Albania–Kosovo border

Drawn in London

In 1865 the Ottomans organised the Albanian lands into the provinces of Scutari, Kosovo, Monastir and Yanina, which later became the core of Albanian nationalist claims. In the First Balkan War of 1912 the armies of Montenegro, Serbia and Greece fought across them, and Austria persuaded the great powers to accept an autonomous Albania instead of a partition.^[1]

The Conference of Ambassadors in London agreed Albania’s frontiers in 1913, and a commission worked on the northern line until June 1914. On this stretch it runs along ridges and across the White Drin, dividing the Jakova (Gjakova) district so that the town and valley went to Serbia and the mountain villages to Albania. The Conference of Ambassadors confirmed the line in 1921, and it was marked with pillars from 1922 to 1925.^[1]

War and exodus

When the Axis powers broke up Yugoslavia in 1941, Kosovo was joined to Italian-controlled Albania; after the war Tito’s government restored the old frontier.^[1] In 1971 the US Geographer noted that about 800,000 Albanians lived near the border, especially in Kosovo, but that there were no active disputes over the line.^[1]

During the Kosovo war in 1999, refugees crossed into Albania at Morini. By late May, UNHCR counted 440,000 refugees in Albania: more than 81,000 in tented camps, about 73,000 in public buildings, and more than a quarter of a million with host families. Many were moved on from camps at Kukës to the south.^[2]

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia on 17 February 2008. The United States and most EU countries recognise it; Serbia, Russia and a number of others, including several EU members, do not.^[3]