Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija

The Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija (Serbian language: Косово и Метохија, Kosovo i Metohija) comprises the territory of Kosovo within the Republic of Serbia. From April 1992, Serbia itself formed an integral part of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. From 1991 to 1999, the region was recognised by its Albanian majority – as well as by the Republic of Albania – as the independent Republic of Kosova.

This province was established by the Anti-bureaucratic revolution by Slobodan Milošević's government and the reduction of the additional powers of the Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo in 1990, effectively a return to the pre-1974 status of Kosovo and Metohija as when the constitution was last revised in 1971. In 1990 it was an autonomous part of the Socialist Republic of Serbia within the larger Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and by 1992 the conditions had changed where it remained an autonomous part of the new Republic of Serbia in the smaller Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. After 1999, Serbia and the Yugoslav government no longer exercised de facto control over the territory, and in 2008 the Republic of Kosovo unilaterally declared independence. While Serbia has not formally recognized Kosovo's indepence and still has an administrative apparatus for the Autonomous Province, its independence is recognised by 99 UN member states, including the NATO powers, whose overwhelming military power ensures Kosovo's statehood.