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). It now has a majority of Albanians after most of the city's Serb and other non-Albanians fled following ethnic cleansing by the Albanian extremists which began in June of 1999 with the arrival of the NATO-led KFor and the end of the Kosovo War.

History

A medieval capital of Serbia during the Nemanjic dynasty, it figured amongst the towns ruled by the Brankovic noble family. The town was overrun by the Ottomans in the 1430s however it would retain 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. In 1912 it was acquired by the Serbs.

Before the Second World War [1], 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 mass extermination of Pristina's Serbian and Jewish communities as well as the settling of the Albanians in the town. By the end of the war the Albanian share in the population grew rapidly but the Turks and Serbs jointly still formed an absolute majority [2].

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's [4] 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 the bombs and fighting during the war in 1999. 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%)