Preševo Valley

The Preševo Valley Albanian: "Lugina e Preshevës") (Serbian: Прешевска Долина or "Preševska Dolina"; is a geographical region in the south of Central Serbia. Roughly, the region include municipalities of Bujanovac and Preševo. Both municipalities border Kosovo.

Geography

Geographically, the Preševo Valley refers to the valley of the Moravica River, from its confluence with the Južna Morava at Bujanovac, to its source near the town of Preševo, Medvedja. It is part of the Morava/Vardar North-South route across the Balkans, which follows the Velika Morava, Južna Morava and Moravica Rivers upstream through Serbia from the confluence of the Velika Morava with the Danube (when travelling South), before joining a tributary of the Vardar River south of Preševo, following it downstream through Macedonia and Greece to the Aegean Sea. This route is the most important communications route north-south across the Balkan peninsula as the two rivers form a fairly direct route from Central Europe to the Aegean, while the rest of the Balkan peninsula is mountainous. The importance of this route to the Serbian state has increased since 1999, when the main alternative route, through Priština, became unusable due to events in Kosovo.

Demographics

Both municipalities of the Valley have ethnic Albanian majorities, while the municipality of Bujanovac also has a large ethnic Serb population. The largest settlements in the valley are towns of Preševo (with Albanian majority) ,Bujanovac (with Albanian majority) and Medvedja (with Serb majority).

History

Preševo Valley conflict

In 2001, as a follow-up to the Kosovo crisis, there were reported clashes between Yugoslav security forces and ethnic Albanian guerillas linked to the KLA. The aim of the movement (according to Serbian sources) was to take full control of Preševo, Bujanovac and Medveđa and hold them until such time as the adjacent lands, Kosovo and Western Macedonia, also came under Albanian control. This should have been followed by the gradual opening of the borders. Lacking the attention of the international media, the incidents paused as the activities spread south of the border into Macedonia from where the twin organization ONA, waged a war against Macedonian authorities.

Local Albanians however explain this conflict as a mean to get their human rights. This conflict ended when the Declaration for Demilitarization was signed by the leaders of the Movement, after the regime set an agreement for amnesty and promised to include the local inhabitants into police and other spheres of social and institutional life.

In September 2007, Boris Tadić stated that former and current terrorists, who recently managed to escape from prison in Kosovo, were located in northern regions of the Republic of Macedonia. According to Tadić, terrorists are planning new attacks on municipalities in southern Serbia in order to start a new Preševo Valley conflict. [ [http://www.makfax.com.mk/look/novina/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=2&NrArticle=84643&NrIssue=464&NrSection=20 Tadic says terrorists undergo training in northern Macedonia] ] However, most of the terrorists were either captured or killed in a Macedonian police operation, Operation Mountain Storm.

Politics

The Albanians of the area are represented politically by the Albanian Coalition from Preševo Valley, which won one seat in the 2007 Parliamentary election.

ee also

*Geography of Serbia
*Preševo Valley conflict
*Albanians in Central Serbia

References