THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE REPUBLIC OF ALBANIA INSTITUTE OF HISTORY THE TRUTH ON KOSOVA ENCYCLOPAEDIA PUBLISHING HOUSE TIRANA 1993EDITORIAL STAFF: _Kristag PRIFTI - Lefter NASI - Luan OMARI - Pellumb XHUFI - Selami PULAHA - Stefanaq POLLO - Zamir SHTYLLA “ THE TRUTH ON KOSOVA “ FIRST EDITION January 1993 ENCYCLOPAEDIA PUBLISHING HOUSE Rruga Mohamet Gjollesha - TIRANA (ALBANIA ) Ph, +355.42.28064 - 27232 - 26158 Phototyped & Printed in TIRANA by TEKNOTRADE LTD. Ph. +355.42,23932FOREWORD ‘This book, which is presented to scholars and public opinion, is a collection of scientific articles by Albanian and foreign authors, accompanied with a series of documents from archives of Albania and other countries. While not claiming to give a comprehensive history of Kosova and the Albanian population in Yugoslavia from Antiquity to the present day, the editorial staff hhas included in the present book studies and documents which treat some of the more important problems of the history of the Albanian population in Yugoslavia. The wealth of facts and sources is used to shed light on those aspects of the past and present of Kosova and the ‘Albanian population, those which for a long time and especially during the last & years the ‘Yugoslav historiography and propaganda have been presenting in a completely distorted manner and in open contradiction withthe truth. Such distortions pervade the book published recently in Yugoslavia under the title Kosovo - Past and Present (Belgrade 1989), which was prepared by Miedunarodna Politika. ‘A good part of the book The Truth on Kosova is comprised of scientific articles written by specialists of the Republic of Albania especially for this publication. Besides these, there are also articles by Albanian authors from Kosova and scholars from other countries, previously published in different scientific journals. Most of them are reprinted in full. While from the studies which deal with a wide range of problems only those sections or excerpts which are relevant to this book have been taken. Apart from documents and materials from the press, the volume contains 33 scientific articles. As a rule, the documents have been published in full. ‘This volume appeared in Albanian in 1989, Some changes have been made in the English version. ‘The contents have been arranged according to problems and chronological order. The documents generally retain their original titles. At the end of each article the source from which it was taken is recorded. ‘The studies and documents included in this volume are the result of careful research into the local and foreign bibliographies and in various archives, of which, the most important are ‘The Central State Archives of the Republic of Albania - Tirana (CSA of RA); the Central Archives of the Army at the Ministry of Defence of the RA - Tirana (CAA); the Archives of the Institute of History - Tirana (AIH); the Archives of the Council of Ministers - Turkey, Istanbul (Basbakanllik) Arsive (Bb.A.); Haus - Hof und Staatsarchiv. Politisches Archiv - Austria, Vienna (HHSTA, PA); Archives du Ministére des Affaires étrangéres - France, Paris (AMAE); Politisches Archiv des Auswartigen Amtes - FR of Germany, Bonn (PAAA); the Archives of the Foreign Office - England, London (Foreign Office - FO); Diplomatic Archives of the United Secretariat for Foreign Affairs - Yugoslavia, Belgrade (Diplomatski Arhiv Saveznog Sekregariata za Inostrane Poslova - DASSIP); the Archives of the Institute of Military History ~ ‘Yugoslavia, Belgrade (Arhiv Vojno Istorijsko Instituta -.\VID; the Archives of Yugoslavia - Belgrade (Arhiv Jugoslavije - AJ). In the footnotes throughout the text, the names of archives are given in full and subsequently used in their abbreviated form. Besides the editorial staf, Seit Mancaku, Marenglen Verli, Ana Lalaj and Harillag Kekezi helped in preparing this volume. ‘THE EDITORIAL STAFF