- published: 21 Jul 2015
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Kosovo Polje, literally Blackbird's Field, also often rendered Field of Blackbirds (Serbo-Croatian: Kosovo Polje, Косово Поље; Albanian: Fushë Kosovë or Fushë Kosova) is a town and municipality in the Pristina district of central Kosovo, at 42.63° North, 21.12° East, or approximately eight kilometres south-west of Pristina. In 2011 the Fushë Kosovë Municipality had a total population of 34,718.
Kosovo Polje is the nearest town to the site of the Battle of Kosovo of 1389. In April 1987 it became the scene of a famous incident when Slobodan Milošević–at the time chairman of the League of Communists of Serbia–was sent to Kosovo Polje's Hall of Culture (town hall) to calm a crowd of angry Serbs protesting at what they saw as anti-Serb discrimination by the Albanian-dominated Kosovo administration. When Serb citizens complained they had been beaten by Albanian police, he told them that "No one has the right to beat you.... No one will beat you ever." The incident earned Milošević the support of Serbian people, propelling him to the presidency of Serbia two years later.
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.