Preševo Valley

The Preševo Valley is geopolitical region in southern Serbia, along the border with Kosovo. The valley geographically includes municipalities of Bujanovac and Preševo, and politically also Medveđa. It is home to most of the Albanian community in Serbia, who comprise around 1/2 of the population with the rest being Serbs and Roma. As of 2015, the area has around 75,300 inhabitants.

In Albanian the area is referred to as Lugina e Preshevës and in Serbian as Preševska dolina. Albanians also sometimes call the region eastern Kosovo as parts of the territory were considered part of geographical region of Kosovo until the end of World War II. Preševo itself was a kaza of the Kosovo Vilayet until 1912. Medvedja was part of the sanjak of Niš until 1878. The change in the administrative border between In a series of administrative reforms after the war, it became part of Pčinja District. Because of Albanian demands for territorial autonomy, the use of "Preševo Valley" is somewhat politically loaded. In Serbian official statements, the area is usually referred to as the "territory of municipalities of Preševo, Bujanovac and Medveđa".

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