THE FIGHT FOR THE PRESERVATION OF SERBS IN KOSOVO AND METOHIJA (1897-1899)

Abstract

The events that marked the last two decades of the 19th century clearly showed all the weaknesses of the Ottoman policy in Kosovo and Metohija. The roots of anarchy were so deep that any major inter-Arbanian conflict threatened to fundamentally destroy the system of Turkish administration in this part of the Turkish Empire. The main victim in those dangerous and difficult times was the Serbian people, whom the Turkish authorities and Arbanasi viewed with distrust and sometimes hatred. Attributing to the Serbs the responsibility for the outbreak of the Eastern Crisis (1875-1878) in which the Ottoman Empire suffered significant territorial losses, as well as for the imposition of reforms, Arbanasi viewed the Serbian people as a constant source of instability, which led to foreign interference in the internal affairs of Turkey and could threaten their privileged a position that they tried to preserve at all costs. In the moments of political crises that occasionally shook the Ottoman Empire, systematic terror was carried out against the Serbian population in Kosovo and Metohija, which had genocidal intentions at its roots. The unreliable Serbian population had to be either displaced or destroyed, and in this context, the interests of the Arbanians completely coincided with the state interests of the Ottoman Empire.