Gorani (Kosovo)
The Gorani are an ethnic group living in a region called Gora (Slavic for "Mountain") just south of Prizren, in the province of Serbia called Kosovo (officially Kosovo and Metohija). They also make the majority in the Sar mountain range.
The Gorani are Slavic by origin and Muslim by faith. In addition to speaking their variant of Serbian known as Goranski or Gorani, most also speak Albanian or Macedonian.
They were Orthodox Serbs who converted to Islam in the late 18th century. Calls for a independence of the province or amalgamation of the province with neighbouring Albanai to Greater Albania led to an increasing deterioration of Gorani-Albanian relations. The 1980s saw the advent of a Gorani national revival, many officially broke away from the name of 'Muslims by nationality' (the term used by the Yugoslav government to describe primarily the Slavic Muslims in Bosnia). Most began Slavicizing their surnames (i.e. Ahmeti became Ahmetovic) which many claimed had been Albanized during the Kosovo Communist Albanian rule in the 1970s and 1980s. As the Gorani resided in the southernmost tip of the province many prided themselves as being the "sole guardians of Serbia's southern flank".
The Gora is covered with rough terrain. It is an underdeveloped region, and for almost two centuries its male inhabitants would go off to more distant regions in order to find work. Due to this, a true Gorani diaspora has come to life with many living in parts of inner Serbia (particularly the Eastern parts).
The Gorani numbered some 16,000-strong in the Gora administrative division, according to the 1991 census. This figure grew to over 20,000 by the start of the Kosovo War in 1999. The Gorani became targets of the Kosovo Liberation Army and the Kosovo Protection Force after the retreat of the Yugoslav Army and arrival of KFor in June 1999. As a result, Gorani leaders estimate that fewer than 10,000 are left in Gora. The UN administration in Kosovo, UNMIK, has redrawn internal boundaries in the province in such a way that a Gorani-majority county no longer exists. The Gora was combined with the neighbouring Albanian-populated region of
