The Serbian Colonisation of Kosovo was a state project implemented by the Kingdom of Yugoslavia during the interwar period (1918-1941).During this colonisation, on Kosovo was settled between 60,000 and 65,000 colonists. Over 90% of the total number of colonists were Serbs.
Parallel with the Yugoslav colonisation, it was carried out the process of forced migration of ethnic Albanians from Kosovo.The colonisation of Kosovo and related events have greatly contributed to Serbian-Albanian conflict.
Colonisation process
Early colonisation of Kosovo began during the Balkan Wars. After the World War I began systematic colonisation as a state project of Yugoslavian Kingdom. The Belgrade government has begun a comprehensive programme of colonisation of Kosovo, giving advantage to former soldiers or members of the Chetnik units. Colonists were regularly supplied with weapons by the government.
Colonists were initially received land that was taken away from its actual owners with regular papers.According to the Kosovo Institute of History, a large number of settlers were moved into the houses of ethnic Albanians who were forcibly evicted.They often moved into the house confiscated from ethnic Albanian rebels. Seizure of Albanian land leads to the revolt of entire villages, and even military intervention.
The Serbian politician Vaso Cubrilovic criticised the gradual colonisation and demanded radical measures. In 1937 he proposed expulsion of the Albanians as a final solution of the "Albanian problem" in Yugoslavia:
"In our examination of colonisation in the south, we hold the view that the only effective means of solving this problem is the mass expulsion of the Albanians. Gradual colonisation has had no success in our country, nor in other countries for that matter. If the state wishes to intervene in favour of its own people in the struggle for land, it can only be successful by acting brutally".[11]
—Vaso Cubrilovic, Memorandum
The table shows total number of registered serb settlers in each Kosovo area
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Regional Centre-----------------Number of Colonists
Uroševac ------------------------ 15,381
Đakovica ------------------------ 15,824
Prizren ------------------------- 3,084
Peć------------------------------ 13,376
Kosovska Mitrovica--------------- 429
Vučitrn ------------------------- 10,169
Total -------------------------- 58,263
Legalisation - Expulsion Through Legal Acts
In the First Balkan War, Serbian and Montenegrin military, apart from the genocide exerted upon the Albanian population, carried out also their forceful expulsion. Thus in the territories of the Albanians villages were burned down and the frightened population ran away pursued by Serbian military, and those who remained there were shot or sent to concentration camps, such as Niš and other places. Only in Prishtina, more than 5,000 Albanians were killed by Serbian military on 22 October, 1912.12 On 27 October, 650 Albanians were sent to the camp in Niš, and on 30 October, 1912, another 700 of them.13 This genocide continued all the time till 1915, when Serbian military and government moved to Corfu as they were defeated in the First World War.
During the period between 1912-1915, parallel to expatriation of the Albanians, their land was populated by Serbian colonists: officials, policemen and others. On 20 February, 1914, Serbian government passed the Law-decree on Agrarian Reforms and Colonisation in the occupied regions.14 The minister of Economy and Forestry formed respective bodies for colonisation. That decree was in effect until 1919.
In the period between 1912-1915, Serbian government colonised the Albanian regions; they took the houses of the Albanians that had been resettled by force; then new colonies were erected, such as the village-colony Tankosic, in the territory of the villages Sllatina, Mirosala, etc. They changed the names of settlements: the town of Ferizaj was named Urosevac (1914). Montenegro acted in a similar way in Dukagjin. The government of Montenegro formed a committee (November, 1912), that was authorised to recognise the ownership of the property to the Albanians only in cases they had papers of more than fifty years ago, verified by the Register (Defterhane) in Istanbul; otherwise their real estate was ordered to get registered as state ownership. The committee was obliged to fix 55,000 acres of land to 5,000 Montenegrins for their colonisation in Dukagjin, by December 1913. On 27 February, 1914, the government passed a law on colonisation of the land ‘annexed' to Montenegro, which was in effect until 1915, when Montenegro was destroyed.
After the end of the First World War and the creation of the Serbian-Croatian-Slovenian Kingdom (SCSK), forceful colonisation in the Albanian land continued. On 25 February, 1919, the government of SCSK passed the Decree ‘Preliminary Regulations on Settlement of Agrarian Relations'15 which was in effect until 1931, when ‘the Law on Agrarian Reform and Colonisation' was passed. This law intended the colonisation of Kosova, expropriation of the Albanians' ownership, ethnic cleansing, forceful emigration and serbianisation of the Albanian regions.
Various genocidal measures were used for the expulsion of the Albanians. In the period between 1913-1939, ‘flying detachments' of military and policemen acted to punish and massacre the population. From 1918 to 1938, the military burned and destroyed 320 villages with Albanian population. Only between 1918-1921, it killed 12,346 persons, put 22,160 people into prison, plundered 50,515 houses and burned down 6,125 houses.16 These facts and others prove of expropriation, plundering the Albanians and expatriating them from their land, on the basis of discriminating laws and a continuous campaign for their extermination.
Expulsion of Albanians (1912-1941)
The forceful expulsion of the Albanians from Kosova, the Sanjac and Macedonia began during the First Balkan War (October, 1912). According to the documents of Serbian diplomacy, 239,807 people were expatriated until March 1914, without accounting the children up to six years old. Albanian families from Kosova, Sanjak and Macedonia were deported through Cavalo of Greece and by the land road to Turkey. This forceful emigration continued. According to the evidence on this matter, the number of the expatriated people amounted to 281,747, without accounting the children up to six years old, till August 1914.17
In the property of the expatriated families, the government of the Serbian Kingdom settled more than 20,000 Serbian families, and Montenegro planned to colonise 5,000 families.18
The emigration caused by violence continued also after the end of the First World War and to the Second World War. According to the evidence of Serbian diplomacy, it was a mass forceful expatriation of the Albanians without the right to return, as the following table can show:
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Year = Persons--------------Year = Persons
1919 = 23500 --------------- 1930 = 13215
1920 = 8532 --------------- 1931 = 29807
1921 = 24532 --------------- 1932 = 6219
1922 = 12307 --------------- 1933 = 3420
1923 = 6389 --------------- 1934 = 4500
1924 = 9630 --------------- 1935 = 9567
1925 = 4315 ----------------1936 = 4252
1926 = 4012 --------------- 1937 = 4234
1927 = 5197 --------------- 1938 = 7251
1928 = 4326 --------------- 1939 = 7255
1929 = 6219 --------------- 1940 = 6729
Albanians: 215,412
Turks: 27,884
Bosnians from Sanjak: 2,582
Total: 255,878
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A number of Albanians from Kosova emigrated forcefully to the territory of reduced Albania of 1912. According to military documents of the Yugoslav Kingdom, from the Albanian territories that Serbia occupied, 4,046 Albanian families from Kosova, Macedonia, Sanjac and Montenegro, emigrated to Albania between 1919-1938. The Albanian government settled those families in the environs of Shkodra, Durrës, Kruja, Kavaja, Berat, Saranda, Koplik, Lushnja, Fier, Tirana, Leskovik and Kukës.20 Besides Turkey and Albania, the Albanians had to emigrate forcefully to other countries of Europe and the world too. In this way the Albanian Diaspora was formed in Europe and America.
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