Kosovo Mitrovica. Bridge of Hostility

There are enough cities, capitals and even entire countries in the world, divided in half in the literal sense of the word: Cyprus, South and North Korea, Abkhazia and Karabakh, Moldova and the PMR, in the recent past - Germany and West Berlin. Disputed territories include Northern Ireland, Iraqi Kurdistan, Bosnia-Herzegovina (you know that the city is actually divided to this day?), Israel and Palestine. I talked a lot about Israel, for example about where the long-standing and growing hatred between Jews and Arabs blooms and bears bloody fruit. The situation is little better in ancient Jerusalem, where, despite the unification in 1967, the two peoples continue to live separately and fiercely hate each other. But this is the Middle East, where violence is part of existence. Let’s return to Europe, where in at least two places “live” conflicts are smoldering, turning into bloodshed with sad frequency: in Northern Ireland and Kosovska Mitrovica in Kosovo. Today we will talk about the latter -

First of all, and just in case, I will emphasize an important thing: although “Kosovo is Serbia” (a popular patriotic slogan), in fact Kosovo is an absolutely independent state with its own government, laws and visa regime. Citizens of all countries of the former USSR (except the Baltic states) need a visa to visit Kosovo, and obtaining this visa seems unlikely, since the Kosovo consulate closest to Russia is located in Istanbul and they will fool you there. It is much easier to enter Kosovo with any valid Schengen card.

In our case, the situation was as follows: I was traveling with an Israeli passport, which does not require a visa to Kosovo (see the Kosovo Foreign Ministry website for a list of visa-free countries), while my companion was traveling with a Ukrainian passport with a regular six-month Bulgarian visa. From a formal point of view, there was no way she could enter Kosovo, because Bulgaria is not Schengen. Nevertheless, knowing the Balkan indifference and carelessness, we decided to take a risk, especially since we were moving by car from the northern part of Serbia to Albania and had spent the night the night before in the town of Kralijevo, which is just over an hour’s drive from Kosovo. And although all our friends confidently declared that nothing would work out for us, we decided to go all-in and were not mistaken! After all, our friends proceeded from the letter of the law and in this regard were absolutely right, but they did not take into account the human factor, expressed in banal inattention and carelessness.

It is noteworthy that Serbian and Kosovo border guards sit instead in the same terminal, which once again confirms the fact that Kosovo is, of course, Serbia, but the Serbs themselves have long come to terms with the loss and have recognized the de facto independence of Kosovo. Serbs do not stamp their passports when traveling to Kosovo, but Kosovars do. Considering that they are sitting together, it is logical to assume that the issue of sanctions against tourists with Kosovo stamps has not been relevant for a long time. But! With one small but important amendment - the Serbs will not let you in when entering from Kosovo, if you (attention!) entered Kosovo through neighboring countries, that is, Macedonia, or Albania. Simply put, if you are traveling from Macedonia to Serbia and decide to take a shortcut along the way through Kosovo, then the Serbs will not let you in. But if you entered Kosovo from Serbia and then went anywhere, then there will be no problems when re-entering Serbia. Key moment - entry to Kosovo from Serbia. By the way, Ukraine has taken a much tougher position in the situation with Crimea - you will not be allowed into Ukraine from Crimea if you entered Crimea from Russia. And at the same time, even if you came to Crimea from Ukraine, but went further to Russia, you are still a violator of Ukrainian laws, see my investigation "".

But let's return to the Balkans!

The main checkpoint from Serbia to Kosovo is located near the Serbian town of Raska. Isn't it funny -

We didn’t take pictures of the border itself, but there is quite a massive terminal there with dozens of border guards, customs officers, a lot of cars, insurers’ offices, some warehouses and other things. Locals fly over the border in a minute, but with us the issue was resolved in about ten minutes, and in a funny way, the Kosovars spent more time on me, finding out whether I needed a visa. It turned out that I was the first person with an Israeli passport traveling through this border checkpoint to Kosovo. But I knew that the issue would be resolved by a call to the authorities, or by my explanations. I was more worried whether they would let the girl in, because if not, the whole trip to Kosovo would be a disaster. She was not at a loss and confidently told the Kosovars that this was her Bulgarian Schengen; they frowned, conferred, but then slapped down the entry stamp. Hooray! We still don’t understand whether they don’t know that Bulgaria is not in Schengen, or whether they just don’t care at all.

The northern part of Kosovo greeted with patriotic slogans -

It must be said that a largely absurd situation has developed in Kosovo. On the one hand, they are de facto independent, but to the same extent, de facto, the ethnic Serbs living in Kosovo (compactly inhabiting the north of Kosovo) do not recognize this independence. You will say, this is logical! But listen further. Kosovo Serbs do not recognize Kosovo independence, but serve in the Kosovo police and border guards. Accordingly, the Kosovo Serb border guards, although they wear a blue uniform with yellow Kosovo map stripes, in reality remain on the other side of the barricades. I do not rule out that we were allowed in on a Bulgarian visa precisely because we were dealing with Kosovo Serbs, and not with Kosovars as such. The Serbs probably simply did not want to hinder us. On the other hand, we traveled further from Kosovo to Albania and the Kosovo border guards did not check our passports at all (!), they just waved their hand and said, “Pass through.” Mess?

Kosovska Mitrovica greeted us with a depressing industrial landscape in the form of a long-dead metallurgical plant, which, I think, polluted the environment for many years -

Kosovska Mitrovica has always been a problematic city, even during the times of a united and socialist Yugoslavia, since the two communities (Serbs and Kosovars) never found a common language. The situation reached its apogee during the Kosovo conflict of 1998-1999, when the so-called “Kosovo Liberation Army,” which fought for the secession of the region, switched to open armed confrontation with the Yugoslav authorities. The victims, as is usually the case, were mostly civilians from both conflicting sides. The Yugoslav army attacked the militants, but they took refuge in residential areas and enjoyed the support of the Kosovars... isn’t it, the situation is painfully familiar? The army, in order to carry out purges, evicted tens of thousands of Kosovars, and they, in turn, took revenge on the ethnic Serbs. In a matter of months, more than 3 thousand people were killed in the conflict. In addition, at least one hundred thousand Kosovo Serbs were forced to leave their homes and flee to the north of the region and to Serbia, fleeing ethnic cleansing carried out by the Kosovo Liberation Army, and simply from the reigning chaos and banditry.

At present, order has more or less been restored. We must pay tribute to the Serbs and Kosovars, who were able to begin cooperation and interaction in order to restore order. Today, the Kosovo authorities formally gave equal rights to all residents of the region and allowed all Serbs who fled earlier to return. Another thing is that, firstly, they have nowhere to return (their houses have been destroyed, looted, or captured), and secondly, no one is waiting for them. However, the north of Kosovo is populated precisely by Serbs, many of whom fled there from other parts of the region.

Kosovska Mitrovica is the unofficial Serbian capital of Kosovo, a city divided into two parts, in the Serbian part of which about 20 thousand Serbs live and at least 65 thousand Kosovars in the other part. The two communities are separated by the Ibar River.

Conflicts between the two communities flare up with sad regularity. The reason for the surge in violence could be anything, from issues of distribution of UN humanitarian aid to rumors that “a Serb raped a Kosovo girl.” Then the crowd goes to destroy and burn everything and everyone. One day in the fall of 2014, several hundred Kosovars headed to the bridge over the Ibar to cross into the Serbian part of the city. The reason was a dispute over several plots of land belonging to Kosovars, but ending up in the Serbian part of the city. Peacekeepers on the bridge blocked the Kosovars' path, and they attacked the peacekeepers with stones. The Kosovo police arrived in time and sided with the peacekeepers and dispersed the crowd with tear gas. This time, one might say, “it turned out okay”; only a few Italian soldiers received minor injuries during the dispersal of the crowd. If the Kosovars had managed to break through the bridge, bloodshed would have been inevitable, because the Serbs were already waiting for them there. With baseball bats.

Is an Albanian car on Serbian territory a red rag for a bull?

By the way, when we first entered the city (from the Serbian side), the question arose of where to park our rental car with Albanian license plates. Frankly, there is a fair amount of outright rednecks in the city, plus endless graffiti on the theme that “Kosovo is Serbia”, and the Kosovars and Albanians themselves need to be “killed”. No matter how the righteous anger of the population backfires on us if the Serbian patriots do something to the car. You should have seen the looks on people's faces when they noticed our license plates. The feeling is that a car with Soviet license plates would have caused less surprise even in Berlin, back in 1942. And we decided, out of harm’s way, to move to the Kosovo part and park the car there. Not so!

There are 2 bridges in the city, one in the center and one far away, almost outside the city. The central bridge is the border between the Serbian and Kosovo parts of the city. You can't get through there by car; everything is blocked by mountains of concrete blocks and some kind of barricades. On foot - yes, under the supervision of Italian peacekeepers, but by car - no. Looks like that -

The locals suggested that we could cross over to the Kosovars through another bridge. We drive about three kilometers along a broken road, reminiscent of a front line, and here is the conditional “border”. A sane Serb will not go further and will not go, just as a Kosovar of sound mind and memory will not go to the Serbian unit -

Needless to say, the Kosovars are much more active in their part of the city. Life is bustling everywhere, there are a lot of shops, cafes, shopping centers, everything is being built and restored. There are a lot of people, everyone is running, in a hurry. The new mosque was built a couple of years ago thanks to a generous gift from Turkey; other mosques were donated by the Saudis and Qataris -

The abundance of mosques does not fit into the picture of this rather secular city, where only one in twenty women wears a headscarf, and even fewer men show interest in prayers.

The cuisine is reminiscent of Turkish: chicken, kebabs, chorba soup -

City Hall of the Kosovo part of the city -

Mother Teresa, who did a lot for both Kosovar refugees and Serbs -

Heroes of the Kosovo conflict are everywhere. Here they are role models and akin to saints, but in the Serbian part they themselves and the KLA organization (Kosovo Liberation Army) are rightly considered bandits and murderers.

Not only the Turks and Arabs, but also the European Union are actively helping the Kosovars -

More war heroes -

A traditional teahouse where tea costs a ridiculous 10 euro cents -

And again the heroes of the AOK -

Just a funny stucco molding on the roof of an old house -

Isn’t it cool: the Clinton driving school (Clinton is considered the father of Kosovo statehood), the Zion travel agency (I believe that the travel agency has nothing to do with the Zionists, although who knows) -

And now we will take a walk back to the Serbian part. The car is parked in a safe place, so my soul is calm.

Serbian part of Kosovo-Mitrovica

We walk across an almost border bridge, passing Kosovo police and Italian carabinieri.

And here we are in the Serbian part of the city -

Here everything is completely different from the Kosovars. Firstly, the feeling that people live in the past and not in the future. Kosovars are actively building and living to the fullest. Here, apparently, they live “in spite of”. The Serbs lost the historical lands of Kosovo and Metohija, they were slaughtered and driven out of their own homes. But now they will hold on to the piece of land that remains in their hands at any cost and will not leave here. Alas, life “in spite of” evokes deep respect and... human pity -

There is really nothing to do in the Serbian part of Mitrovica. A wildly provincial town, tired of life, with broken roads, tired aunties with string bags, sad youth. The city's industry has not been functioning for a long time and, according to statistics, up to half of the city's residents are listed as unemployed. Investments do not come here; no one will risk their money in a city where violence breaks out every now and then.

What does "Stop paderima" mean? in the photo below, isn't it as obscene as I was thinking?

Every now and then there are interesting graffiti on the streets -

And especially this -

The Serbs clearly expressed their attitude towards the European Union, which destroyed their country -

What to say? The city made a sad, even depressing impression. You and I understand that there will never be full peace there. The only question is how long will people survive on sheer enthusiasm and “in spite of”...

Since not all readers have a Livejournal account, I duplicate all my articles about life and travel on social networks, so join me.

This is a translation of a phrase from graffiti on the wall of a house in Kosovska Mitrovica.
This is actually the end of Serbian territory. There are 200 meters left from the graffiti to the invisible border.
Next is the bridge over the Ibar River, the Italian carabinieri, and on the other side of the city live the Kosovars.
One city, but two languages, two different currencies, two different peoples, two different architectural styles.
Today I will show you what the northern part of Kosovska Mirovica, a city divided in two, looks like.
Children here grow up not on good fairy tales, but on stories about borders, peacekeepers, bombings, and terrorist attacks.

There are other similar cities in the world. I saw it divided between Catholics and Muslims along the Neretva River. I also saw the capital of Cyprus, Nicosia, divided between Turks and Greek Cypriots. But for some reason Kosovska Mitrovica left a difficult impression, caused dissonance, I did not expect to see such a picture...

So, the photo story will be about that small part of the city that is above the river on the map. About 10-15 thousand Serbian people live in the northern part of the city. Why approximately? They boycotted the last census, plus students from other cities study here.

This is broken asphalt near the “Friendship Bridge,” as it was called after construction in 2005. This was not true, the name did not stick. As you can see, you can’t cross the bridge, everything is dug up and covered with some kind of junk

The Ibar Bridge serves as the de facto border between Serbia and the self-proclaimed Republic of Kosovo, although maps and border posts tell us otherwise.

Everyone walks freely across the bridge from one part of the city to another, but there are few people who want to. The Italian carabinieri and police are responsible for security.

The policeman even greeted me in Serbian

The Serbian part looks a little dull from a distance; there are almost no new buildings. On the Albanian side, the injection of money is visible to the naked eye. For clarity, my video

It’s interesting that there was a “mortnitsa” hanging on the bridge - a warning about the death of a Muslim on the other side. Hmm... why did they hang it in the buffer zone and not in the southern part of the city? Maybe this Kosovar lived on the northern side, and his relatives wanted to notify the whole city? I watched one of the latest programs, a local resident said that 1,800 Kosovars-Albanians, 300 Gypsies, and 80 Turks now live peacefully in Northern K-M.

The bridge is painted on all sides with slogans and flags.

The bridge has been the site of constant clashes between Serbs and Albanians since the 1998-1999 war. For example, in 2004, Kosovo Albanians burned cars and threw stones at police officers. Violence broke out during an action by Kosovars protesting against the blocking of a bridge between two parts of the city.

And these days people take pictures here as if at some landmark

Kosovska Mitrovica is squeezed into a corner of northern Kosovo. In the Middle Ages it was the heart of the Serbian kingdom. Under the Ottoman Empire, it was part of the Kosovo Vilayet. And only at the Berlin Congress in 1878, when Serbia and Montenegro were recognized as independent countries, this city became part of Serbia. In fact, it’s a pity for the city, it’s like a soccer ball, like a powder keg, like a geopolitical point between great forces.

The picture on the left shows the location of the city and the entire North Kosovo region today.
In the picture on the right - 1943, Kosovska Mitrovica as part of Serbia.

Before shouting slogans “Kosovo is Serbia,” study history, go to that region and see with your own eyes, whose is it - Serbia, Albania, or maybe America, Turkey, or is it our own, and is there some kind of originality here? If you remove politics and look at the country externally, at its inhabitants and mentality, at their language and faces, you will understand that it is neither one nor the other, nor the third. For me it's just Kosovo, and the people are Kosovars. Of course, I'm not talking about the region of Northern Kosovo, where ethnic Serbs live. I'm talking about 90% of the territory of the Republic of Kosovo, unrecognized by many countries. But this is my point of view, this is how I saw the country. How did you cross the border without a Kosovo or Schengen visa?

And the most popular graffiti in the city.

In general, Serbs differ from Kosovars in this regard; on the other side of the river there is no aggressive graffiti or slogans.

They rejoice at the arrival of the nationalist Seselj, an ally of Slobodan Milosevic. He spent 11 years in The Hague, and then he was released for health reasons, and he returned to Belgrade and Serbia as a national hero...

And a dying poster with Serbian idols against the background of linen :)

Northern Kosovo just screams - we are Serbia, everything is hung with flags, we are holding our own elections, not recognized by anyone. As for me, there are two options here, or give autonomy to this region, as in Bosnia there is the Republika Srpska. Or join it to Serbia, since multi-ethnicity and a quiet life do not work here.

Of course, a lot of the blame falls on Josip Tito, that he once came up with the idea of ​​annexing Albania to Yugoslavia and played with the residents of Kosovo as best he could. He prevented the Serbs from returning to their homes after World War II, when they were driven out of Kosovo by the Italians and Albanians. Conversely, Tito encouraged Albanians to move to Kosovo. The standard of living here was higher than in their homeland - they moved with joy. When the Greater Yugoslavia plan failed, Tito saw the threat of separatism towards Albania, in 1959 the decision was made to increase the Serb element in the autonomous province of Kosovo and Metohija by excluding the Presevo Valley with the Albanians and annexing Northern Kosovo with the Serbs. But Muslims give birth to children more often; this step did not help. Someone calculated that the number of Albanian Kosovars increased threefold from the post-war period until Tito’s death.

We all know the outcome of history - the strengthening of radical and national sentiments, the desire for separatism, war and the bombing of NATO. This is a monument to the dead Serbs in Kosovo Mitrovica

A woman with a child was sitting here with me, apparently someone is on the list

There is a nice park nearby. From the bench where the woman sits, you can enjoy either the Albanian side or look at the phone.

Let me tell you about the good stuff. And it is here too - this is the Mitrovica Technical Institute - the only one where they teach in the Serbian language in Kosovo. In 1999, Serbian teachers and students of the University of Pristina moved here, creating the “University in Pristina with a temporary residence in Kosovska Mitrovica.” There are really a lot of young people in the city from different cities, they dress fashionably and spend days in cafes and bars. In general, life is in full swing!

I personally felt comfortable walking along this side of the city. I know the language, I could calmly ask something, the people looked familiar to me, everything said that I was in Serbia. Even license plates. But we rented a car in Albania, so we left it on the Albanian side so that the Serbs wouldn’t break it, you never know :))

Signs in many institutions, shops, and companies bear national symbols. In this part of the city, Serbian dinars are used, and in the Albanian part of the city, across the bridge, euros are used. But it is worth noting that prices in Kosovo are significantly lower for food than in Montenegro.

The seller from this stall looked out and started yelling not to take his photo. So why did you look?

And even a road construction office in blue, red and white colors

Next to the most famous graffiti “Serbia is Kosovo, and Crimea is Russia” there is a monument to Grigory Stepanovich Shcherbina on the road - a Russian diplomat of Ukrainian origin :)) He was born and buried in Chernigov, and died in Kosovo Mitrovica during the Albanian revolt in 1903

In 1928, on behalf of the townspeople and officers of the garrison, a monument to Grigory Stepanovich was erected in K-M. Until 1999, it was located on the Albanian side of the city, but was destroyed by Albanian fanatics. In November 2011, a new monument to Shcherbina was erected in the Serbian part of Kosovska Mitrovica. The sign on the left says "A drop of fraternal Russian blood mixed in the stream of Serbian blood that has been flowing in Kosovo for centuries"

An important problem for the city is the economy; it was finished off by the war. But the region is rich in non-ferrous metals. There is mining of lead-zinc ore, lignite, smelting of lead and zinc. There are a chemical plant, wood processing and paper mills, as well as the production of mining equipment and agricultural machinery. At least that's what Wikipedia says. And in appearance, the famous Trepca plant is in a depressing state.

A market is a market, the Serbs got Trepca, and we got the bus station. At least we should be glad that we live on the sunny side of Mitrovica, it’s colder in the north,” quipped one Kosovar Albanian satirist in December 1999.

Kosovska Mitrovica developed into an industrial center, associated with mining, in the 19th century. During Yugoslavia, 20 thousand people worked here. In 2005, an experimental resumption of production was carried out, but I don’t understand whether it works or not, and whether it makes a profit.

Unrest in the city has not subsided since 2008, when Kosovo declared its independence. The local population refuses to submit to Pristina and periodically organizes attacks on UN peacekeeper posts and KFOR patrols.

15 years have passed since the war, and the wounds have not healed, everything speaks of a divided city and the desire to live in different states.

There is no place for enterprising and talented people; they have clearly left, which is what young people are going to do after university. The city on the northern side does not make the best impression, although I felt safe here and I repeat - everything looked like I was in Serbia. In general, it is strange to force people so different mentally, with different history, religion, language, national heroes to live in one city and country. But time will definitely put everything in place.

Soon there will be a continuation about the Albanian part of Kosovka Mitrovica and the city of Prizren.

Kosovska Mitrovica (Serbian Kosovska Mitrovica, Alb. Mitrovica/Mitrovicë) is a city in the north of Kosovo. Until 1989 it was called Titova Mitrovica. Today, the city is guarded, like all cities of Kosovo, by police detachments KFOR (English Kosovo Force, in official UN documents in Russian they are called KFOR - “Force for Kosovo” - international forces led by NATO, responsible for ensuring stability in Kosovo). After the war in 1999, the city was divided into a southern part, with an almost exclusively Albanian population, and a northern part, with a predominantly Serbian population. Both areas are connected by two street bridges over the Ibar River.

Our fellow countryman and photographer Mikhail Triboi walked around the city and shares his impressions and photographs

I arrived on the Serbian side of the Kosovska Mitrovica settlement around 11 pm. I didn’t book the hotel in advance, I decided to find something more affordable on the spot.

After walking back and forth along the main street for half an hour, I realized that I was unlikely to find a place to stay for the night without outside help. Local guys showed me the way to the motel, where for 20 euros the gangster-looking owner rented me a room with breakfast.
And in the morning I had about 5 hours to wander around the city on both sides of the bridge.

Briefly about Kosovska Mitrovica, a city in Kosovo is divided by the Ibra River, on one side of which live Kosovars (Albanians), and on the other, Serbs. After the 1999 war, when the city was divided into 2 halves, armed conflicts and provocations occur periodically. KFOR police squads monitor order and relative calm. If we talk about the population,
About 13 thousand people live on the Serbian side, about 60 thousand people on the Kosovo side.

First I walked around the Serbian side. Prices are all in dinars.

A lot of graffiti on the walls about love and unity with Russia, and hatred of the European Union and America.

One of the main streets is Kralja Petra.

You climb the hill where the private sector is.

There is a monument to miners on the hill.

Just below you can see a new temple, built to replace the one that remained on the Kosovo side. Now the Serbs can calmly go and pray.

View of Kosovska Mitrovica from the hill. behind the houses in the foreground, the Kosovo part of the city begins.

When I was going down, I almost crushed these kids.

There are still abandoned houses after the destruction.

There is a gypsy flea market next to the river.

Parallel to the main bridge, a little to the side, a pedestrian bridge is actively used by residents.

But you can see the main bridge dividing the city into two sides.

There is a city market next to the river.

Doesn't anything catch your eye in the picture?..... Cars without license plates. And there are many of them. I assume that no matter what problems the owners of the cars on the Kosovo side have, they remove them.

View of the main street from the bridge.

Monument to the Russian consul Grigory Stepanovich Shcherbin. The experienced diplomat was appointed to the post of consul in Kosovska Mitrovica at the beginning of March 1903.
He was shot by an Albanian in 1903.

On the Serbian side, moving away from the central streets, I went out to the Kosovo part, where prices in kiosks are shown in euros, and after walking 100 meters, prices were already shown in Serbian dinars. In this photo taken from the Serbian side (the rags of the Serbian flag), if you look closely in the middle of the road there is a pedestal with the Albanian flag - Kosovo territory.

It's time to move onto Kosovo territory. The road is not intended for cars, the asphalt is “dug up”

And the bridge itself is blocked in the middle by flower pots. Pedestrian traffic is carried out on the sides of the bridge.

On the Serbian side, guarded by Serbian police.

The inscription on the bridge, "across the river, another country."

A peace park was made on the bridge itself.

On the Kosovo side of the bridge, Italian carabinieri keep order.

The monuments on the Kosovo side are all with weapons, dedicated to some hero of the latest wars.

The cleanliness and order are striking, there are a lot of construction sites and expensive boutiques. You can already compare it with the Serbian side, where you can feel poverty and devastation.

Religion: Muslim.

I crossed the bridge and it was like I was in another state.

Old people like to wear chains on their vests (and there’s probably a watch at the end of the chain), just like in the 19th and 20th centuries.

There are few women on the streets.

Little art on the booths.

I'm heading to the capital of Kosovo, Pristina. There are signs along the road.

P.S.
It is better to take the bus on the Kosovo side. Buses run more frequently. Stop in the center, opposite the market, ticket price 1.5 euros. The ride takes about an hour, the bus makes stops along the way.

Kosovska Mitrovica is a small city with a population of 70 thousand people; it is not indexed in the navigator. At the main city landmark - the bridge over the Ibar River - we are met by a man from hospit alityclub.org Ivan (with emphasis on the first letter, the diminutive form “Vanya” is missing). Under his guidance, we go to his home.

Ivan lives in a house on the other side of the bridge, but you cannot cross the bridge - it is open only to pedestrians, and the asphalt at the entrance to it is broken. On both sides of the bridge there are police, Italian carabinere and police units KFOR - Kosovo Force, this is a unit under the leadership of the UN, consisting of fighters from different countries, incl. Russia. KFOR is on duty throughout Kosovo, not just in Mitrovica. This was done to prevent conflicts between Serbs and Albanians. The latter are the majority here - 60 thousand people out of a little over 70. Although the park around the bridge is named after peace, the bridge is now a symbol of hostility and division.

Albanian flag with a double-headed eagle resembling a spider.
From Wikipedia: " The red color of the flag is a symbol of the blood of Albanian patriots, shed by them in the centuries-old struggle against the enslavers."

Security forces' cars drive through the city streets every now and then - patrolling. I photographed them many times, no one objected. But an attempt to photograph the carabinieri’s armored jeep along with the fighters themselves on the bridge ended in failure - I decided to ask the soldiers for permission to take a photo, to which they refused. However, moving a little further away, I took a photo of the car itself without any problems.

armorelic

Kosovska Mitrovica is a town with nothing particularly noticeable, except for that very “border” bridge. For some reason, in my paper road atlas, K-M is listed as Titova-Mitrovica - the city bore this name until 1989. There is no interesting architecture here, except for two buildings on the hill - the temple of Dmitry of Thessalonica and the monument to miners.

It is worth paying attention to the rock paintings: both football fans and those who are not indifferent to the political situation in the region (and there are probably all of them here) have left marks on the walls of the buildings.

Monument to miners - trolley on two pillars

On one of the central streets you can find interesting graffiti: Crimea is Russia, Kosovo is Serbia. And on the square opposite the bridge, right on the balcony of a residential high-rise building, framed by lines of laundry, the Russian President himself looks at the people from posters.
The pro-Russian position is also noticeable in the inscriptions on the walls of houses: Putin, USA and EU with a swastika, the European Union crossed out crosswise.

Crimea

There is no way back

Putin's policies are approved in Serbia and northern Kosovo. Ivan's opinion: Serbia should not join the European Union, because... in this case, the country will automatically become one of the targets of Russian missiles. This is what our Kosovo friend thinks about the future of his country: “ Serbia (of course, the Serbian residents of Mitrovica consider Kosovo to be Serbia) has three options for development: join the EU, join Russia and thereby lose its own identity, or become an independent state. We have everything necessary for life - a rather large territory by European standards, natural and human resources. True, there is no oil, but there is none in Switzerland either. If only we could defeat corruption...Russia is the richest country, you have everything, Baikal alone with its water reserves is worth something! If you defeated corruption, every resident of Russia would be rich!»

Although Ivan said that Albanians do not like Russians, he is not radical in his views and is friends with many of them, adhering to the position “there are no bad nations, there are bad people.” But, apparently, the situation is still really tense. When we were wandering around the city in search of “kramnash” and interviewing passers-by about the location of the painting, an English-speaking Serb volunteered to guide us. "Be careful with Muslims, they are dangerous!" - Bronislav said, lowering his voice. And when he found out that we went to the Albanian Pristina and Prizren, he grabbed his head: they don’t like Russians there! Perhaps Bronislav is “stirring up” and exaggerating, but apparently he has his own reasons for this. However, all the people on both sides of the bridge seemed equally welcoming and friendly to us, both Serbs and Albanians.

Although the partially recognized self-proclaimed Republic of Kosovo is considered by a number of countries to be an independent state, Ivan is confident that it is part of Serbia: “In Kosovo, unlike Karabakh or Transnistria, does not have its own president, government, or army. How can Kosovo be independent? In fact, this is a region of Serbia with very large autonomy, nothing more» .

Trade at the bridge

Suicide bombers - messages about the death of citizens

There is also a restaurant "Sever" in Arkhangelsk, it looks about the same

The Serbian flag is like an inverted Russian one

View from the window

What are these holes for?

Transport

Square of the Milic brothers, three young Serbs - victims of the Serbian-Albanian conflict.
Two of them died, under what circumstances, I did not understand due to the difficulties of translation, and the third “died of grief.”

The difference in position regarding the status of Kosovo also affects the specifics of the conversation with local security forces at the border. Thus, when communicating with Albanian-Kosovars, under no circumstances should you call Kosovo Serbia, and with the Serbs, on the contrary, you should not isolate Kosovo as a separate state, and it is better not to say the word itself, Kosovo, at all.

There is a problem with parking in Mitrovica. There are sidewalks, and they are all occupied by parked jalopies. People have to walk along the roadway, maneuvering between stationary and moving vehicles. However, the terrain and the width of the streets do not allow cars to accelerate much, and drivers are accustomed to pedestrians on the road and drive carefully. In Mitrovica, unlike Pristina and Prizren, parking in the center is free. On the main street, which goes up from the bridge, there are a dozen cafes where young people hang out from morning to evening. Kosovo is a very youthful city, because... The Mitrovica Technical Institute operates here, where children even from neighboring countries come to study.

The food in Kosovo was not impressive. In the stores, the products were mostly imported; the milk and yoghurts we bought were from Macedonia, Bosnia, Germany and even Turkey. In cafes there are Serbian meat cutlets - pljeskavica. It is better to order one dish, because... The portions are very large. Smoking is allowed in Kosovo catering establishments. Wherever you go, there is smoke everywhere. Probably, even in the children's cafe "Cheburashka" it would be smoky.

On one of the main streets of Mitrovica there is a Rio supermarket with groceries and household chemicals, they accept payment by card, which is rare.

Fashionable boots

Looks like boots from the L-1 chemical protection suit

gas station

To see Mitrovica, all you need to do is one full day. But it’s not worth going to Kosovo just because of K-M; you definitely need to visit other cities, especially ancient Prizren, where we went the next day.

Power station at the entrance to Mitrovica

Kosovska Mitrovica is modern Berlin of the second half of the twentieth century. Only instead of a wall there is a river. On one side are Serbs, on the other are Albanians.

There are no attractions. Perhaps a huge monument in the form of a trolley on a hill on the Serbian side. It is much more interesting to consider the attributes of political reality.

Posters “Russia, help”, “Russia is with us” and “We don’t need NATO” on the central square

and portraits of Putin in every store.

And here is the bridge famous in the news, separating the “two worlds”. Although the bridge is covered with barbed wire and under police protection (Kosovar and international), it does not look intimidating. People walk along it calmly, no one stops them.

The river separating the two communities is very shallow. The children cross it on foot.

Beyond the bridge the picture changed. Instead of asking for help from Russia, warm gratitude to the USA and the EU.

Instead of Putin - Ms. Albright

and Dayton Accords

and, of course, Albanian flags on every house.

and Albanian toponymy in general

as well as heroes of the struggle for independence

If you have seen a typical city in the Middle East or Turkey, then you will not see anything new in Albanian Mitrovica

A couple of features (not only of Mitrovica, but of all of Kosovo):

- The indispensable sound of a rattling diesel generator. He stands on the street in front of every cafe. There is still a problem with electricity.

- A huge number of travel agencies selling bus and plane tickets to Europe, as well as many courses for learning German, Italian, etc. The basis of Kosovo's economy is foreign currency transfers from foreign workers.

Photo from the window of the Mitrovica-Pristina bus

Pristina was a disappointment. Not by development, no. This is roughly the kind of mishmash of unfinished brick mansions and creepy post-socialist high-rise buildings that was expected to be seen.

Isn't this where the Bratislava scenes of the movie "Eurotrip" were filmed?

Pristina turned out to be very faceless in terms of geopolitical color. It was as if there was no independence. Yes, there are flags. But that's all.

Only the old poster with Bill Clinton on the boulevard of the same name is still there.

but there are already Chinese shops

The center of Pristina is a series of hastily built, rebuilt and under construction buildings for the Kosovo administration and UN missions.

This is clearly a former hotel

Here is the stela in honor of Kosovo’s independence, known from news reports

A shopping center that looks very similar to Temple of Nod from the computer game Command & Conquer.

In general, the newest and best-looking houses are the buildings of international organizations and banks

Unlike Russia, I don’t even think about closing the “British Council” here

There are many NATO members on the streets. Heading towards the burgers)

Of the old buildings, a couple of mosques and the current Kosovo Museum remain.

There is also an Orthodox cathedral - burned out from the inside and surrounded by several rows of barbed wire. True, the cross on it is new.

Nearby is another remarkable building (built in the late 80s?) - the UN library. It looks like a huge mosque with domes, but without minarets, surrounded by stylized barbed wire.

The most beautiful thing we found in Pristina is the monument to Mother Teresa on the boulevard of the same name.

In general, Kosovo quite feels like an independent state.

Next stop European Union?
Or is stopping still prohibited?

And our next stop is Prizren, which will be discussed in the next post.