Kosovo Polje

Kosovo Polje (in Serbian) or Fushë Kosovë (in Albanian) is a town and municipality in the Pristina district of central Kosovo,. In 2014 the municipality had a total population of 37,735.

Geography

The town is situated in central Kosovo, some 8 km south-west of Pristina, the capital of Kosovo.

History

Kosovo Polje was named after the Kosovo Field of the 1389 Battle of Kosovo. The settlement of Kosovo Polje was established in 1921 during the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (see Colonisation of Kosovo).

Prior to the 1999 Kosovo War, the town of Kosovo Polje had, according to the figures of the Federal Statistical Office in Belgrade from March 1991, a total population of 35,570 inhabitants, while the ethnic makeup was 56.6% Albanian, 23.7% Serb and 19.6% from other communities.

Kosovo Polje saw considerable violence before, during and after the Kosovo War. In December 1998, Serbian deputy mayor of Kosovo Polje Zvonko Bojanić was executed by members of the Kosovo Liberation Army, despite taking a moderate line on Serb-Albanian relations. At the war's end in June 1999, most of the Albanian population returned while many of the town's Serbs were expelled. The remaining Serb population found themselves in an enclave in an Albanian-dominated region. Thousands of Serbs and Roma from other parts of Kosovo, who had fled their homes, took refuge in Kosovo Polje, where a large refugee camp was established. Ethnic tension flared repeatedly in the years after the war and a number of Serbs were killed by Albanian nationalists. Under this continuing pressure, the Serb population of Kosovo Polje shrank steadily until, by July 2002, the newspaper Blic was reporting that only 550 Serbs remained in Kosovo Polje. The town was seriously affected by the March 2004 unrest in Kosovo, which saw almost all Serb inhabitants expelled and their homes burned down. A number are reported to have returned since then and at least some of the destroyed properties have been rebuilt by UNMIK.

Kosovo field (region)

The Kosovo (Serbian: Kosovo; Albanian: Rrafshi i Kosovës) is a large karst field (polje), a plain located in eastern part of Kosovo. It is mostly known for being the battlefield of the Battle of Kosovo (1389) between the Serbian and Ottoman armies, and many other battles.

Geography

The large karst field is directed northwest–south. The plain stretches from Mitrovica southwards including Obilić, Kosovo Polje (which lies in the centre), Lipljan, and almost to Kaçanik. The region of Kosovo stretches roughly from Ferizaj (Uroševac) to Vučitrn.

It is situated 500-600m above sea level.

In the central part, to the west, is the Drenica valley.

History

In 1877, the Kosovo Vilayet was established by the Ottoman Empire.

During World War I the Serbian army retreated to the Kosovo plain by November 1915, then under attack from both sides, the army withdrew across the mountains into Albania.

See also

References

Coordinates: 42°35′00″N 21°07′00″E / 42.5833°N 21.1167°E / 42.5833; 21.1167

Kosovo Polje (disambiguation)

Kosovo Polje (Serbo-Croatian: Kosovo polje) may refer to:

Kosovo Polje (Višegrad)

Kosovo Polje (Serbian: Косово Поље) is a village in the municipality of Višegrad, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

References

Coordinates: 43°48′N 19°17′E / 43.800°N 19.283°E / 43.800; 19.283

Kosovo

Coordinates: 42°35′N 21°00′E / 42.583°N 21.000°E / 42.583; 21.000

Kosovo (/ˈkɒsəvoʊ, ˈkoʊ-/;Albanian: Kosova; Serbian Cyrillic: Косово) is a disputed territory and partially recognised state in Southeastern Europe that declared its independence from Serbia in February 2008 as the Republic of Kosovo. While Serbia recognises the Republic's governance of the territory, it still continues to claim it as its own Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija.

Kosovo is landlocked in the central Balkan Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pristina. It is bordered by the Republic of Macedonia and Albania to the south, Montenegro to the west, and the uncontested territory of Serbia to the north and east. In antiquity, the Dardanian Kingdom, and later the Roman province of Dardania was located in the region. It was part of Serbia in the Middle Ages, and many consider the Battle of Kosovo of 1389 to be one of the defining moments in Serbian medieval history. After being part of the Ottoman Empire from the 15th to the early 20th century, in the late 19th century Kosovo became the centre of the Albanian independence movement with the League of Prizren. As a result of the defeat in the First Balkan War (1912–13), the Ottoman Empire ceded the Vilayet of Kosovo to the Balkan League; the Kingdom of Serbia took its larger part, while the Kingdom of Montenegro annexed the western part before both countries became a part of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia after World War I. After a period of Yugoslav unitarianism in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, the post-World War II Yugoslav constitution established the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija within the Yugoslav constituent republic of Serbia.

Names of Kosovo

The name Kosovo (as referred to in this spelling) is the most frequently used form in English when discussing the region in question. The Albanian spelling Kosova has lesser currency. The alternative spellings Cossovo and Kossovo were frequently used until the early 20th century

Kosovo

Albanian usage may contain the definite article, as such it varies (Kosova vs. Kosovë). The question does not arise in Serbian, which has no definite article.

Kosovo (Serbian Cyrillic: Косово, pronounced [kosoʋo]) is the Serbian neuter possessive adjective of kos (кос) "blackbird", an ellipsis for Kosovo Polje "field of the blackbirds", the site of the 1389 Battle of Kosovo Field. The name of the field was applied to an Ottoman province created in 1864. In Greek the full name of the historical region is Kossyfopèdio meaning field (-pèdio) of the blackbirds (Kossyfi-).

The use of these spelling variants is a highly sensitive political issue for both Serbs and Albanians, who regard the use of the other side's name as being a denial of their own side's territorial rights.

Kosovo (song)

"Kosovo" is a parody of the Beach Boys hit song "Kokomo". It was produced in 1999 by Seattle radio comedian/radio personality Bob Rivers. It is a direct rip-off of the 1997 version made by Hoezo of the Netherlands, which was never mentioned.

According to Rivers, "...the intent of the song was to mock my own country for its bullying ways around the world. The idea was to point out how casually the U.S. plays World Police. The song takes on the persona of the U.S. government, ridiculing the fact that we push others around without much concern."

In May, 2005, a group of Norwegian peacekeepers in Kosovo (calling themselves the "Shiptare Boys") parodied the music video for "Kokomo," using Rivers' song with their own hand-held video camera footage. In the parody, the soldiers imitate dance moves and scenes from the original music video in desolate war-torn areas around Kosovo. It was widely broadcast in the Balkans, prompting the Norwegian ambassador to formally apologize.

Nicholas Wood of The New York Times wrote,