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Article: SIDE LIGHTS.(historical background behind Serb-Albanian conflict in Kosovo; includes related article on the Ottoman Empire)
- Article from:
- Current Events, a Weekly Reader publication
- Article date:
- April 23, 1999
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 Weekly Reader Corp. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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* Quite simply, Serbs and Kosovar Albanians seem to hate each other--and they have hated each other for centuries. Kosovar Albanians claim they are descended from the region's original inhabitants before Slavic tribes (of which the Serbs were one) invaded the region more than a thousand years ago. The Serbs argue that Kosovo lay at the heart of a medieval Serbian kingdom that thrived in the 1300s.
* Serbs consider Kosovo the heartland of the old Serb kingdom, which reached its height in the 1300s in the territory now composed of Yugoslavia, Bosnia, and Macedonia. But in 1389, the Serbs, led by Prince Lazar (drawing at right) were decisively defeated by the Ottoman ...