Abstract: This research attempts to shed light on the removal of the word “Metohija” from the name of the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija in 1968–1969, as well as the circumstances under which this change has been implemented. The research draws upon the unpublished archival documents from the Archives of Yugoslavia, State Archives of Serbia and Central state archives of Albania. Deputies of the Federal Assembly of Yugoslavia and the Assembly of Serbia removed the term “Metohija” from the name of the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija during assembly sessions in 1968 and 1969. The initiative was started by ethnic Albanian communist party officials from the Provincial committee of the League of Communist of Serbia for Kosovo and Metohija. The main reason for this step of the communist regime was that the word “Metohija” was witnessing about the Orthodox and Serbian presence in the history of that area.
Keywords: Metohija, Dukagjin, Kosovo, autonomy, national minorities, Yugoslavia, Josip Broz, Communist government
Summary
The removal of the word “Metohija” from the name of the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija in 1968–1969 was executed differently than other changes verified by amendments to the Constitution of Yugoslavia and the Constitution of Serbia in 1968 and 1969. In response to the demand initiated by Albanian communist officials in their proposal for constitutional changes, the Serbian Constitutional Commission determined that this matter should be addressed at the provincial level, within the government of Kosovo and Metohija. Following that, the question of removing the word “Metohija” from the name of the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija was not addressed again for the next several months. In the final draft of the amendments to the Constitution of Yugoslavia that Milentije Popović presented in the Federal Assembly of Yugoslavia on November 25, 1968, the name of the province was “Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija”. However, four days before the adoption of constitutional amendments in the House of Peoples of the Federal Assembly, Fadil Hoxha informed Milentije Popović that the Assembly of the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija decided to remove the word Metohija from the province’s name. They requested the implementation of this decision into the Yugoslav Constitution. Fadil Hoxha cited the report of the Republican Constitutional Commission from July 5, 1968, as the “legal basis” for the unconstitutional decision of the provincial assembly. Milentije Popović, president of the Federal Assembly, played a significant role in the entire process, presenting Fadil Hoxha’s intervention to change the proposed text of constitutional amendments as a “technical matter”, rather than a political issue. The removal of the word indicating Serbian and Orthodox presence in that area from the province’s name symbolised the process of abolishing Serbian statehood in Kosovo and Metohija during communist rule.