comment: >
  
  To a Brit, the situation as you've described in Kosovo sounds kind of like Northern Ireland (apologies if that sounds ignorantly Anglo-centric). Eg a region settled by two different ethnicities, with different religions, who want to belong to different states. Is there any equivalent to the Good Friday Agreement in place?
context: Can someone summarize what is the situation in Kosovo? The article more or less describes how the “match was lit”, but I don’t really understand how or why Serbs and Albanians hate each other. >
  
  
  Albanians settled the area during the Ottoman empire and over time became slim majority of population. This was all before individual countries had their own national identity. People were still living sort of tribal mentality. There were no borders and such. Albanians came because of pastures at higher altitude where their sheep could graze.  
  During First Balkan War: Kingdom of Serbia occupies the land as their own "historic inheritance" and kill lot of Albanians. But they lose it shorty after. 
  After WW1: Austro-Hungary is destroyed and Serbia manages to expand its territory to cover Kosovo, Vojvodina and Montenegro. This is the height of their expansion. Serbs are like: "Oh boy! Here I go killing again." and murder a whole lot more Albanians. 
  First Yugoslavia is formed and Serbia manages to impose dictatorship on all countries being part of it. Kosovo is not mentioned individually. Instead, King Alexander proclaimed it as "part of Serbian land of old". 
  After WW2: Second Yugoslavia is formed as federation of independent nations. Tito says something like: "You Serbs are nothing but trouble. Best we try to keep you away from causing ethnic tensions." Kosovo is granted status of "autonomous province" and its borders are formally established. With later changes in the constitution Kosovo was de facto a republic with its own institutions and Albanian as official language. 
  
  
  Yugoslavia breaks up. All former republics decide to push for independence. Serbs decide this is right time to attempt another genocide, only this time they could take all of Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia as well. On Kosovo they impose their own rule as part of Serbia. Running mock elections, firing Albanians from government institutions, erasing their language and culture from school curriculum, etc. 
  
  
  
  
  Genocide 2: Electric Boogaloo. So Serbs are going at it for almost a decade. They didn't manage to subjugate any of the other republics. But in late 90's they start doing a series of massacres against Albanians as sort of final push for "Greater Serbia". NATO held a conference and finally decided that only way to make them stop is to bomb them back into stone age which put final nail in the coffin of their ambition to become another empire.   
  
  
  Early 2000's: The problem is what to do with Kosovo? They are almost their own country and have a long history of fighting for independence ever since the Ottomans. It's not possible to integrate them back to Albania proper. So international community decides to recognize Kosovo as independent. 
  Now: Serbs in Kosovo are still fighting against this. They want their own documents and car plates issued by Serbia as sort of gesture of civil disobedience. And they want free pass through border without any controls. But in current political climate it is just a denial of reality. Kosovo treated them as small children and allowed them a sort of leniency with this (because they didn't want to provoke them). But now, with Western countries being involved with war in Ukraine, Serbs are emboldened to try and stir more trouble. They started with blocking the roads and firebombing government offices, but it might escalate further.