Removal of the Word “Metohija” from the Name of the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija in 1968–1969

Abstract

The aim of this research is to shed light on the circumstances surrounding the removal of the word “Metohija” from the name of the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija in 1968–1969, as well as the manner in which this change was implemented. The research is based on unpublished archival material from the Archives of Yugoslavia, the State Archives of Serbia, and the Central State Archive of Albania. The removal of the word “Metohija” from the name of the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija was carried out by deputies of the Federal Assembly of Yugoslavia and the Assembly of Serbia at sessions held in 1968 and 1969. The initiators of this change were Albanian officials in the Provincial Committee of the League of Communists of Serbia for Kosovo and Metohija. The main motivation for this move was the fact that the term “Metohija” testified to the historical Serbian and Orthodox presence in the area.

Summary: The removal of the word “Metohija” from the name of the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija was carried out in a manner different from other changes introduced through amendments to the Constitution of Yugoslavia and the Constitution of Serbia in 1968 and 1969. After Albanian officials and the Provincial Statutory Commission included this demand in proposals for changing the constitutional position of the autonomous provinces, the Constitutional Commission of Serbia concluded in its report on its work of 5 July 1968 that an agreement on this issue should be reached within the Province. Subsequently, during the following months, the issue of using the word “Metohija” in the name of the Province was generally not raised at sessions of state bodies devoted to constitutional changes. In the final Draft Amendments to the Constitution of Yugoslavia, presented by Milentije Popović to the Federal Assembly on 25 November, the name “Kosovo and Metohija” was used. However, four days before the constitutional amendments were adopted by the Chamber of Nations of the Federal Assembly, Fadilj Hodža informed Milentije Popović that the Assembly of the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija had adopted a decision to remove the word “Metohija” from the Province’s name. As the “legal basis” for the decision of the Provincial Assembly, Fadilj Hodža cited the report of the Republican Constitutional Commission on its work of 5 July 1968. Although he was under no legal obligation to do so, Federal Assembly President Milentije Popović intervened to have Fadilj Hodža’s request subsequently incorporated into the amendments to the constitutional amendments. The removal of the word “Metohija” from the Province’s name in the text of the constitutional amendments was carried out on the day they were adopted by the Chamber of Nations of the Federal Assembly, 16 December 1968.