The western Balkans were part of the Roman and Byzantine Empires before ethnic Serbs migrated to the territories of modern Kosovo in the 7th century. During the medieval period, Kosovo became the center of a Serbian Empire and saw the construction of many important Serb religious sites, including many architecturally significant Serbian Orthodox monasteries. The defeat of Serbian forces at the Battle of Kosovo in 1389 led to five centuries of Ottoman rule during which large numbers of Turks and Albanians moved to Kosovo. By the end of the 19th century, Albanians replaced Serbs as the dominant ethnic group in Kosovo. Serbia reacquired control over the region from the Ottoman Empire during the First Balkan War of 1912. After World War II, Kosovo's present-day boundaries were established when Kosovo became an autonomous province of Serbia in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (S.F.R.Y.). Due at least in part to discrimination against ethnic Albanians by Belgrade, Albanian nationalism increased in the 1980s, which led to riots and calls for Kosovo's independence. In 1989, Belgrade instituted a new constitution revoking Kosovo's autonomous status. Kosovo's Albanian leaders responded in 1991 by organizing a referendum declaring Kosovo independent. Belgrade undertook repressive measures against the Kosovo Albanians in the 1990s, provoking a Kosovo Albanian insurgency.
Beginning in 1998, Yugoslavia conducted a brutal counterinsurgency campaign that resulted in massacres and massive expulsions of ethnic Albanians (some 800,000 ethnic Albanians were forced from their homes in Kosovo). After international attempts to mediate the conflict failed, a three-month NATO military operation against Yugoslavia beginning in March 1999 forced Belgrade to agree to withdraw its military and police forces from Kosovo. UN Security Council Resolution 1244 (1999) placed Kosovo under a transitional administration, the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo, pending a determination of Kosovo's future status. A UN-led process began in late 2005 to determine Kosovo's final status. The 2006-07 negotiations ended without agreement between Belgrade and Pristina, though the UN issued a comprehensive report on Kosovo's final status that endorsed independence. On 17 February 2008, the Kosovo Assembly declared Kosovo independent. Since then, close to 100 countries have recognized Kosovo, and it has joined numerous international organizations. In October 2008, Serbia sought an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the legality under international law of Kosovo's declaration of independence. The ICJ released an advisory opinion in July 2010 affirming that Kosovo's declaration of independence did not violate general principles of international law, UN Security Council Resolution 1244, or the Constitutive Framework. The opinion was closely tailored to Kosovo's unique history and circumstances.
Demonstrating Kosovo’s development into a sovereign, multi-ethnic, democratic country, the international community ended the period of Supervised Independence in 2012. Kosovo held its most recent national and municipal elections in 2021, ushering in a government led by the Self-Determination Movement's (VV) Albin KURTI, a former political prisoner who did not fight in the 1998-99 war. Serbia continues to reject Kosovo's independence, but the two countries began EU-facilitated discussions in April 2013 to normalize their relations, which produced several subsequent agreements the parties have implemented to varying degrees, though they have not yet reached a comprehensive agreement on the normalization of relations. Kosovo has pursued bilateral recognitions and memberships in international organizations, moves that Serbia strongly opposes. Kosovo signed a Stabilization and Association Agreement with the EU in 2015, and the EU named Kosovo as among the six Western Balkan countries that will be able to join the organization once it meets the criteria to accede. Kosovo also seeks memberships in the UN and in NATO.
" } }, "Geography": { "Location": { "text": "Southeastern Europe, between Serbia and Macedonia" }, "Geographic coordinates": { "text": "42 35 N, 21 00 E" }, "Map references": { "text": "Europe" }, "Area": { "total": { "text": "10,887 sq km" }, "land": { "text": "10,887 sq km" }, "water": { "text": "0 sq km" } }, "Area - comparative": { "text": "slightly larger than Delaware" }, "Land boundaries": { "total": { "text": "714 km" }, "border countries": { "text": "Albania 112 km; North Macedonia 160 km; Montenegro 76 km; Serbia 366 km" } }, "Coastline": { "text": "0 km (landlocked)" }, "Maritime claims": { "text": "none (landlocked)" }, "Climate": { "text": "influenced by continental air masses resulting in relatively cold winters with heavy snowfall and hot, dry summers and autumns; Mediterranean and alpine influences create regional variation; maximum rainfall between October and December" }, "Terrain": { "text": "flat fluvial basin at an elevation of 400-700 m above sea level surrounded by several high mountain ranges with elevations of 2,000 to 2,500 m" }, "Elevation": { "highest point": { "text": "Gjeravica/Deravica 2,656 m" }, "lowest point": { "text": "Drini i Bardhe/Beli Drim (located on the border with Albania) 297 m" }, "mean elevation": { "text": "450 m" } }, "Natural resources": { "text": "nickel, lead, zinc, magnesium, lignite, kaolin, chrome, bauxite" }, "Land use": { "agricultural land": { "text": "52.8% (2018 est.)" }, "agricultural land: arable land": { "text": "arable land: 27.4% (2018 est.)" }, "agricultural land: permanent crops": { "text": "permanent crops: 1.9% (2018 est.)" }, "agricultural land: permanent pasture": { "text": "permanent pasture: 23.5% (2018 est.)" }, "forest": { "text": "41.7% (2018 est.)" }, "other": { "text": "5.5% (2018 est.)" } }, "Irrigated land": { "text": "NA" }, "Major watersheds (area sq km)": { "text": "Atlantic Ocean drainage: (Black Sea) Danube (795,656 sq km)" }, "Population distribution": { "text": "population clusters exist throughout the country, the largest being in the east in and around the capital of Pristina" }, "Geography - note": { "text": "the 41-km long Nerodimka River divides into two branches each of which flows into a different sea: the northern branch flows into the Sitnica River, which via the Ibar, Morava, and Danube Rivers ultimately flows into the Black Sea; the southern branch flows via the Lepenac and Vardar Rivers into the Aegean Sea" } }, "People and Society": { "Population": { "text": "1,964,327 (2023 est.)" }, "Nationality": { "noun": { "text": "Kosovan" }, "adjective": { "text": "Kosovan" }, "note": "note: Kosovo, a neutral term, is sometimes also used as a noun or adjective as in Kosovo Albanian, Kosovo Serb, Kosovo minority, or Kosovo citizen" }, "Ethnic groups": { "text": "Albanians 92.9%, Bosniaks 1.6%, Serbs 1.5%, Turk 1.1%, Ashkali 0.9%, Egyptian 0.7%, Gorani 0.6%, Romani 0.5%, other/unspecified 0.2% (2011 est.)", "note": "note: these estimates may under-represent Serb, Romani, and some other ethnic minorities because they are based on the 2011 Kosovo national census, which excluded northern Kosovo (a largely Serb-inhabited region) and was partially boycotted by Serb and Romani communities in southern Kosovo" }, "Languages": { "Languages": { "text": "Albanian (official) 94.5%, Bosnian 1.7%, Serbian (official) 1.6%, Turkish 1.1%, other 0.9% (includes Romani), unspecified 0.1%; note - in municipalities where a community's mother tongue is not one of Kosovo's official languages, the language of that community may be given official status according to the 2006 Law on the Use of LanguagesNATO-led Kosovo Force peacekeepers under UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo authority continue to ensure a safe and secure environment and freedom of movement for all Kosovo citizens
Kosovo-Albania: none identified
Kosovo-Montenegro: their 2015 demarcation agreement was ratified by Montenegro in December 2015 and by Kosovo in March 2018, but the actual demarcation has not been completed; as of March 2021, Kosovo Prime Minister Albin KURTI said that after the new Montenegrin government is formed, he would broach the subject of reopening the agreement
Kosovo-North Macedonia: Kosovo and North Macedonia completed demarcation of their boundary in September 2008; both countries ratified the demarcation documents on October 17, 2009, after high-level consultations resolved the disputed section of border around Debelde/Tanusevci
Kosovo-Serbia: Serbia with several other states protest the US’s and other countries’ recognition of Kosovo's declaration of its status as a sovereign and independent state in February 2008; ethnic Serbian municipalities along Kosovo's northern border challenge final status of Kosovo-Serbia boundary; Kosovo’s and Serbia’s temporary agreement on license plates expired on 21 April 2022; the two countries are meeting on 13 May to reach a permanent agreement
" }, "Refugees and internally displaced persons": { "IDPs": { "text": "16,000 (primarily ethnic Serbs displaced during the 1998-1999 war fearing reprisals from the majority ethnic-Albanian population; a smaller number of ethnic Serbs, Roma, Ashkali, and Egyptians fled their homes in 2004 as a result of violence) (2021)" }, "note": "note: 8,884 estimated refugee and migrant arrivals (January 2015-May 2023)" } } }