DISCUSSION ABOUT THE OTTOMAN IMAGE IN KOSOVO’S HISTORY WRITING: KOSOVO WAR AND SKANDERBEG

This work offers a study of the Ottoman/Turkish imagery in history textbooks in Kosovo. The unit of research is the compulsory textbooks prepared for the Albanian students in primary and middle schools in Kosovo in the year 2010-2011. Textbooks, which usually are the first meeting of the individual with history, are a main subject in educational sciences due to the fact that they are the compulsory study units which are designed by the states, reflections of the “official” national histories. However, little research has been carried on the history textbooks in Kosovo. This study, which aims to shed light on the negative imageries in these books is inspired by the speeches made by the former Turkish Education Minister ？mer Din？er and former Foreign Minister Ahmet Davuto？lu and following reflections and discussion in Kosovo in the year 2011. In this study, 5th Grade history textbook prepared for Kosovo Turks was also took into account for the comparison.History textbooks have been studied under the light of the aforementioned discussions. Positive and negative images of the Ottoman/Turkish image are addressed in this study. Negative descriptions of the Ottoman administrative system were one of the issues which required more attention. Such descriptive words as occupier, terror, captures children and despotic for the Ottoman rule were used