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The Republic of Serbia is a republic of south-eastern Europe, which is united with Montenegro in a
loose commonwealth known as the Union of Serbia and
Montenegro.
The Kingdom of Serbia was established in the 11th century, and in the
13th century it eventually became the Serbian Empire. After 1918, Serbia as a founder was a part of Yugoslavia in its various forms. From 1992,
following the independence of Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and the
Republic of Macedonia from the Socialist Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia, until February 2003, Serbia and Montenegro made up the two-member Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
Serbia is populated mostly by Serbs. Significant minorities in Serbia include Albanians, Hungarians and Roma.
The current prime minister of Serbia, as of March 2004, is the former Yugoslav president, Vojislav Kostunica, who replaced Slobodan Milosevic as Yugoslav president in October of 2000.
Serbia's (interim) president is Predrag Markovic.
Serbian anthem is Hej Sloveni. "Hej Sloveni" is the anthem of the
commonwealth of Serbia and Montenegro also. Serbs would like to have "Boze
pravde" as their anthem and it is likely to change in the near future.
The Serbian coat of arms was devised in the aftermath of World War II,
replacing the country's 19th century coat of arms.
Administrative subdivisions
Serbia is made up of 108 counties. It has two autonomous provinces: Kosovo and Metohija in the south (with 30 counties), which is presently under the occupation of the
United Nations, and Vojvodina in the
north (with 54 counties).
The part of Serbia that is neither in Kosovo nor in Vojvodina is not an administrative division and is called central Serbia.
In English this region is often called "Serbia proper" to denote "the part of the Republic of Serbia not including the
provinces of Vojvodina and Kosovo; the ethnic and political core of the Serbian state," as the Library of Congress puts it. [1] . This usage was apparently also employed in
Serbo-Croatian during the Yugoslav era (in the form of "uža
Srbija"). Its use in English is purely geographical without any particular political meaning being implied.
See also
- Geography of Serbia
- History:
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