belgrade and Pristina. As of November 2023, more than 100 UN member states have recognised Kosovo as an independent country. On 26 November 2019, an earthquake struck Albania . The Kosovo Albanian population reacted with sentiments of solidarity through fundraising initiatives and money, food, clothing and shelter donations. Volunteers and humanitarian aid in trucks, buses and hundreds of cars from Kosovo traveled to Albania to assist in

4218-610: The 1300's In Gjonaj stands possibly one of the oldest Catholic churches in Kosovo. Village Gjonaj is also believed to be the birthplace of Pjeter Bogdani . Other Albanian villages mentioned from the 14th and 15th centuries are Planeje, Zym , Gorozhub, Milaj, Kojushe, Batushe, Mazrek, Voksh etc. Ottoman registers from 1452–53 reveal the Has region in Kosovo was inhabited by a Christian Albanian population Villages that have been identified and still existed today such as Mazrek, Kojushe, Gorozhub, Zym, Zhur, Milaj, Planeje etc were recorded in

4329-461: The Albanian movements from establishing their rule over Kosovo. In 1912 during the Balkan Wars , most of eastern Kosovo was taken by the Kingdom of Serbia , while the Kingdom of Montenegro took western Kosovo, which a majority of its inhabitants call "the plateau of Dukagjin" ( Rrafshi i Dukagjinit ) and the Serbs call Metohija (Метохија), a Greek word meant for the landed dependencies of

4440-608: The Austrian-Ottoman wars, the local Albanian population in the Prizren region rallied to support the Austrians against the Ottomans under the leadership of the Albanian priest Pjeter Bogdani . Documents and dispatches refer to the Austrians marching to "Prizren, the capital of Albania " where they were welcomed by Bogdani and 5,000-6,000 Albanian soldiers. The Albanian Catholic priest Toma Raspasani wrote that, once

4551-493: The Austrians had been expelled and Prizren was firmly in the hands of the Ottomans yet again, nobody was able to leave Prizren. In 1693, Toma also wrote that many of the Catholics in Kosovo had gone to Hungary where most of them died of hunger or disease. Prizren was the cultural and intellectual centre of Ottoman Kosovo. It was dominated by its Muslim population, who composed over 70% of its population in 1857. The city became

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4662-575: The Crusaders to fight the Ottomans. On 21 June 1455, Prizren surrendered to the Ottoman army. Prizren was the capital of the Sanjak of Prizren , and under new administrative organization of Ottoman Empire it became capital of the Vilayet . Later, it became part of the larger Rumelia Eyalet . It was a prosperous trade city, benefiting from its position on the north-south and east-west trade routes across

4773-595: The Drenica valley. A chrysobull of the Serbian Tsar Stefan Dušan that was given to the Monastery of Saint Mihail and Gavril in Prizren between the years of 1348–1353 states the presence of Albanians in the Plains of Dukagjin , the vicinity of Prizren and in the villages of Drenica. In the 14th century in two chrysobulls or decrees by Serbian rulers, villages of Albanians alongside Vlachs are cited in

4884-648: The Empire. Prizren became one of the larger cities of the Kosovo vilayet ( vilayet ). The Ottoman registers from the 15th-16th century indicate that the villages in the Prizren- Has region in Kosovo had a significant Albanian population. In the Ottoman Defter of 1591, the city of Prizren itself was recorded under the Sanjak of Prizren - this includes the household heads of the city. By this time, Prizren had been significantly Islamised, as reflected by

4995-996: The Holy Saviour. During the Kosovo War (1998–99), the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) operated in the region and it was reported that it had killed and wounded several Serbian policemen and civilians. Among KLA attacks against police officers recorded in 1998 in the municipality were: on 16 August in Blace (one badly wounded), on 23 August in Dulje (three badly, four lightly wounded) and in Reštane (one badly wounded), on 25 August in Dulje (one badly wounded), on 28 September in Budakovo (three badly wounded) and in Vranić (one lightly wounded). KLA shot at an OSCE vehicle driving behind

5106-706: The League of the Socialists of Serbia. Soon afterwards, as approved by the Assembly in 1990, the autonomy of Kosovo was revoked, and the pre-1974 status reinstated. Milošević, however, did not remove Kosovo's seat from the Federal Presidency, but he installed his own supporters in that seat, so he could gain power in the Federal government. After Slovenia 's secession from Yugoslavia in 1991, Milošević used

5217-564: The Ottoman Sultan 's visit to Kosovo in June 1911. The aim of the League of Prizren was to unite the four Albanian-inhabited Vilayets by merging the majority of Albanian inhabitants within the Ottoman Empire into one Albanian vilayet . However at that time Serbs consisted about 25% of the whole Vilayet of Kosovo 's overall population and were opposing the Albanian aims along with Turks and other Slavs in Kosovo, which prevented

5328-509: The Ottomans were hesitating to do that. Western Powers put pressure to the Ottomans and in 1881, the Ottoman Army started the fighting against Albanians. The Prizren League created a Provisional Government with a President, Prime Minister (Ymer Prizreni) and Ministries of War (Sylejman Vokshi) and Foreign Ministry (Abdyl Frashëri). After three years of war, the Albanians were defeated. Many of the leaders were executed and imprisoned. In 1910, an Albanian uprising spread from Pristina and lasted until

5439-503: The Serbian Nemanjić dynasty took control of the fort and the town. Prizren served as the capital of the Serbian Empire under the reign of Stefan Dušan , as it bloomed to become an important center of trade and commerce during Dušan's reign. From 1371, a series of regional feudal rulers controlled Prizren, including the Mrnjavčević family , the Balšić noble family , and the Branković dynasty . Ottoman Turks captured Prizren from Serbian Despotate in 1455 and almost immediately served as

5550-400: The Serbian Tsar Stefan Dušan that was given to the Monastery of Saint Mihail and Gavril in Prizren between the years of 1348-1353 states the presence of Albanians in the vicinity of Prizren, the Dukagjin Plain and in the villages of Drenica . Within this chrisobull, nine Albanian stock-breeding villages within the vicinity of Prizren are mentioned explicitly - these villages are known with

5661-472: The Ukrainian newspaper Kijewskaja mysl , and reports eventually emerged of widespread killings of Albanians. In a 1912 news report on the Serbian Army and the Paramilitary Chetniks in Prizren, Trotsky stated "Among them were intellectuals, men of ideas, nationalist zealots, but these were isolated individuals. The rest were just thugs, robbers who had joined the army for the sake of loot... The Serbs in Old Serbia , in their national endeavour to correct data in

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5772-410: The West in neighbouring Albania; there was however notable resistance in Prizren before Yugoslavia unconditionally surrendered on 19 April 1941. Prizren along with most of Kosovo was annexed to the Italian puppet state of Albania . Soon after the Italian occupation, the Albanian Fascist Party established a blackshirt battalion in Prizren, but plans to establish two more battalions were dropped due to

5883-469: The agreement ended the three-year-long Bosnian War . After the Bosnian War, the KLA began staging ambushes of Serb patrols as well as killing policemen, as they sought to capitalize on popular resentment among Kosovan Albanians against the Serbian regime. From 1996 onwards, the KLA took responsibility for the attacks it committed. The KLA grew to a few hundred Albanians who attacked police stations and wounded many police officers from 1996–1997. Following

5994-493: The anthroponomy of the inhabitants; several cases of Muslim inhabitants with mixtures of Muslim and Albanian anthroponomy exist (i.e. Ali Gjoci, Hasan Gjinaj, Ferhad Reçi, Hasan Bardi... ). The Muslim neighbourhoods ( Mahalla/Mëhalla ) consisted of Xhamia e Vjetër (Old Mosque, 53 homes), Levisha (50 homes), Ajas beu (15 homes), Haxhi Kasem (48 homes), Jazixhi Sinani (71 homes), Çarshia (also called Jakub beu, 18 homes), Kurila (31 homes) and Mëhalla e lëkurëpunuesve (neighbourhood of

6105-515: The area of Montenegro and possibly the town of Ulqin . Present-day Prizren is first mentioned in 1019 at the time of Basil II (r. 976–1025) in the form of Prisdriana . In 1072, the leaders of the Bulgarian Uprising of Georgi Voiteh traveled from their center in Skopje to the area of Prizren and held a meeting in which they invited Mihailo Vojislavljević of Duklja to send them assistance. Mihailo sent his son, Constantine Bodin , and 300 of his soldiers. Dalassenos Doukas, dux of Bulgaria

6216-454: The area of Prizren, Albanian toponyms were recorded in the 14th and 15th century such as Rudina e Leshit, Truallishta e Gjon Bardhit, Llazi i Tanushit, Truallishta e Komanit, Shpija e Bushatit, Zhur, and Mazrek. With the death of Stefan Uroš V in 1371, a series of competing regional nobles sieged, counter-sieged and held control of Prizren – increasingly with Ottoman support and intervention. The first who tried to gain control of Prizren and

6327-480: The area was inhabited by Albanians and that the Albanian language was spoken there. In the 1630's, the Ottoman Turkish traveller Hajji Khalifa wrote that the town of Prizren was inhabited by Albanians. In 1651, the Albanian Catholic priest of Prizren Gregor Mazrreku reported that many men within Prizen converted to Islam to avoid the Jizya tax, and that they would ask Gregor to give them confession and Holy Communion in secrecy, which he had refused to do. During

6438-408: The area was massively depopulated during this period nor massively settled by another population from outside Ottoman records indicate that during the 15th and 16th century, the Hasi region, which was part of the Nahiya of Hasi, was inhabited almost entirely by Albanians. Ottoman records from the 15th century show western Kosovo had a large native Albanian population. And further research indicates

6549-446: The area; 14th-century documents refer to a catholic church in Prizren, which was the seat of a bishopric between the 1330s and 1380s. After several years of attack and counterattack, the Ottomans made a major invasion of Kosovo in 1454; Attempts of liberating the Prizren area earlier by Skanderbeg and thereafter by John Hunyadi failed, as Đurađ Branković was an Ottoman vassal at this time and did not grant passage into Kosovo for

6660-423: The capital of Sanjak of Prizren in the Ottoman Empire . While standing as an important administrative city for the Ottomans, Prizren became an important political center for the Albanian National Awakening during the late 19th century. The influence of Islam in Kosovo is evident; 96% of the population identified as Muslim in the most recent census, taken in 2011. Mosques, such as the Sinan Pasha Mosque , are

6771-486: The city compared to other cities in Kosovo. Serbian forces destroyed an important Albanian cultural monument in Prizren, the League of Prizren building, but the complex was rebuilt later on and now constitutes the Albanian League of Prizren Museum. On 17 March 2004, during the Unrest in Kosovo some Serb cultural monuments in Prizren were damaged, burned or destroyed, including Orthodox Serb churches, such as Our Lady of Ljeviš from 1307 ( UNESCO World Heritage Site ),

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6882-405: The city itself, or in villages around. Such locations include Sredska , Mamushë , and the region of Gora . Much of Potkaljaja, the old Serb neighbourhood along the hillside in the centre of town, was looted and burned to the ground following the Yugoslav Army withdrawal. Since 2010 most of the neighbourhood has been rebuilt. The war and its aftermath caused only a moderate amount of damage to

6993-453: The correspondence of archbishop Demetrios Chomatenos (1216–36), that Prizren was the northeasternmost area of Albanian settlement prior to the Slavic migrations to the Balkans that began in the 6th century. Historians and linguists have concluded that the northernmost and easternmost expansion of the predecessors of the Albanians prior to Slavic expansion was Lipjan , Vushtrri , Shkup , Nish , Shtip in Dardania and Macedonia and included

7104-482: The defter. In the defter of 1485 which covered the Gjakova region of Western Kosovo, half of the villages had Albanian names or a mixture of Slavic-Albanian names. During Stefan Dusan's reign, Albanian Catholics in Kosovo were forcibly converted into Orthodoxy, many others were expelled, and Catholic churches were converted into Orthodox ones. The Ottomans defters of 15th and 16th century also recorded new arrivals into Kosovo and abandoned places. Nothing indicates

7215-533: The economic viability in the region more tenuous. Many restaurants, private retail stores, and service-related businesses operate out of small shops. Larger grocery and department stores have recently opened. In town, there are eight sizeable markets, including three produce markets, one car market, one cattle market, and three personal hygiene and houseware markets. There is an abundance of kiosks selling small goods. However, reducing international presence and repatriation of refugees and internally displaced persons

7326-433: The end of the war in June 1999, most of the Albanian population returned to Prizren. Serbian and Roma minorities fled, with the OSCE estimating that 97% of Serbs and 60% of Romani had left Prizren by October. The community is now predominantly ethnically Albanian, but other minorities such as Turkish, Ashkali (a minority declaring itself as Albanian Roma) and Bosniak (including Torbesh community) live there as well, be that in

7437-440: The eponymous municipality and district . It is located on the banks of the Prizren River between the foothills of the Sharr Mountains in southern Kosovo. Prizren experiences a continental climate with some mediterranean influences. Prizren is constitutionally designated as the historical capital of the country. Archaeological excavations in Prizren Fortress indicate that its fortress area has seen habitation and use since

7548-533: The estimation in the year 2000, there were between 1,584,000 and 1,733,600 Albanians in Kosovo or 88% of population; as of 2011, their population share is 92.93%. Toponymical evidence suggests that Albanian was spoken in western and eastern Kosovo and the Niš region before the Migration Period . In this era, Albanian in Kosovo was in linguistic contact with Eastern Romance which was presumably spoken in contemporary eastern Serbia and Macedonia. Between 1246 and 1255, Stefan Uroš I had reported Albanian toponyms in

7659-443: The ethnographical statistics that are not quite favourable to them, are engaged quite simply in systematic extermination of the Muslim population". British traveller Edith Durham and a British military attaché were supposed to visit Prizren in October 1912, however the trip was prevented by the authorities. Durham stated: "I asked wounded Montengrins [Soldiers] why I was not allowed to go and they laughed and said 'We have not left

7770-444: The first as being between the White Drin and Lim rivers (1330), and in the second (1348) a total of nine Albanian villages are cited within the vicinity of Prizren. Toponyms such as Arbanaška and Đjake shows an Albanian presence in the Toplica and Southern Morava regions (located north-east of contemporary Kosovo) since the Late Middle Ages. The Albanian villages Ujmir and Gjonaj are mentioned in Serbian scriptures from

7881-414: The highest governmental titles—President and Premier and a seat in the Federal Presidency, which made it a de facto Socialist Republic within the Federation, but remaining as a Socialist Autonomous Region within the Socialist Republic of Serbia. Serbo-Croat and Albanian were defined official on the provincial level marking the two largest linguistic Kosovan groups: Serbs and Albanians. The word Metohija

7992-752: The killing of 11 Albanian men in one village, 24 killed in Trnje, and 12 killed in the village of Belanica. According to the Suva Reka office of the Council for the Defense of Human Rights and Freedoms, 430 people were killed in the Suva Reka municipality during the NATO bombing campaign (24 March-11 June). On 11–12 June 1999, a Serb family of four was kidnapped in Dvorane and never located. On 12 June 1999, KLA attacked Mušutište and kidnapped eighteen Serb civilians. After

8103-750: The lack of public support. In 1943 Bedri Pejani of the German Wehrmacht helped create the Second League of Prizren . In 1944, German forces were driven out of Kosovo by a combined Russian-Bulgarian force, and then the Communist government of Yugoslavia took control. In 1946, the town was formulated as a part of Kosovo and Metohija which the Constitution defined the Autonomous Region of Kosovo and Metohija within

8214-604: The largest ethnic group in Kosovo . Kosovo Albanians belong to the ethnic Albanian sub-group of Ghegs , who inhabit the north of Albania , north of the Shkumbin river, Kosovo, southern Serbia , and western parts of North Macedonia . They speak Gheg Albanian , more specifically the Northwestern and Northeastern Gheg variants. According to the 1991 Yugoslav census, boycotted by Albanians , there were 1,596,072 ethnic Albanians in Kosovo or 81.6% of population. By

8325-422: The late Iron Age (c. 1st century CE) and is comparable to the material found in the nearby prehistoric site in the village of Vlashnjë (~10 km west of Prizren). In 2005, prehistoric rock paintings in a ritual site related to the cycle of life were found near Vlashnjë. They represent the first find of prehistoric rock art in the region. In late antiquity, the fortification saw a phase of reconstruction. It

8436-520: The leatherworkers, 34 homes) . The Christian neighbourhoods ( Mahalla/Mëhalla ) consisted of Pazari i Vjetër (Old Market, 8 homes), Madhiq (37 homes), Vasil (27 homes), Kodha (13 homes), Çarshia/Pjetri Nikolla (14 homes), Bogoi Riber (11 homes), Radmir (51 homes), Jazixhi Sinani (mentioned beforehand, 24 homes), Pandelja (29 homes), Prend Vriça (9 homes) and Ajas (13 homes) . The neighbourhoods of Pandelja, Jazixhi Sinani and Kodha were dominated by inhabitants with characteristically Albanian anthroponomy;

8547-464: The local Albanian leaders to sign a declaration of gratitude to King Peter I of Serbia for their "liberation by the Serbian army". Following the capture of Prizren, most foreigners were barred from entering the city as the Montenegrin forces temporarily closed the city before full control was restored. A few visitors did make it through, including Leon Trotsky , then working as a journalist for

8658-434: The municipality of Suva Reka had 59,722 inhabitants of which 98.9% were Kosovo Albanians . According to OSCE , the whereabouts of the displaced Serb and Roma communities is unknown. Suva Reka is twinned with: Prizren Prizren ( Albanian definite form : Prizreni , pronounced [pɾizˈɾɛni] ; Serbian Cyrillic : Призрен ) is the second most populous city and municipality of Kosovo and seat of

8769-401: The names Gjinovci (Gjinajt), Magjerci, Bjellogllavci (Kryebardhët), Flokovci (Flokajt), Crnça, Caparci (Çaparajt), Gjonovci (Gjonajt), Shpinadinci (Shpinajt) and Novaci. Entire Albanian villages were gifted by Serbian kings, particularly Stefan Dušan , as presents to Serb monasteries within Prizren, Deçan and Tetova . Additionally, people with Albanian anthroponomy are repeatedly mentioned in

8880-579: The only country to recognize it was Albania. With an 87% turnout, 99.88% voted for Kosovo to be independent. The non-Albanian population, at the time comprising 10% of Kosovo's population, refused to vote since they considered the referendum to be illegal. In 1992–1993, ethnic Albanians created the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). In 1995, the Dayton Agreement was signed in Dayton, Ohio . Finalized on 21 November 1995 and signed on 10 December 1995,

8991-468: The other neighbourhoods saw a blend between predominantly Slavic/Slavic-Albanian (or rather, Orthodox) anthroponomy. Lazaro Soranzo, writing in the 16th century, noted the town was inhabited "more by Albanians then by Serbs". In 1624 Pjeter Mazrreku reported the town was inhabited by 12,000 Muslims, almost all of them Albanians (‘Turchi, quasi tutti Albanesi’), 200 Catholics and 600 'Serviani'. Gjergj Bardhi , during his visit in Prizren, wrote in 1638 that

9102-539: The outbreak of the First World War , the Kingdom of Serbia was invaded by Austro-Hungarian forces and later by Bulgarian forces. By 29 November 1915, Prizren fell to Bulgarian and Austro-Hungarian forces. In April 1916, Austria-Hungary allowed the Kingdom of Bulgaria to occupy the city with the understanding that a significant amount of the city's population were ethnic Bulgarians . During this period, there

9213-475: The population of Kosovo remained mostly Albanian. In 1913, an official Austro-Hungarian report recorded that 30,000 people had fled to Prizren from Bosnia . In January 1914 the Austro-Hungarian consul based in Prizren conducted a detailed report on living conditions in the city. The report stated that Kingdom of Serbia didn't keep its promise for equal treatment of Albanians and Muslims. Thirty of

9324-453: The region during 1660 referred to the western and central part of what is today Kosovo as Arnavudluk and described the town of Vushtrri 's inhabitants as having knowledge of Albanian or Turkish with few speakers of Slavic languages. A large number of Albanians alongside smaller numbers of urban Turks (with some being of Albanian origin) were expelled and/or fled from what is now contemporary southern Serbia (Toplica and Morava regions) during

9435-459: The restoration of Serbian rule, Prizren and the region of Dečani to the west remained centres of Albanian nationalism. In 1956 the Yugoslav secret police put on trial in Prizren nine Kosovo Albanians accused of having been infiltrated into the country by the (hostile) Communist Albanian regime of Enver Hoxha . The "Prizren trial" became something of a cause célèbre after it emerged that

9546-446: The seat to obtain dominance over the Federal government, outvoting his opponents. Many Albanians organized a peaceful active resistance movement, following the job losses suffered by some of them, while other, more radical and nationalistic oriented Albanians, started violent purges of the non-Albanian residents of Kosovo. On 2 July 1990, an unconstitutional ethnic Albanian parliament declared Kosovo an independent country, although this

9657-503: The situation and people were involved in tasks such as the operation of mobile kitchens and gathering financial aid. Many Albanians in Kosovo have opened their homes to people displaced by the earthquake. There is a large Kosovo Albanian diaspora in central Europe. Culturally, Albanians in Kosovo are very closely related to Albanians in Albania. Traditions and customs differ even from town to town in Kosovo itself. The spoken dialect

9768-410: The southwest and North Macedonia to the southeast. Prizren has a subtropical climate ( Köppen climate classification Cfa) bordering a continental climate ( Köppen climate classification Dfa) in the 0°c isotherm and an oceanic climate ( Köppen climate classification Cfb) in the -3°c isotherm. with an average annual temperature of 11.8 °C (53.2 °F). The warmest month in Prizren

9879-416: The thirty-two mosques in Prizren had been turned into hay barns, ammunition stores and military barracks. The people of the city were heavily taxed, with Muslims and Catholic Christians having to pay more tax than Orthodox Christians. The local government was predominately made up of former Serb Chetniks. The report also noted that the Serbs were also dissatisfied with the living conditions in Prizren. With

9990-619: The town was surrounded by the Yugoslav army and police, and 48 Albanians were massacred . 46 of the victims were members of the Berisha family, 14 of whom were under 15 years old. There were reports that Serb forces extorted Albanians in Belanica on 27 March. In April and May 1999, Serb paramilitary repeatedly attacked the villages in the municipality, forcing the population to leave and gather in KLA territory. Human Rights Watch also reported

10101-551: The towns in Eastern Kosovo had a large Muslim Albanian population prior to the Austrian-Ottoman wars of 1690 and research shows the towns lost their population considerably due to the wars. During the 18th century and onwards there were also movements of people within these Albanian inhabited territories (Nish, Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania) Kosovo was part of the Ottoman Empire from 1455 to 1912, at first as part of

10212-654: The trade that passed through the town was Prince Marko , but after his defeat in the Battle of Maritsa in September 1371, the Balšići of the Principality of Zeta moved to take Prizren in the fall and winter of 1371. In the spring of 1372, Nikola Altomanović besieged Prizren and tried to expand his rule, but was defeated. The death of Đurađ I Balšić in 1377 created another power vacuum – Đurađ Branković then took over Prizren. The Catholic Church retained some influence in

10323-475: The two official languages of Kosovo, Albanian and Serbian , Turkish and Bosnian are also the official languages of the Municipality of Prizren. Kosovo Albanians The Albanians of Kosovo ( Albanian : Shqiptarët e Kosovës , pronounced [ʃcipˈtaɾət ɛ kɔˈsɔvəs] ), also commonly called Kosovo Albanians , Kosovan Albanians or Kosovars (Albanian: Kosovarët ), constitute

10434-704: The villages of Banjë, Suharekë , Duhël , Mushtishtë , Popolan , Reçan , and churches of Virgin Hodegetria , St. George, Holy Trinity, St. Nicholas, among others. The settlement of Theranda itself was first mentioned in 1465. In 1651, the Albanian Catholic Gregor Mazrreku reported that all the men in Suharekë (Suva Reka), where there had been previously 160 Catholic households, had converted to Islam, but that about 36 or 37 of their wives remained Catholic. From 1929 to 1941, Suva Reka

10545-459: The war, Serbian heritage was destroyed all over Kosovo. The churches (including cemeteries) of Virgin Hodegetria , St. George, Holy Trinity, St. Nicholas and others were completely destroyed in 1999 after the arrival of KFOR and the end of the war. NATO set up a military base in the municipality, Camp Casablanca . According to the 2011 census done by the Government of Kosovo ,

10656-546: The war, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe estimated that the municipality's population was about 78% Kosovo Albanian, 5% Serb and 17% from other national communities. During the war most of the Albanian population were either forced or intimidated into leaving the town. Tusus Neighborhood suffered the most. Some twenty-seven to thirty-four people were killed and over one hundred houses were burned. At

10767-681: Was a process of forced Bulgarisation with many Serbs being interned ; Serbs suffered worse in Bulgarian occupied regions of Kosovo compared to Austrian occupied regions due to the Bulgarian defeat in the Second Balkan War and due to the long-standing rivalry between the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and the Serbian Orthodox Church . According to Catholic Archbishop of Skopje , Lazër Mjeda who

10878-580: Was a time of persecution of the Kosovar Albanians. Kosovo was split into four counties—three being a part of official Serbia: Zvečan, Kosovo and southern Metohija; and one in Montenegro: northern Metohija. However, the new administration system since 26 April 1922 split Kosovo among three Regions in the Kingdom: Kosovo, Rascia and Zeta . In 1929 the Kingdom was transformed into the Kingdom of Yugoslavia . The territories of Kosovo were split among

10989-589: Was a town part of the Vardar Banovina of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia . Between 1918 and 1941, the demographic structure of the municipality of Suva Reka has been affected by settlements and colonization such as the Serbian colonization and population settlement, for the most part from the Toplica District . On the night of 9–10 June 1984, ethnic Albanians desecrated 29 tombstones of the Church of

11100-652: Was also removed from the title in 1974 leaving the simple short form, Kosovo . In the 1970s, an Albanian nationalist movement pursued full recognition of the Province of Kosovo as another Republic within the Federation, while the most extreme elements aimed for full-scale independence. Tito's government dealt with the situation swiftly, but only giving it a temporary solution. In 1981 the Kosovar Albanian students organised protests seeking that Kosovo become

11211-557: Was buried in the Monastery of the Holy Archangels in Prizren. Prizen briefly served as the capital of the Serbian Empire and was a crossroad of important trade goods between Dubrovnik and Constantinople. In 1330, Serbian king Stefan Dečanski explicitly mentioned the presence of Albanians and the Albanian names of villages in Kosovo, in particular in the districts of Prizren and that of Skopje . A chrisobull of

11322-609: Was held in Rambouillet , France later that spring and resulted in a proposed peace agreement, called the Rambouillet Agreement , which was accepted by the ethnic Albanian side but rejected by the Yugoslav government. The failure of the talks at Rambouillet resulted in a NATO air campaign against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia lasting from 24 March to 10 June when the Yugoslav authorities signed

11433-578: Was made on technical matters, both parties remained diametrically opposed on the question of status itself. In February 2007, Ahtisaari delivered a draft status settlement proposal to leaders in Belgrade and Pristina, the basis for a draft UN Security Council Resolution that proposes 'supervised independence' for the province. As of early July 2007 the draft resolution, which is backed by the United States, United Kingdom and other European members of

11544-657: Was not recognized by the Government since the ethnic Albanians refused to register themselves as legal citizens of Yugoslavia. In September of that year, the ethnic Albanian parliament, meeting in secrecy in the town of Kačanik , adopted the Constitution of the Republic of Kosova . A year later, the Parliament organized the 1991 Kosovan independence referendum , which was observed by international organisations, but

11655-503: Was part of the İpek Detachment in the First Balkan War . During the First Balkan War , the city was invaded by the Serbian army and incorporated into the Kingdom of Serbia . Although the troops met little resistance, the takeover was bloody, with 400 people dead in the first few days; the local population would call the city "The Kingdom of Death." The Daily Chronicle reported on 12 November 1912 that 5,000 Albanians were slaughtered in Prizren. Serbian general Božidar Janković forced

11766-588: Was renamed in 1929 to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and Prizren became a part of its Vardar Banovina . In World War II Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy invaded the Kingdom of Yugoslavia on 6 April 1941 and by 9 April the Germans who had invaded Yugoslavia from the East with neighbouring Bulgaria as base were on the outskirts of Prizren and by 14 April Prizren had fallen to the Italians who had invaded Yugoslavia from

11877-464: Was sent against the combined forces, but was defeated near Prizren, which was then extensively plundered by the Serbian army. The Bulgarian magnates proclaimed Bodin "Emperor of the Bulgarians" after this initial victory. They were defeated by Nikephoros Bryennios in the area of northern Macedonia by the end of 1072. The area was raided by Serbian ruler Vukan in the 1090s. Demetrios Chomatenos

11988-578: Was taking refuge in Prizren at the time, roughly 1,000 people had died of hunger in 1917. In October 1918 following the fall of Macedonia to Allied Forces , the Serbian Army along with the French 11th colonial division and the Italian 35th Division pushed the Austro-Hungarian and Bulgarian forces out of the city. By the end of 1918, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was formed. The Kingdom

12099-566: Was the final act of establishing Serbian Nemanjić rule in the town. Prizren and its fort were the administrative and economic center of the župa of Podrimlje (in Albanian, Podrima or Anadrini). The old town of Prizren developed below the fortress along the left bank of the Bistrica/Lumbardhi. Ragusan traders were stationed in the old town. Prizren over time became a trading hub and gateway for Ragusan trade towards eastern Kosovo and beyond. In this period, Stefan Dušan founded and

12210-708: Was the first time Kosovo came to exist with its present boundaries. After Yugoslavia's name changed to the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Serbia's to the Socialist Republic of Serbia in 1963, the Autonomous Region of Kosovo was raised to the level of Autonomous Province (which Vojvodina had had since 1946) and gained inner autonomy in the 1960s. In the 1974 constitution , the Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo's government received higher powers, including

12321-541: Was the site of the creation of the League of Prizren , a movement formed to seek the national unification and autonomy of Albanians within the Ottoman Empire. The Young Turk Revolution was a step in the dissolving of the Ottoman empire that led to the Balkan Wars. The Third Army (Ottoman Empire) had a division in Prizren, the 30th Reserve Infantry Division ( Otuzuncu Pirzerin Redif Fırkası ). The Prizren attachment

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