Europe's youngest country Kosovo on Saturday marked 11 years of its independence.

Axar.az reports citing Anadolu Agency.

Kosovo got an early taste of its future in 1945 as "the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija" within socialist Yugoslavia. Later, in 1968, it became the Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo.

Yugoslavia’s new Constitution in 1974 enabled the province to function at every administrative level independently of its host republic within Yugoslavia.

In the late 1980s Slobodan Milosevic -- then Serbia’s president within Yugoslavia, before dying decades later in 2006 while on trial for war crimes -- effectively terminated the 1974 privileges, saying they were contrary to the interests of Serbs.

Milosevic's move drew criticism from the other Yugoslav republics.

In response, in 1990 the Kosovo Assembly voted to declare Kosovo an independent state.

The assembly's vote was recognized by Albania.

Later, conflicts between Serbian forces and the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), which was founded in 1991, played an important role in the country’s move towards independence.

The conflict escalated into the Kosovo war, which lasted from February 1998 until June 1999. The war ended after NATO intervention in the form of an extensive bombing campaign, including targets in Kosovo.