According to you, is Kosovo a country or part of Serbia?

Question

• 4 votes
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	Kosovo is a country
	Kosovo is part of Serbia

Answer 1

Serbia does not recognize Kosovo although Serbian government signed an agreement with Kosovo in Bruxelles in 2012. It is strange because a state do not sign the agreements with their provinces, the agreements can be signed only with states. Serbian government signed an agreement because ministers like the EU and EU has troops in Kosovo. Do you remember when NATO bombarded FR Yugoslavia? Yugoslavia signed an agreement in Kumanovo that UN troops occupy Kosovo in 1999. EU troops came in 2007. Serbia let them in Kosovo although UN troops should be only legal. So, Serbia consider Kosovo as a province but has signed an agreement with Kosovo government. Serbia has no power in Kosovo.

Answer 2

Kosovo should have the right to be an independent country of it's own. Maybe it's just media hype but Serbia doesn't have a very good reputation. I had many talks with a Serbian friend of mine and he said that if that want to be free? Let them have it. He doesn't care much either way but is fiercely loyal to Serbia.

Kosovo, self-declared independent country in the Balkans region of Europe. Although the United States and most members of the European Union (EU) recognized Kosovo's declaration of independence from Serbia in 2008, Serbia, Russia, and a significant number of other countries—including several EU members—did not.

Answer 3

Hi Dan,

Kosovo wants its independence. In the early 2000's, the UN helped it; "under UN supervision, Kosovo developed the structures of an independent country." Also, the population is now 9/10 Albanians. with less than 1/10 Serbs.

www.britannica.com/place/Kosovo

So, even though there is disagreement internationally, I would tend to consider Kosovo a country. 

btw, this is an important question and I appreciate learning more about Kosovo. The video you posted is very informative; that more UN countries voted against Kosovo independence than for it. Do you know why so many countries were voting against Kosovo independence, was it to help Serbia, as the video mentions?

Comments

After making this video, many other countries have also recognized Kosovo. (which are not mentioned in this video). The map below is recent. "Do you know why so many countries were voting against Kosovo independence" Because each country has its own problem where people could break and form a new country. So world countries always support the existing country. If Serbia accepts Kosovo then other countries will accept too.

For example: Catalonia seeking independence from Spain. If Spain accepts Kosovo as a country then Serbia might recognize Catalonia as a sovereign country.

Israel will not recognize Kosovo's independence at this time, in part because of the possibility of Palestinians using recognition of Kosovo to justify their own unilateral declaration of independence - Israel 

Countries recognizing Kosovo

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Oh yes, Dan, MANY more countries now...this map looks very different from the one in the video. 

Thank you, your point about so many countries containing factions that would like to secede; their "no" votes make more sense now! 

Again, I appreciate learning about this.

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There is also a certain concern that the persisting conflicts, human rights issues, corruption and high crime rates might precipitate Kosovo into the status of a nest for crime organisations:

https://www.coe.int/da/web/commissioner/country-monitoring/kosovo

http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2016/09/27/growth-continues-unemployment-remains-high-in-kosovo

http://www.dw.com/en/kosovo-minorities-leave-claiming-discrimination/a-4284905

https://www.euractiv.com/section/global-europe/news/poverty-spurs-mass-migration-from-kosovo/

https://www.opendemocracy.net/5050/sidita-kushi/women-of-kosovo-mirage-of-freedom-and-equality

https://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2016/03/01/kosovo-a-nest-of-crime-fugitives-in-europe/

https://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/statistics/corruption/Kosovo_Business_corruption_report_EN.pdf

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/jan/24/hashim-thaci-kosovo-organised-crime

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_trafficking_in_Kosovo

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_trafficking_in_Albania

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Marianne, your links open a whole other perspective on the situation in Kosovo; everything from drugs and human trafficking to the persecution of the minorities. I did see that Kosovo is home to both the nomadic Roma, whom we have traditionally known as gypsies, along with other wandering groups including one of Egyptian origin, but they and the Roma consider themselves separate.

It would be WONDERFUL if these tiny cultural minorities could be encouraged or at least not persecuted...bringing a perspective, a philosophy of life to enrich all humankind.

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Yes, wars, turmoil, corruption and poverty are a fertile ground for conflicts and crime organisations. Sadly enough, many smaller and even larger minorities are still the most vulnerable.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romani_people

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romani_society_and_culture

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antiziganism

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Marianne, I learned from your links that there are as many as one million Roma in the USA!

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Yes, Virginia, and that reminds me of a famous and wonderful horse breed, which was created by some of their clans in Ireland, the Gypsy Vanner:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gypsy_horse

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Marianne!!! What a wonderful link...I learned the technical meaning of 'piebald', and had never even heard of its (approximate) inverse, the skewbald...it's delightful the gypsies developed their own horse breed - even such a poetic name, the Gypsy Vanner...

I am old enough to recall and love the wonderful draught horses that helped people SO much in past generations of this Pacific Northwest raincoast of the USA...a special tug of delight at seeing the furry fetlocks on this horse, which I just now learned are called feathers!

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Oh yes, Virginia, they are very special, and their feathers look much like those of the Shire horses; here's another link about rare breeds:

https://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/animals/stories/10-strange-and-beautiful-horse-breeds

Oh, yes, there is a difference between the skewbald and piebald horses (i.e., in the colours):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skewbald

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piebald

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Marianne that first link is breathtaking! (I had already explored the piebald and skewbald...)

And a few of those incredible breeds are allowed to run in semi-feral state; that is delightful. Such breathtaking freedom, beauty, uniqueness...

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Oh yes, they are beautiful - like many other animals.

Answer 4

Kosovo may still have a long way to go, if looking into past and present conflicts, persisting turmoils and human rights issues, but their independence will also depend on their ability to adapt to the very principles of a sovereign state, according to present-day requirements:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovereign_state

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westphalian_sovereignty

About facts:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosovo

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosovo_status_process

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Security_Council_Resolution_1244

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union_Rule_of_Law_Mission_in_Kosovo

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomous_Province_of_Kosovo_and_Metohija

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosovo_Albanians

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosovo_Serbs

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosovo_War

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_Kosovo