Serbian residents in thetown of Mitrovica in Ko-sovo last week replaced abarricade on a bridge overRiver Ibar separatingtheir part of the townfrom the Albanian partwith flower pots For ob-servers this symbolic ges-ture was considered apositive sign in the thaw-ing of the frosty relation-ship between Serbs andAlbanians in Kosovo Yetreality is far from that Aweek later tensions havein fact increased betweenthe communities resulting inclashes between Albanians andpolice forces near the place Perhaps historyhas prevailed to rekindle the tensions be-tween these two groups in the region

What exactly is the nature of differencesbetween Albanians and Serbians in KosovoTo answer this question we may have to trav-el several decades back in time when the Bal-kan region where Kosovo is situated was thehub of some of the worst ethnic tensions andclashes in history

Balkans - a short historyThe Balkan region is the part of South-

eastern Europe comprised presently of coun-tries Serbia Montenegro Croatia Bosnia andHerzegovina Macedonia Albania Bulgariaand Greece While today these states havedefined political borders and independencethis wasnrsquot the case until 2008

The Balkan region over the centuries hadbeen ruled by several empires - first the Ro-mans then the Ottomon Turks and finally theHapsburgs of Austria and Hungary The dif-fering rules established a multi-ethnic com-munity of Muslims and Christians in theregion who were further divided based ontheir allegiance to their region or land

In the early 20th century people in theregion belonging to Serbia Bulgaria Macedo-nia Albania and Montenegro united to driveaway foreign occupation from their landsWhile they were successful at this their unitywas hampered with differences in their eth-nicity and nationalistic fervour among indi-vidual groups

In 1929 the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (con-sisting of Serbs Croats and Slovenes) wasformed after WWI However Croats andSlovenes in Yugoslavia were increasingly un-happy and felt that the Serbs exerted toomuch influence over other communitiesThese tensions were rife throughout most ofthe century and in 1991 Slovenia and Croatia

declared inde-pendence from the Fed- eralist SocialistRepublic of Yugoslavia that was formed afterWWII

What about KosovoIn 1912 Albania declared its independence

Later during WWII it was occupied by Ger-many and regained its independence after thewar During the years of war and tensionsbetween Serbia and Croatia in the 1990s Ko-sovo - bordering Albania and occupied pre-dominantly by Albanians - was part of Serbia

As the international community was occu-pied with settling the tussle between Croatiaand Serbia and their claim over Bosnia andHerzegovina Kosovo was silently ignoredand so were its aspirations to unite with Alba-nia

Kosovo at the end of WWII was an impov-erished state teeming with poverty and illiter-acy In the late 1990s the Kosovo Albanianscould take it no more and began exerting theirright for independence from Serbia Serbiatried to quell the unrest claiming that Kosovowas an integral part of their country In 1996tensions arose between the two and in 1998the Kosovo war was fought between Serbiaand Kosovo which saw huge reverses and dis-placed thousands of people (both Albaniansand Serbs) from Kosovo NATOrsquos interven-tion brought a halt to the war in 1999 but bythen the damage was done In the years fol-lowing the war Kosovo became an UN pro-tectorate state during which several stepswere carried out by UN and internationalpowers to determine its fate In 2008 de-clared its independence from Serbia withsome international powers like the US andUK granting recognition to it Serbia howev-er has failed to recognise its independenceand the Serbian community in Kosovo eventoday feel the same

Of barricades andflowerpots Anjana Krishnan

CMYK

TY-TY

THE HINDU IN SCHOOL I THURSDAY I JUNE 26 I 2014

2 METROSCAPE

sets off a chain reaction among Europe-an powers bound by a web of militaryalliances

JULY 31

Austria-Hungary orders a generalmobilisation

AUGUST 1Germany declares a general mobil-

isation immediately followed byFrance Frances Poincare says at thatpoint that mobilisation does not have tomean war But Germanys army chiefshave already obtained a green lightfrom the emperor to go to war and --they hope -- inflict a swift defeat on theirFrench and Russian enemiesAt 700 pm on August 1 Germanydeclares war on Russia

AUGUST 3

Germany declares war on France Ger-man troops invade neutral Belgium

to attack France from the north

AUGUST 4

Britain declares war on Germany inresponse to the Belgian invasion

joining France and Russia in a groupknown as the Allies WORLD WAR I HAS BEGUNAFP

From the assassination of Archduke FranzFerdinand to the German invasion of Belgiumhere are the key moments in the clockwork-likesequence over 37 days in the summer of1914that plunged Europe into World War I

A postcard showing German Emperor and King of Prussia Wilhelm II(right) smiling at his cousin Nicholas II Emperor of Russia PHOTO AFP

37 daysthat led to

ly against Serbia to take advantage ofthe outrage sparked in Europe by thearchdukes assassination

But Vienna chooses to wait until theFrench leaders leave Russia -- tomake it harder for the allies to coor-dinate their response

JULY 23

Austria issues an ultimatum to Serbiadrawn up in deliberately unac-

ceptable terms in order to justify anAustrian attack The news comes as a

many to resolve the crisisThe same day Berlin asks France to

persuade its Russian ally not to inter-vene Paris accepts but on the conditionthat Berlin also agrees to moderateViennas stance -- which Germany re-fuses to do

JULY 28

Austria-Hungary declares war on Ser-bia and bombs Belgrade

JULY 29Germanys Wilhelm II begins a direct

exchange of telegrams with RussiasTsar Nicholas II each pledging to holdback from throwing their armed forcesinto full-out war But the slightly surrealcorrespondence -- in which Willy andNicky address one another as DearCousin -- fails to avert the conflict

JULY 30

Russia orders a general mobilisationin aid of its Serbian ally hoping to

JUNE 28

Archduke Franz Ferdinand heirto the Austro-Hungarian

throne is assassinated by a pro-Serb na-tionalist Gavrilo Princip in SarajevoThe attack makes front-page newsacross Europe as the latest sign oftensions in the restive Balkans But it isnot seen as a wider threat to Europeanpeace especially given Austrias mutedinitial reaction

JULY 5

Germany secretly pledges uncondi-tional support for an Austrian plan

to slap down its Serbian neighbourwhich Vienna accuses of causing the Sa-rajevo attack by fomenting pan-Slavnationalism in the Balkans

The blank cheque from Berlin em-boldens Vienna to take military actionin spite of the threat of retaliation fromBelgrades ally Moscow

JULY 21-22

French President Raymond Poincareand Prime Minister Rene Viviani vis-

it Russia Their long absence from Parisfrom July 15 to 29 -- they travel by sea-- is seen as one explanation for Francesoddly passive role in the July crisis

Germany urges Austria to act swift-

thunderbolt in Europe where public at-tention has already moved on from -- ifnot altogether forgotten -- the Sarajevoattack one month earlier PresidentPoincare still at sea on his way home toFrance writes in his journal of an en-chanting crossing

JULY 25

Serbia accepts nine of the ultima-tums 10 points in the hope of

avoiding war in line with calls for mod-eration by its French and Russian alliesGerman emperor Wilhelm II considersthat Austrias demands have been satis-fied and that there is no longer cause forwar

But the Kaisers views are not imme-diately made known to Vienna whileGerman army chief Helmut von Moltkeencourages his Austrian counterpartConrad bon Hoetzendorf to go to warassuring him of Berlins support

Historians see Von Moltke -- whobelieved in the need for Germany towage a preventive war against Franceand Russia -- as having played a key rolein the outbreak of hostilities

JULY 26-27

Diplomacy finally kicks into action asEuropean capitals scramble to avert

war Britain proposes an internationalconference with France Italy and Ger-

dissuade Vienna from further attacks Itdoes so without consulting its Frenchally -- which at the same time was pull-ing back its troops 10 kilometres with-in its border in a gesture of appeasementtowards Germany The Russian move

when the infantry (soldiers on foot)was holding fort in the Persian campthe Athenians led by Miltiades sur-rounded them from all sides catchingthe Persians unawares

The Persian forces led by Datis andArtaphernes attempted to fight backbut were overpowered and began toflee towards their ships but they hadalready lost over 6000 men

This battle is significant for a num-ber of reasons one of them being thatthis was the first time the Greeks de-feated the mighty Persians showingthem that this could be done

The legend of MarathonHistorical significance aside the

battle is remembered for the run of theAthenian messenger Pheidippides onwhose feat the modern marathon isbased

As per legend he ran from Marathonto Athens covering a distance of 40km to announce the news of the victo-ry before dying of exhaustion

However Greek historian Herodotusrecords a different version of the tale - he was sent from Athens to Spartabefore the battle to seek their assist-ance He is said to have covered about240 km in two days

Defeating Dariusrsquos Persians

More than 65 million men were mobilizedto fight in World War I including thegrandfathers and relatives of many of to-days heads of state and government

David CameronThree members of

British Prime MinisterDavid Camerons ex-tended family werekilled in action InMarch he spoke withpride about his great-great uncle Capt JohnGeddes who served in

the Canadian army and was killed at theBattle of Kitcheners Wood part of the 2ndBattle of Ypres the first time during thewar that the Germans used poison gas

Angela MerkelA photograph that recently surfaced of

one of Merkels grandfathers has ignitedspeculation he might have fought againstGermany alongside fellow Poles and Pol-ish emigres to America serving on theWestern Front But theres been no hardproof Merkel was born Angela Kasner the

Germanized name thather paternal grandfa-ther Ludwig Kaz-mierczak is said byone of her biographersto have adopted in1930 Reporters from aGerman all-news TVstation found docu-ments in western Po-land saying that in 1915 Kazmierczak wasdrafted at age 19 into the Prussian armyBarack Obama

World War I was not only fought in thetrenches of France and Belgium battles ragedin Eastern Europe Turkey the Middle Eastand Africa as well In East Africa Obamaspaternal grandfather was apparently one ofthose whose lives weretransformed as a result The only reference toWorld War I in his book isthat Obamas grandfathermade himself useful to thewhite man and during thewar he was put in charge ofroad crews AP

Family history PEOPLE OF THE PAST

GeneralFransiscoFranco He was the

dictator ofSpain from1939 till hisdeath in1975

His officialtitle was SuExcelenciael Jefe deEstado

His rulewas one of terror where repression was thenorm and concentration camps were set up toexecute enemies

For many years Spanish school students weretaught that he was angel sent to rescue Spainfrom poverty

Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife leaving the cityhall shortly before their assassination PHOTO AFP

During a time of mobilisation for the war The Daily Mirrorshowed French soldiers greeted by women on the front page of thenewspaper PHOTO AFP

Does your city host an annual mara-thon Chances are it does The long-distance running event has becomefirmly entrenched in modern sport

Today many marathons are run toraise funds for charitable causesand to spread raise awarenessabout social issues

However this sport has a lessplacid history with the word itselfcoming from the site of a fierce bat-tle between the Athenians andPersians Fought as part of theGreco-Persian Wars which tookplace between 499 BC and 449 BC itis thought to have taken place in 490BC

How it beganAround this time the

Persian king Darius wasangry Very angry aslegend has it The causefor his anger The interfe-rence of the Atheniansin the Ionian RevoltThe people of Ionia (apart of present dayTurkey) rebelledagainst their Persian rul-

ers and were assisted in their attemptby the Athenians The revolt was sup-pressed but Darius vowed to get hisrevenge The story goes that he evencommanded one of his servants to sayldquoMaster remember the Atheniansrdquo

three times before his dinner ev-ery day

The battleOn hearing of the approach

of the Persian army via thecoastal town of Marathon theAthenians hastily assembledtheir troops and put a system

of rotating commanders inplace with one commander

leading the attack each day Thecommanders were in a quandary

about whether to attack or wait forthe Persians to strike and there wereequal votes for both courses of action

The tie as broken by Callimachuswho decided to attack on a day whenthe Persian cavalry (soldiers on horse-back) was absent

As the Persians had arrived nearMarathon by sea the Athenians firstblocked the two entrances from thesea to prevent them from movinginland

Choosing an opportune moment

The Battle of Marathon fought in 490 BC was legendary for many reasons Kavya Ram Mohan

Serbian soldiers take position on the battle line Some of the firstbattles of World War I were fought between Serbia and Austria-Hungary around the Cer Mountain region PHOTO AP

WARS OF THE WORLD

WORLD WAR I

BACKGROUND CHECK