KOSOVO
Population with an estimate of 1.8 million, and a territory of 10,908 km2, Kosovo is landlocked in the central Balkan Peninsula. In antiquity, the Dardanian Kingdom (one of the tribes of the ancient Illyrians) and later the Roman province of Dardania was located in the region. In the Middle Ages after the Roman Empire was divided, Dardania remained under the reign of the Byzantine Empire, afterwards it became a part of the Ottoman Empire for five centuries. After the WWI the Kingdom of Serbia took a large part of the Vilayet of Kosovo, following the events of WWII and the rise of communist Yugoslavia where Kosovo was part of until the year 1998-99 when the Yugoslavian wars ended with Kosovo by the military intervention from NATO, forcing Serbia to withdraw it’s military forces. From 1999 – 2008 Kosovo was under UN protectorate until the Kosovo’s parliament declared independence and became a sovran democratic state.