Preševo

Preševo (Serbian Cyrillic: Прешево, pronounced [prêʃeʋə]; Albanian: Preshevë, Albanian pronunciation: [preʃevə]) is a town and municipality located in the Pčinja District of southern Serbia. As of the 2022 census, the municipality has a population of 33,449 inhabitants. It is the southernmost town in Central Serbia and largest in the geographical region of Preševo Valley.

Preševo is the cultural center of Albanians in Serbia. Albanians form the ethnic majority of the municipality, followed by Serbs, Roma and other ethnic groups.

Slavs arrived roughly in the 7th century, when they first migrated to the Balkans, and by the Middle Ages, Preševo was part of the Kingdom of Serbia. According to Stefan Dušan's charter to the monastery of Arhiljevica dated August 1355, sevastokrator Dejan possessed a large province east of Skopska Crna Gora. It included the old župe (counties) of Žegligovo and Preševo (modern Kumanovo region with Sredorek, Kozjačija and the larger part of Pčinja). As despot under the rule of Uroš V, Dejan was entrusted with the administration of the territory between South Morava, Pčinja, Skopska Crna Gora (hereditary lands) and in the east, the Upper Struma river with Velbuzhd, a province notably larger than during Dušan's life. After the death of Dejan, his province, besides the župe of Žegligovo and Upper Struma, was appropriated to nobleman Vlatko Paskačić. Dejan's eldest son Jovan also received the title of despot, like his father before, by Emperor Uroš. In the new redistribution of feudal power, after 1371, the brothers despot Jovan and gospodin Konstantin greatly expanded their province. Not only did they recreate their father's province but also at least doubled the territory, on all sides, but chiefly towards the south. Ottoman sources report that in 1373, the Ottoman army compelled Jovan (who they called Saruyar) in the upper Struma, to recognize Ottoman vassalage. As Prince Marko had done, also the Dejanović brothers recognized Ottoman sovereignty. Although vassals, they had their own government. In the Wallachian victory at the Battle of Rovine (17 May 1395), both Marko and Konstantin died. The provinces of Marko and Konstantin became Ottoman.

From 1877 to 1913, Preševo was part of Kosovo Vilayet of the Ottoman Empire. According to the statistics of the Bulgarian ethnographer Vasil Kanchov, from 1900, the settlement is recorded as Prešovo as having 2000 inhabitants, all Albanian Muslims. Following the First Balkan War in 1912, Kingdom of Serbia conquered the area.

The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was formed after World War I. From 1929 to 1941, Preševo was part of the Vardar Banovina.

During the April War the Kingdom of Yugoslavia capitulated after 12 days of war against the Axis Powers. On April 20, Bulgaria occupied part of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, including Preševo. The royal authoritarian dictatorship of Bulgaria occupied the area until September 7, 1944, when they handed the area over to Nazi Germany. The Albanian collaborationist regime, along with Balli Kombëtar, subsequently took over the area. In mid-November, the Partisans forced the Balli Kombëtar to retreat.

From 1945 until 1992, Preševo was part of Socialist Republic of Serbia, within SFR Yugoslavia.

In 1992, the Albanians in the area organized a referendum in which they voted that Preševo, Medveđa and Bujanovac should join the self-declared assembly of the Republic of Kosova. However, no major events happened until the end of the 1990s.