Where is Kosovo? Culture, Facts & Travel

International exposure of Kosovan art was limited in the 1990s due to Slobodan Milošević’s regime and the difficult circumstances during the struggle for independence. Kosovo ranks 99th out of 180 countries in the 2025 World Press Freedom Index report compiled by the Reporters Without Borders, with a score of 52.73 indicating difficult conditions. It is Kosovo’s only international airport and the only port of entry for air travelers to Kosovo.

Diplomatic, and Consular Relations, by Country, since 1776: Kosovo

Prior to Kosovo’s independence, other athletes such as Aziz Salihu, Vladimir Durković, Fahrudin Jusufi, and Milutin Šoškić represented Yugoslavia. Judo has become an important part of Kosovo’s success in international competitions, accounting for the majority of the nation’s medals. The movie Shok was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film at the 88th Academy Awards in 2016. The Prishtina International Film Festival is the largest film festival, held annually in Pristina, in Kosovo that screens prominent international cinema productions in the Balkan region and beyond, and draws attention to the Kosovar film industry. In 2010, Dokufest was voted as one of the 25 best international documentary festivals.

Kosovo’s Declaration of Independence and Serbia’s Reaction

Kosovo formed the core territory of the Dardani, an Illyrian people, attested in classical sources from the 4th century BCE. Kosovo,a officially the Republic of Kosovo,b is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe with partial diplomatic recognition.

Kosovo unilaterally declared its independence from Serbia on 17 February 2008 and has since gained diplomatic recognition by at least 110 member states of the United Nations. In the 13th century, Kosovo became integral to the Serbian medieval state and the establishment of the Serbian Patriarchate. The kingdom was incorporated into the Roman Empire in the 1st century BCE; jayabaji-nepal.com later, in the 3rd century CE, it was transformed into a separate Roman province.

Roman period

The overwhelming presence of towns and municipalities in Kosovo with Slavic in their toponymy suggests that the Slavic migrations either assimilated or drove out population groups already living in Kosovo.
The festival is held each August in Prizren, and attracts numerous international and regional artists.
The Kosovo Security Force (KSF) is the national security force of Kosovo commissioned with the task of preserving and safeguarding the country’s territorial integrity, national sovereignty and the security interests of its population.
The Prishtina International Film Festival is the largest film festival, held annually in Pristina, in Kosovo that screens prominent international cinema productions in the Balkan region and beyond, and draws attention to the Kosovar film industry.
However, speakers of BCS tend to refer to their own language as Serbian, Bosnian, Croatian, or Montenegrin, depending on their ethnicity, and consider it to be distinct from the other groups’ languages, despite mutual intelligibility.

Nonetheless, these conflicts were relatively low-level compared with other areas of Yugoslavia during the war years. During the war years, some Serbs and Montenegrins were sent to concentration camps in Pristina and Mitrovica. Other Slavs had to identify as one of the three official Slavic nations and non-Slav nations deemed as minorities.

On the other hand, Dardania maintained its independence until the year 28 BC, when the Romans, under Augustus, annexed it into their Republic. The Dardani retained an individuality and continued to maintain social independence after Roman conquest, playing an important role in the formation of new groupings in the Roman era. The flag of Dardania remains in use as the official Presidential seal and standard and is heavily featured in the institution of the presidency of the country. The entire territory that corresponds to today’s country is commonly referred to in English simply as Kosovo and in Albanian as Kosova (definite form) or Kosovë (indefinite form, pronounced kɔˈsɔvə). It has experienced significant economic growth over the last decade, as measured by international financial institutions, since the onset of the 2008 financial crisis.

He told the BBC that the EU had helped Kosovo a lot and the country looked forward to joining other member states one day, he said. It has been recognised by the United States and major European Union countries, but Serbia, backed by its powerful ally Russia, refuses to do so, as do most ethnic Serbs inside Kosovo. In the second half of the 20th century, as a result of Serbian out-migration and higher Albanian birth rates, there was a dramatic shift in the ethnic composition of Kosovo. Nevertheless, under UN supervision, Kosovo developed the structures of an independent country, and in February 2008 it formally declared independence from Serbia. By the second half of the century, the largely Muslim ethnic Albanians outnumbered the predominantly Eastern Orthodox Serbs in Kosovo, and interethnic tensions frequently roiled the province.

By 1998, international pressure compelled Yugoslavia to sign a ceasefire and partially withdraw its security forces. By the mid-1990s, the Kosovo Albanian population was growing restless, as the status of Kosovo was not resolved as part of the Dayton Agreement of November 1995, which ended the Bosnian War. Kosovar Albanians responded with a non-violent separatist movement, employing widespread civil disobedience and creation of parallel structures in education, medical care, and taxation, with the ultimate goal of achieving the independence of Kosovo. Though these charges were disproved by police statistics,page needed they received wide attention in the Serbian press which led to further ethnic tensions and eventual removal of Kosovo’s status. Albanians felt that their status as a “minority” in Yugoslavia had made them second-class citizens in comparison with the “nations” of Yugoslavia and demanded that Kosovo be a constituent republic, alongside the other republics of Yugoslavia. A three-dimensional conflict ensued, involving inter-ethnic, ideological, and international affiliations.

A 2020 research report funded by the EU shows that there is a limited scale of trust and overall contact between the major ethnic groups in Kosovo. Ethnic prejudices, stereotypes and mutual distrust between ethnic Albanians and Serbs have remained common for decades. Relations between Kosovo Albanians and Kosovo Serbs have been hostile since the rise of nationalism in the Balkans during the 19th century. The Kosovo War and subsequent migration have decreased the population of Kosovo over time. The country is the 11th most populous country in the Southeastern Europe (Balkans) and ranks as the 152nd most populous country in the world.