PARALLEL UNIVERSITY OF PRISHTINA, 1991-1999: FUNCTIONING, CHALLENGES AND PEACEFUL RESISTANCE
PARALLEL UNIVERSITY OF PRISHTINA, 1991-1999: FUNCTIONING, CHALLENGES AND PEACEFUL RESISTANCE

Summary/Abstract: University of Prishtina, serving as an institution of education and science and as a centre of Albanian democratic and cultural movements, since its foundation was amongst the institutions on the target of Serbian regime. Upon abolition of the autonomy of Kosovo in 1989, the Serbian regime started the discriminatory policies against the Albanian population, the overwhelming majority population in Kosovo, including the expulsion of the Albanian pupils and students from the schools and university premises, massive dismissals from work, etc. It was the academic year 1991/1992 when the doors of the University of Prishtina were closed to Albanian students and teachers. The University of Prishtina and its campus in the center of the capital Prishtina, libraries, institutes and student dormitories all remained available to Serbian and other non ­Albanian teachers and students. The Albanian population created a parallel state, a unique example in the world, and such state created the parallel institutions in various fields of life, such as health, culture and education, including also the parallel University of Prishtina. This paper, in light of the sources of the time (documents in the Archive of the Rectorate of University of Prishtina “Hasan Prishtina”, published reports of the international organisations, press of the time) and the relevant historiography aims at elaborating: the initial protests and resistance of Albanian professors and students against the violent measures imposed by the Serbian regime; how the students and teachers were expelled from the facilities of the University of Prishtina; the procedures and the circumstances under which was established the Parallel University of Prishtina; how this parallel university functioned in the situation of pressure and continuous violence from the Serbian regime, at private facilities in the suburbs of the city; how the entire Albanian population from Kosovo was mobilized to support this university.

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