50 Fun Facts About Kosovo

Some Kosovo Albanian parents named their baby boys after which British prime minister?

Tony Blair: he strongly backed the 1999 military campaign that drove out Serbian forces, and some boys born afterwards were named Tonibler in his honour.

Which four countries border Kosovo?

Albania, Montenegro, Serbia and North Macedonia: in 1999, Yugoslav forces drove hundreds of thousands of Kosovo Albanians over the borders into Albania and Macedonia.

Which of these EU countries has never recognised Kosovo's 2008 declaration of independence?

Spain: its refusal is widely linked to its own separatist movements, notably in Catalonia and the Basque Country.

What does the name Kosovo mean in Serbian?

Blackbird Field: the name first meant only the eastern plain, so in Serbian the whole territory is called Kosovo and Metohija, adding the western plain.

Which ancient Illyrian people formed a kingdom in the territory of Kosovo?

The Dardani: the geographer Strabo called them so wild that they lived in caves dug beneath dung heaps, yet said they always cared for music.

Which religion do most people in Kosovo follow?

Islam: yet Kosovo's education ministry banned headscarves in its public schools in 2009, a move that stirred controversy.

Which empire ruled Kosovo until the Balkan Wars of 1912?

The Ottoman Empire: its defeat in the First Balkan War passed most of Kosovo to Serbia, which lost it again within three years during the First World War.

Which 1878 Albanian political organisation took its name from a Kosovo city?

The League of Prizren: when the Congress of Berlin handed Albanian-inhabited districts to Montenegro, the League took up arms to block the transfer.

In 1941, most of Kosovo was attached to Albania under the control of which Axis power?

Italy: under its rule, Kosovar Albanians drove out or killed thousands of the Serb settlers who had arrived between the wars.

What is unusual about the national anthem that Kosovo adopted in 2008?

It has no official lyrics: the tune was chosen so that no community is favoured over another.

Which Serbian leader drastically reduced Kosovo's autonomy in 1989?

Slobodan Milosevic: Albanian officials were replaced and Albanian-language schools closed, so Kosovo Albanians built parallel schools and a shadow government.

Who was elected president of the self-proclaimed Republic of Kosova in May 1992?

Ibrahim Rugova: he led nonviolent resistance to Serbian rule, and was elected president again in 2002, serving until his death in 2006.

Which ethnic Albanian guerrilla group began attacking Serbian police stations in 1996?

The Kosovo Liberation Army: by 1999 it had eclipsed the peaceful resistance movement, and its leader Hashim Thaçi headed the Kosovar delegation at the peace talks in France.

Which American diplomat tried to negotiate a Kosovo ceasefire in 1998?

Richard Holbrooke: his shuttle diplomacy produced a truce that broke down by the end of 1998, and the fighting ended only after NATO's bombing campaign.

How long did NATO's 1999 bombing campaign against Yugoslavia last?

About 11 weeks: the strikes eventually spread across Serbia, damaging bridges, factories and power plants.

In the 1990s, folklorist Anton Çetta led a campaign among Kosovo Albanians to end which tradition?

Blood feuds: his campaign reconciled feuding families, though the practice resurfaced amid the instability after the 1998–99 war.

What is the name of the large US military base established in Kosovo near Urosevac in 1999?

Camp Bondsteel: after visiting in 2002, the Council of Europe's human rights commissioner said its prisoners' conditions recalled Guantanamo.

Which UN special envoy proposed supervised independence for Kosovo in 2007?

Martti Ahtisaari: Kosovo's Albanians backed his plan while Serbia opposed it, and in 2008 he won the Nobel Peace Prize.

In 2010, what did the world court conclude about Kosovo's declaration of independence?

It did not violate international law: yet it was Serbia that had drafted the UN General Assembly resolution asking for the court's opinion.

In 2022, a crisis erupted in northern Kosovo when Serbs were told to replace which Serbian-issued items?

Car number plates: in protest, hundreds of Serb police officers and other officials resigned from Kosovo's institutions in November 2022.

Which river divides the Kosovo city of Mitrovica?

The Ibar: the March 2004 riots, the worst clashes between Serbs and Albanians since the war, began in the divided town.

In 2018, Kosovo's parliament voted to turn the Kosovo Security Force into what?

A national army: the US backed the move, but Serbia objected and NATO warned that it was ill-timed.

What is Kosovo's official currency?

The euro: it replaced the German mark, which the UN made official in 1999 because people already used it instead of the discredited Yugoslav dinar.

What do the six stars on Kosovo's flag represent?

Six major ethnic groups: yet many Albanians and Serbs in Kosovo have kept on flying the flags of Albania and Serbia instead.

Besides the stars, what appears on the blue field of the national flag?

The design by Muhamer Ibrahimi won a competition with almost a thousand entries.

What single English word forms the typographic monument unveiled in the capital on independence day 2008?

Newborn: an ad agency designed and installed it in just ten days, and its letters have been repainted for later independence anniversaries.

Which former US president has an 11-foot statue on a boulevard in Kosovo's capital named after him?

Bill Clinton: many Kosovo Albanians regard him as a hero for launching NATO's 1999 bombing campaign, and he attended the unveiling in 2009.

What did Serbia send towards Kosovo in 2017 bearing the words 'Kosovo is Serbia'?

A train: Serbia's prime minister halted it just short of the border after Kosovo deployed special police, and Serbia's president said the two had been on the verge of clashes.

Which mountain range dominates Kosovo's western edge?

The Accursed Mountains: these borderlands were sealed for decades, but a long-distance hiking trail now loops through three countries here.

Which mountain range runs along Kosovo's southern border with North Macedonia?

The Sar Mountains: their Brezovica ski resort was a back-up venue for the 1984 Sarajevo Olympics, but ownership disputes since the war have stalled it.

What is the longest river in Kosovo?

It flows 122 km within Kosovo; the Sitnica is the largest river lying entirely inside the country.

Which fuel does Kosovo have in huge reserves and rely on for most of its electricity?

Lignite coal: Kosovo is now trying to phase out its ageing lignite power plants, adding wind farms such as Bajgora and Kitka.

Rahovec is the heartland of which Kosovo industry?

Winemaking: the industry collapsed as Yugoslavia broke apart and war destroyed much of it in the 1990s, before privatised wineries revived production.

What ancient instrument, thought to be at least 8,000 years old, was found in the village of Runik?

It is one of the oldest ocarinas ever found in Europe.

Which two-stringed instrument characterises Albanian folk music in Kosovo?

Epic poetry is sung to the cifteli or the lahute; Serbs use the gusle.

Which Kosovo-born pop star topped the UK chart with DJ Fresh's Hot Right Now in 2012?

Rita Ora: in 2015 Kosovo's president named her an honorary ambassador, calling her the country's most successful artist.

Where was Dua Lipa, the daughter of Kosovo Albanian parents, born?

London: her family later moved back to Kosovo, but at 15 she moved back to London alone.

Kosovo-born singer Era Istrefi joined Will Smith and Nicky Jam on the official song for which 2018 event?

The FIFA World Cup: many listeners panned their song, Live It Up, saying its Latin dance sound had nothing to do with host nation Russia.

Pristina's National Library, once ranked among the world's ugliest buildings, is wrapped in metal mesh and topped with 99 what?

Domes: they let natural light pour into the halls below, while the metal mesh outside works as a sunshade.

Which judoka won Kosovo's first Olympic gold medal, in the 52 kg category in Rio?

Majlinda Kelmendi: at London 2012 the IOC refused to let her compete for Kosovo or as an independent, so she fought for Albania.

Which Serbian Orthodox monastery in Kosovo contains the largest medieval church in the Balkans?

Visoki Decani: its monks sheltered refugees of all ethnicities during the 1998–99 war, yet the monastery has been attacked with grenades since.

Pristina's Roman Catholic cathedral, consecrated in 2017, is dedicated to which saint?

St Teresa of Calcutta: it was on a 1928 pilgrimage to the Black Madonna shrine at Letnica in Kosovo that she settled on a missionary life.

Which minority language has official status in Prizren, Kosovo's historical capital, regardless of speaker numbers?

Turkish: Yugoslavia's 1974 constitution made it official across Kosovo, but today it holds that rank in just two municipalities.

What was Kosovo's population at the 2024 census?

About 1.6 million: the population has shrunk considerably since the 2011 census, as births fell and many young people emigrated.

In January 2024, what did Kosovo finally gain from the European Union?

Visa-free travel: Kosovo was the last Western Balkan country to get it, after some EU member states held up approval for years.

Pristina's Neolithic symbol, the figurine Goddess on the Throne, was returned to Kosovo in 2002 from which city?

Belgrade: Serbia had borrowed it for an exhibition, and more than 1,200 other artefacts from Kosovo's museum are still held there.

In 2015, Kosovo fell just three votes short of joining which international organisation?

UNESCO: Serbia lobbied hard against the bid, and its president hailed the narrow result as a victory.

Which US festival did the Kosovo film Hive sweep in 2021, winning its world drama jury, audience and directing prizes?

Sundance: the film is based on the true story of a war widow who defied her village's men by starting a food business with other women.

Under Yugoslavia's 1974 constitution, which other province shared Kosovo's greatly expanded autonomy?

Vojvodina: the provinces gained so much power that both became republics in all but name, with their own seats in Yugoslavia's presidency.

In a 2016 deal with Serbia, what did Kosovo secure from the International Telecommunication Union?

Its own dialling code: lacking one, its mobile networks had borrowed the codes of Monaco and Slovenia, while landlines still used Serbia's.