Comments for Kosovo PM attends European Summit at http://www.newkosovareport.com , comment 1 to 1 out of 1 comments http://www.newkosovareport.com Fri, 09 Jan 2009 05:27:10 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.2 http://www.newkosovareport.com/200807071026/Politics/Kosovo-PM-attends-European-Summit.html#comment-1907 There are long-standing ties between Dubrovnik and Kosovo, and lots of Albanians resided there: the state archives of Ragusa show that Gjon Kastriot, Skanderbeg's father whose principality extended from the mouth of the Ishem River up to Prizren, in the south of Kosova, had granted Ragusa a trade privilege from "his coastal lands up to Prizren" in 1420. A new class of merchants emerged under his rule, while a number of Albanian merchants from Ragusa also resided in Kosova. Some of the Northern Albanians who fled Ottoman persecution in 1690, after the battle of Kaçanik, settled in Croatia around Karlovac and in recently liberated southern Hungary, where the Austrian government used them to implement its policy of military colonization; these "Klementiner" [Këlmendi], as they are called in the Austrian records, found themselves in close contact with the Serbs who had also settled in the Militärgrenze. They would preserve their traditions and language until 1910, when they adopted the surrounding language, generally identifying with the Croats on account of their Catholic allegiance. Those who then resided in Voivodina were ethnically cleansed by Šešelj's gang in 1992 . One of the greatest historians of northern Albanians was the outstanding Croat Milan Šufflay, who was murdered by Serb pseudo-nationalists in February 1931 lest he provided more evidence of how little genuine historical claims the Serbian state actually has on Kosovo. And of course Rahim Ademi and Agim Çeku were senior officers in the Croatian army even when the Croatian leadership had less understanding of the essential solidarity between the victims of Serbian aggression and less consideration for the Constitutional rights of other nations than President Mesić now expresses. It would be nice if the Croats who left in 1999 could return to Janjeva. - Sebaneau Mon, 07 Jul 2008 21:56:40 +0100