Priština – Demonstrations in Priština, November 1988

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I remember that my colleague Imre Sabo (Imre Szabó) published a photograph titled House for Sale on the cover of Ilustrovana Politika in the early 1980s. That image stayed with me when I traveled to Kosovo in 1988.

In the village of Prekale, I photographed a sign reading “For sale: all Serbian property” . An Albanian man said to me at the time:
“If Belgrade continues to treat us this way, we will collapse — but we will also pull the whole of Yugoslavia into a bottomless pit.”

During the demonstrations in Priština, symbols similar to those seen at rallies elsewhere in Serbia appeared at first glance: portraits of Tito and Yugoslav flags. However, instead of reproductions of the Kosovo Maiden, The Great Migration of the Serbs, Njegoš, Obilić, or images of Slobodan Milošević and his closest associates, flags bearing the black double-headed eagle dominated the scene .

These scenes clearly point to deep ethnic and political divisions in Kosovo, which intensified toward the end of the 1980s and soon escalated into serious conflicts, ultimately requiring international mediation.