Greece, the Balkans and the European Union. ZEI Discussion Papers: 1998, C 9

[From the Introduction]. The Kosovo is very much in view now. One should say that Kosovo is really a very old conflict, and many thought that Yugoslavia would have disintegrated over the Kosovo issue, rather than Bosnia or Croatia. Strangely enough, Kosovo did not erupt as some had predicted in 1989 and 1990, when Mr. Miloševiæ took away the Kosovo-Albanians autonomy, which they had enjoyed under the previous regime and especially after the reform of the Yugoslavian constitution in 1974. At that time Kosovo was given more autonomy than it had previously enjoyed, but an autonomy short of complete independence as a constituent republic of Yugoslavia. That was always the thorn in the side of the Albanian Kosovars: they wanted to be recognized as a full republic with the right to secession