SERBIAN-ALBANIAN RELATIONS: STATE AND PERSPECTIVES - A view from Serbia
SERBIAN-ALBANIAN RELATIONS: STATE AND PERSPECTIVES - A view from Serbia

Author(s): Igor Novaković, Dragan Đukanović, Žarko Petrović
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Politics, International relations/trade, Security and defense, Inter-Ethnic Relations
Published by: ISAC - Centar za međunarodne i bezbednosne poslove
Keywords: Serbian–Albanian Relations; Kosovo Issue; Regional Cooperation; European Integration; Economic Cooperation; Minority Rights; Western Balkans Stability
Summary/Abstract: Historically, relations between Serbs and Albanians have been to a great extent influenced by the Ottoman legacy with the dispersed ethnic and religious communities intertwining in a relatively geographically small area. The creation of nations-states at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century created another dividing line of self-identification of communities and competing national narratives of history, tradition and national interests. After the Second World War, the relationship between Yugoslavia and Albania from 1948 to 1991 was characterized by the ideological confrontations between the League of Communists of Yugoslavia and the Communist Party of Albania, creating additional distance among the two peoples and societies. The dissolution of Yugoslavia after 1991 and the rise of ethnicity based politics in the region widened additionally the antagonism between Serbs and Albanians. This was especially evident and exacerbated by the conflicts in Kosovo which further deepened the mutual distrust.

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