Kosovo announced on Wednesday the closure of the main crossing on the border with Serbia, accusing it of seeking to destabilize it after Belgrade put its forces on alert.

The rapid developments come against the background of the continuous protests of the Serb minority in the former Serbian region.

Al Jazeera Net sheds light through a question and answer on the historical causes of the renewed conflict between Kosovo and Serbia, and possible future scenarios for the tense situation between the two countries.

What is the ethnic and religious composition of the population of Kosovo?

Kosovo has a population of about 2 million, living on an area of ​​10,887 square kilometres.

More than 90% of Kosovo's population is Muslim Albanians, while the number of Orthodox Serbs does not exceed 5% of the population, all of them in the north on the border with the state of Serbia.

(Based on these statistics, Kosovo comes second after Turkey in terms of the percentage of the Muslim population in European countries).

Although the Kosovars' affiliation with their Albanian nationality is stronger than their affiliation with Islam, they are very proud of being Muslims, and mosques are spread all over the country, and there are about a thousand mosques, including historical mosques, the most famous of which are the Sinan Pasha Mosque in Prizren, and the Sultani Mosque in the capital, Pristina.

There are also religious books and schools spread across the country, to teach young people the foundations of the Islamic religion, and in 1992 the first Islamic university was established in Pristina, the capital.

The Constitution of Kosovo stipulates that Albanian and Serbian are the two official languages ​​of the state, but nearly 95% of citizens speak Albanian as their mother tongue, and Kosovo Serbs are keen to use the Serbian language in speech and in the media.

What is the relationship between the Serbs and Kosovo?

Given the ethnic and cultural makeup of Kosovo, and if we add to that the weak economy and the scarcity of resources (Kosovo is the poorest country in the former Yugoslavia);

We will not find a justification for the ambitions of the Serbs and their permanent attempts to annex Kosovo to the state of Serbia, but it is in fact the geopolitical location, as Kosovo is the southern gate of the state of Serbia towards the state of Albania, and therefore Serbia considers it an extension of its strategic national security, just as this site made Kosovo the site of grave events that cannot be erased Serbian memory.

Kosovo witnessed two major battles (Kosovo 1 and Kosovo 2) between the Ottoman armies and the armies of the Serbs and their allies.

They resulted in inflicting painful defeats on the Serbs, led by the killing of the famous Serbian prince Lazar Herbelianovic, known to the Serbs as Emperor Lazar (on June 15, 1389), and these battles led to the Ottomans controlling Serbia and the rest of the Balkan countries for 500 years.

During their siege of the Bosnian city of Sarajevo during the Bosnian war (1992-1995), the Serbs were keen to commemorate the death of Emperor Lazar every year by bombing the city with thousands of shells and missiles.

When did Kosovo become independent?

Kosovo's dependency changed, like other Balkan countries, with the change of the powers controlling the region. After the end of World War I, Kosovo became within the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, and during World War II it was annexed to Albania, which was under Italian occupation.

Because the war ended with the victory of the Allies, and General Joseph Tito took over the rule of the Federal Yugoslavia, Kosovo was re-annexed into Yugoslavia, and Tito agreed in 1947 to grant Kosovo autonomy within the framework of the Federation of Yugoslav Republics.

After Tito's death, in June 1989, Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic visited Kosovo, and delivered a famous fiery sermon, in which he reminded the Serbs of the Battle of Kosovo, and asked them not to forget what happened 6 centuries ago, then announced the abolition of Kosovo's autonomy.

The Kosovars began a peaceful political struggle to demand independence, encouraged by the independence of some components of the former Yugoslavia, starting with Slovenia and Croatia, and passing through Macedonia and Bosnia.

The struggle was led by the Albanian Democratic Union Party, headed by Albanian writer and academic Ibrahim Rugova, who was elected by Kosovars in May 1992 as president of the unilaterally declared Republic of Kosovo.

The Kosovo Albanians were subjected to successive attacks by the Serbs. They formed military militias under the name "Kosovo Liberation Army" led by "Adam Yashari", and the matter culminated in 1998 when the Serbian army committed brutal massacres against Albanian civilians.

In March 1999, NATO forces launched an offensive against Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) that lasted 78 days to stop the war in Kosovo.

The war ended after the withdrawal of the Serbian forces under NATO strikes, and the United States of America led UN measures (military and administrative) with the aim of rearranging the situation in Kosovo, in preparation for declaring it an independent state, and this is what actually happened.

On February 17, 2008, Parliament declared the independence of Kosovo, and the United States of America was the first to recognize independence, followed by a number of European Union countries, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Yemen and the UAE.

But Serbia rejected independence and insisted that Kosovo is part of the Serbian state.

After US and European mediation and economic pressure, Serbia agreed to sign the "Brussels Agreement", according to which Serbia normalizes its relations with Kosovo, but does not officially recognize its independence.

What led to the recent eruption of the situation?

On October 31, the Kosovo Parliament passed a law banning the use of foreign car plates, obligating all residents to put government-approved car plates in Pristina, and giving until November 21 to implement the decision.

The Serbs rejected the law, and took escalatory measures. Serb officials submitted mass resignations from all public posts, while the Serb policemen declared civil disobedience and took off their uniforms in the presence of journalists and in front of cameras.

The government in Pristina accepted the resignations, and announced that by-elections would be held to fill the vacancies due to the resignations, and the Serbs took to the streets in demonstrations rejecting the elections, so the government announced that it would be postponed to April 2023.

This was followed by the security forces arresting a Serbian policeman on charges of assaulting state institutions. His colleagues demanded his release, and a number of residents joined the protesters, who closed the roads with barricades, and then closed the main roads with trucks and ambulances.

And demanded Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti of the peacekeeping forces of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to open the roads, otherwise the Kosovo security forces will do so.

In response, Belgrade demanded that NATO allow Serb forces to be sent to northern Kosovo to protect the Serbs there.

What role for Russia?

As usual, Russia was quick to stand by Serbia, and the Russian ambassador to Belgrade Botsan Kharchenko stated that "Belgrade can count on Moscow regarding the situation in Kosovo." He also said, "Russia understands Serbia's concerns, and the two countries will continue to coordinate their positions on this issue."

Kharchenko added that despite the serious challenges facing his country, it "will continue to participate in resolving the current international crises, including the Kosovo crisis."

As for the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, she blamed the worsening situation in Kosovo on the European Union.

She stressed that the matter began on "the sixth of last December, when the European Union held a summit meeting in Albania," adding that "the Tirana Declaration was adopted, which supports the aspirations of the Western Balkan countries to join the European Union."

The Tirana declaration equated "separatist" Kosovo with Serbia, stating that both countries were on the European path.

Zakharova marveled that the European Union "promises Belgrade a beautiful future, and at the same time engages in provocations against Serbs," noting that this is like "a wedding that begins with treason."

Could war break out between Kosovo and Serbia?

No one can say for sure or deny that war can break out anywhere, but it is clear that no one here seeks war, and no one can afford war.

On the one hand, Kosovo seeks to build itself and develop its economy in light of the scarcity of resources and the weak administrative structure of the state.

As for Serbia, it is looking forward to greater interest from the European Union.

Its economy is still exhausted due to the wars it waged at the end of the last century, and as a result of the surrounding global conditions, noting that 80% of the Serbian economy is linked to Europe.