Rajko Cerović: How the Kosovo Myth Was Used to Distort History
Whenever we talk about the importation of myths, we must, of course, first remember the Kosovo myth, which led us astray. Instead of having our own historical perspective, we became trapped in this myth. For generations, we were unable to think for ourselves. For generations, we knew almost nothing about our own history. We knew only about Kosovo.
Old people used to say, “This or that never existed from Kosovo onwards.” In other words, Kosovo was, in a sense, presented to our people as the beginning of civilization, as if nothing had existed before it. As if the only things that had lived on this soil were single-celled organisms, amoebas and flagellates. Nothing Greek, nothing from the Roman Empire, which existed here as well, and so on. As if we supposedly came into existence only after the Battle of Kosovo.
What is most disturbing is that the school system did not challenge this myth. On the contrary, it reinforced it. Our textbooks were either written in Belgrade or written here under the supervision and approval of reviewers from Belgrade. The school system never challenged what Serbia had long wanted and dreamed of: to annex Montenegro, declare it part of its own territory, and expand its political power and historical narrative. What was presented as so-called scholarship never, at any point, seriously challenged that narrative.
I warmly welcome the election of Justina Shiroka-Pula as President of the Republic of Kosovo.
I look forward to working closely with her and to further strengthening the friendship and cooperation between France and Kosovo.
I wish President Shiroka-Pula a successful and fruitful mandate.
#franceaukosovo
Fituesit kryesore sonte jane protestuesit qe nuk u dorezuan tash e disa jave, derisa detyruan pushtetin te miratoje ndryshimet ne Ligjin per Dhomat e Specializuara.
Faleminderit… veterane, ushtare.. per here te dyte!!!
UÇK!
per krejt juve qe keni dal, qe nuk jeni ndiku prej propagandave e prej njerezve qe thojshin se jane protesta koti, e juve qe nuk jeni ndiku as prej atyre qe kane perqesh njerezit qe dilshin…ju dua shume🤍
kur ekziston vullneti te populli, nuk ka kurgjo te pamundur!🤍
BREAKING
Justina Shiroka Pula, 73, has been elected President of the Republic of Kosovo.
She previously served as President of the Kosovo Academy of Sciences and Arts, Minister of Energy and Mining, and Member of Parliament.
Every day, we document the genocide that Serbia committed against the Albanians in Kosovo.
- Today, I want to share a short documentary, a harrowing testimony from a member of the Deliu family, who survived the horrors and recounts the brutal murders of his relatives by Serbian forces, simply because they were Albanian. The witness reveals that there are 20 victims from the Deliu family, among them four who were slaughtered in the most horrific manner. Adem Deliu and Zeqir Deliu were executed, while two young girls, 14 year old Antigona Deliu and 16 year old Mihane Deliu, were reportedly raped and then brutally murdered.
The witness struggles to describe the atrocities, stating that their eyes were gouged out, and they were slashed in the throat and back.
- Another survivor, the son of this family, speaks of his aunt and her two young daughters, 5 yr old Gentiana and 7 yr old Donjeta, who were also massacred. He recounts the fate of his father: “They burned my father alive in our home.” He continues, “We are on our land. They killed my father inside our house. My entire family was murdered. I would have preferred to die too. This is our land…”
A whole family extinguished. Children killed. Parents murdered. People burned alive in their homes. Innocent lives massacred simply for being Albanian, and yet no one is held accountable for these crimes. Serbian criminals must be tried and punished for their crimes. For all the Albanian victims of the war in Kosovo.
WE DEMAND JUSTICE! DENOUNCE THE SERBIAN CRIMINALS.
#DeliuFamily #DeliuMassacre #Kosovowar #SerbiasWarcrimes
@albinkurti@andinhoti@hceku@albulenahaxhiu_@VjosaOsmaniPRKS@USEmbPristina@USAmbNATO@GermanAmbKOS@martakoseu@hcssnl@kajakallas@EP_President@eucopresident@vonderleyen@SecRubio@SecGenNATO@realDonaldTrump@potus@AndrejPlenkovic@GermanyDiplo@ukinkosovo@bueti@eu_commission@UNHumanRights@EUKosovo@eulex@bbc@dorispack2@aliciakearns@danielserwer@nytimes
👇💔
Thousands of people gathered in Prishtina in a march against the Hague convictions of four former senior Kosovo Liberation Army leaders, demanding justice and denouncing what protesters described as unfair treatment by the Kosovo Specialist Chambers.
https://t.co/NJfIon71aj
Kosovo PM Kurti:
We must defend the KLA leaders as a state and as a society, but also jointly with Albania, because Serbia did not commit genocide simply because we are from Kosovo, but because we are Albanians.
This is extremely important but we cannot afford to make mistakes.
THE KOSOVO SPECIALIST CHAMBERS WERE BUILT TO DELIVER JUSTICE.
NOT TO IMPOSE A NEW INJUSTICE ON KOSOVO.
They sit in The Hague. That seat does not place them above the law.
Justice cannot mean secrecy, delayed disclosure, untested evidence, or a court that answers only to itself. This is no longer a Kosovo quarrel. It is a European failure of accountability.
The Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales, in a review commissioned by Kosovo’s Ombudsperson, found a court that looks sound on paper and troubled in practice: prolonged detention, an exclusively international bench, a President with wide power to shape panels, untested and externally sourced evidence, inequality of arms, and no real external accountability. BHRC said these concerns demand independent examination.
IPDV has now put 1,375 procedural and evidentiary findings on the record: documented concerns, Defence objections, late disclosure, contested admissibility, questionable provenance. A tribunal that refuses to face a register of that scale is not defending independence. It is defending itself from scrutiny.
Who is accountable when safeguards collapse?
Who answers when evidence and disclosure are challenged?
Who measures the cumulative damage to the fairness of the trial?
Criminal responsibility is individual, or it is not justice. Rank or membership in the KLA may be evidence. It cannot replace proof of each accused person’s act, knowledge and intent. The KLA is not in the dock. Kosovo’s liberation war is not in the dock. The democracies that acted in 1999 are not in the dock.
No court that lectures others on justice may place itself above scrutiny.
We demand transparency.
We demand independent scrutiny.
We demand answers.
JUSTICE MUST BIND THE COURT ITSELF.
@vonderleyen@IntlCrimCourt@UN@UNHumanRights@coe@PACE_News@EU_Commission@kajakallas@Europarl_EN@RobertaMetsola@ECHR_CEDH@OSCE@EU_EEAS@StateDept@SecGenNATO@albinkurti@ediramaal@JashanicaVlora@Dhomat_e_Spec@SpecialChambers
🇽🇰 Protesters gathered in Prishtina for the 13th consecutive night in support of former Kosovo Liberation Army leaders.
They are demanding that Parliament vote on amendments to abolish the Law on the Specialist Chambers, which found former KLA leaders guilty.
18 years after Ireland was amongst the first states to recognize Kosovo’s independence, proud to see our flags fly side by side as our footballers face each other for the first time in Pristina. Whatever the result, a moment to consolidate 🇮🇪 - 🇽🇰 friendship.
Congratulations Kosovo on a well-deserved win tonight against our boys in green. A proud nation, a fine team, & fantastic fans. Thanks also for the welcome afforded our own brilliant supporters - which we hope to match in the return fixture in Dublin in November.