The Republic of Kosovo (Albanian: Republika e Kosovës; Serbian: Република Косово, Republika Kosovo) is a partially recognised state and a disputed territory in Southeast Europe. It is a self-declared independent state and has de facto control over most of the territory of Kosovo, while North Kosovo, the largest Kosovo Serb enclave, is under the control of institutions of the Republic of Serbia.Serbia does not recognise the unilateral secession of Kosovo and considers it a UN-governed province within its sovereign territory.

The Republic of Kosovo is landlocked and borders the Republic of Macedonia to the south, Albania to the west and Montenegro to the northwest, all three states recognise Kosovo. The remainder of Kosovo's frontier to the north and east is the subject of controversy and is with the Central Serbian region. The largest city and the capital of Kosovo is Pristina (alternatively spelled Prishtina or Priština), while other cities include Peć (Albanian: Peja), Prizren, Đakovica (Gjakova), and Kosovska Mitrovica (Mitrovica).

Kosovo ( /ˈkɒsəvoʊˌ ˈkoʊsəvoʊ/; Albanian: Kosovë, Kosova; Serbian: Косово or Косово и Метохија or Космет, Kosovo or Kosovo i Metohija or Kosmet) is a region in southeastern Europe. In antiquity, it was known as the independent kingdom, and later Roman province, of Dardania. Part of the medieval Serbia, it was then conquered by the Ottoman Empire, later incorporated into Serbia after the First Balkan War and before the constitution of Yugoslavia, later still it became the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija (Serbian: Autonomna Pokrajina Kosovo i Metohija) within Serbia (Serbia then being one of the constituent republics of Yugoslavia). Long-term severe ethnic tensions between Kosovo's Albanian and Serb populations have left Kosovo ethnically divided, resulting in inter-ethnic violence, including the Kosovo War of 1999. Following the Kosovo War, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) relinquished governance of this territory, whose governance was taken over by the United Nations, Kosovo remained legally the sovereign territory of the FRY after the transfer of authority. The partially recognised Republic of Kosovo (Albanian: Republika e Kosovës; Serbian: Република Косово, Republika Kosovo), a self-declared independent state, has de facto control over most of the territory, while North Kosovo, the largest Kosovo Serb enclave, is under the control of institutions of the Republic of Serbia.Serbia does not recognise the unilateral secession of Kosovo and considers it a UN-governed entity within its sovereign territory.

Atifete Jahjaga (Albanian pronunciation: [ätɪˈfeːtɛ jähˈjɑːɡä]; born 20 April 1975) is the fourth President of Kosovo. She is the first female, the first non-partisan candidate, and the youngest to be elected to the office. She is also the first female head of state in modern Balkans. She served as Deputy Director of the Kosovo Police, holding the rank of General Major, the highest among women in Southeastern Europe.

Jahjaga was born in Đakovica where she attended primary and secondary school. She graduated from the University of Pristina Faculty of Law in 2000. In 2006/07, she attended a graduate certificate program in police management and criminal law at the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom. She has also received extensive professional training at the George C. Marshall European Centre for Security Studies in Germany and the FBI National Academy in the United States.

After the Kosovo War, Jahjaga began working as an interpreter for the international police. Later on, she completed training to become an officer and gradually sought promotion to higher ranks, initially to major, then colonel, and finally general major. She was first deployed with the border police and then transferred to the training department.

Arta Dobroshi (Serbo-Croat: Arta Dobroši) is a Kosovar Albanian actress, often cited for her striking presence and ability to breathe authentic life into the roles she plays. She is the first Kosovar actress in history to walk the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival, the Berlin Film Festival and the Sundance Film Festival and be nominated for the European Film Award.

Arta Dobroshi was born in Pristina, SFR Yugoslavia to Kosovo Albanian parents. She has been studying the performing arts since elementary school and attended the Academy of Arts acting and drama course in Pristina, which lasted for four years. She starred in many short films and theatre plays whilst a student there. When Arta was fifteen, she went on a student exchange program to America, where she starred in drama plays. Dobroshi has a strong work ethic, known to rehearse for a role eight hours or more a day.

As a teenager in Kosovo, the odds were stacked against her. After her first year at the academy, the Kosovo war escalated. Dobroshi's grandparents were imprisoned by the Serbian regime because they were trying to open a university in Kosovo. In 1999, Serbian soldiers stormed a bar in Pristina and opened fire. Almost all the customers, including one of Dobroshi's professors at the Pristina Academy of Arts and a good friend of hers, also an actress, were shot dead. Another friend survived with a bullet in her head. During this period, Dobroshi was in Macedonia where she was helping set up a refugee camp for the International Medical Corps, working with people who had been severely traumatized by the war. When Milosevic resigned, she quit her job there, and became a translator for NATO.

Fatmir Sejdiu listen (help·info) (born 23 October 1951) is a politician from Kosovo. He was the leader of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) and was the first President of the Republic of Kosovo.

He was born in the small village of Pakaštica, Podujevo, Yugoslavia (today Kosovo). He finished the primary school and high school in Podujevo. On 1974, he graduated in the Faculty of Law of the University of Pristina where he also doctorated. He served as a professor at the University of Pristina, teaching throughout his tenure as a Parliamentarian. He speaks Albanian, English, Serbian, and French.

Sejdiu was an early protester against Serbian authoritarian rule and had for many years in his academic office a portrait depicting himself and fellow political party leader Veton Surroi locking arms before the riot police. He has always been widely admired for being honest and fair in all his political dealings.

Due to persisting conflicts between the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and the security forces of Yugoslavia under Serbian President Slobodan Milošević, the Kosovo War broke out in 1996 between the two factions. Accusations of widespread abuse by government forces towards ethnic Albanians in 1999 ignited the second part of the war in which NATO forces intervened and unleashed a bombing campaign against President Milošević. The war ended in mid-1999, and Kosovo was placed under a UN Protectorate of autonomy where Ibrahim Rugova became the president of the territory. President Sejdiu succeeded Rugova and became the first president of the country of Kosovo when Kosovo officially declared independence from Serbia on 17 February 2008.