Welcome to Kosovo

And the relics of war.

We all know about frozen conflicts, don’t we? The most famous is possibly Kashmir, which is literally frozen along the Actual Ground Position and the Line of Control, the former being a ceasefire line on a glacier. There have been several wars over Kashmir between India and Pakistan, so it is one long war with equally long intervals. The conflict started in 1947, and has flared up 1969, 1971 and in 1999, apart from other minor skirmishes. Things are quiet at present, but it could all start again as neither side is able to make peace. India is a secular state, and Pakistan a Muslim one; to give way on Kashmir would be to compromise the founding doctrine of each.

Prizren from above: note the sixteenth century mosque of Sinan Pasha, and the Serbian orthodox Cathedral behind it to the left.

I think of this because Kashmir is the most enlightening territory dispute in our time, more so that Northern Ireland or the former territory of British Mandated Palestine. These conflicts are intractable because too much is at stake, indeed, the conflicts are existential. Here I am in Kosovo, which the Serbs claim is Serbia, the place their nation was founded. Indeed, this city, Prizren, was once the capital of the Serbian Empire, before its conquest by the Turks, back in the 14th century, and the seat of Stefan Dusan, their greatest monarch. While that is indisputable, also certain is that Prizren and Kosovo in general was home to Greeks, Albanians, Venetians and Bulgars, indeed a real Byzantine mixture. The Serbian claim to modern Kosovo is rooted in their identity as Serbs, but it comes into conflict with the desire of the inhabitants of Kosovo for self-determination. For us the solution is pretty obvious, as we opt for Wilsonian self-determination, as laid down in the treaty of Versailles. Indeed, the problem of Kosovo is rooted in the failure to award the province to Albania after the First World War. We (or rather they, the Kosovars) have paid for a mistake not made by themselves that is now over a hundred years old.

Kosovo, as seen from Prizren fortress.

But to get back to frozen conflicts. Right now there is no fighting between Serb and Albanian here, but that does not mean that the conflict is over; it has merely gone cold and could start up again, though this is fortunately unlikely, given that the Serbs have too much to lose, as they try to rebuild their international relations. In addition the Serbs have a client state in Bosnia, the Republika Srbska, which is constantly making belligerent noises. A war on two fronts is beyond them, but they do fight a war of words. There have been outbreaks of sectarian violence in Kosovo, and there are places that the newspapers love to call ‘flashpoints’, such as Mitrovica, a city that is now divided in two different ethnically-based municipalities. (Mostar, in Hercegovina, has, despite being divided between Bosniak and Croat, survived as a single administrative entity; Sarajevo has not, there being historic Sarajevo and a ‘new’ town for Serbs down the road.)

But even though there is now no fighting, the causes of the conflict have not been resolved. So, it could all start again, which is unsettling. In the meantime, I write this in the shadow of a large Serbian Orthodox church, seat of a bishop, in a town where Serbs once lived in some number, but whose current population is supposed to be 20. The Cathedral was badly damaged in what the papers coyly term ‘unrest’ in 2004, and has now been restored (badly, in my opinion) but it is like one of the many churches in Istanbul, a relic of the past, a reminder of a disappeared people.

Prizren Cathedral, destroyed in 2004, now restored.

The truth is that the Serbs fought for Kosovo and they lost, and there is no going back to the past. The Albanians are enjoying their independence, and one is glad for them; but for the Serbs of Kosovo who remain the situation is gloomy, and for those who have been driven out, it is tragic.

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