Introduction: The central Balkans were part of the Roman and Byzantine Empires before ethnic Serbs migrated to the territories of modern Kosovo in the 7th century. During the medieval period, Kosovo became the center of a Serbian Empire and saw the construction of many important Serb religious sites, including many architecturally significant Serbian Orthodox monasteries. The defeat of Serbian forces at the Battle of Kosovo in 1389 led to five centuries of Ottoman rule during which large numbers of Turks and Albanians moved to Kosovo. By the end of the 19th century, Albanians replaced the Serbs as the dominant ethnic group in Kosovo. Serbia reacquired...

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Status Process: Former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari was appointed on 20 February 2006 as UN Special Envoy for Kosovo to oversee Kosovo's status process. He facilitated talks between negotiating teams from Belgrade and Priština; while some agreement on technical issues was reached, the parties remained diametrically opposed on the issue of status. Ahtisaari presented his final report to the UN Secretary-General on 26 March 2007. The report found that further talks would be unproductive and that the only viable option for Kosovo was 'managed independence,' with an initial period of supervision by the international community. The report concluded that ...

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