Location of Metohija within Kosovo
Metohija is a large basin and region covering the southwestern part of Kosovo. Known as Dukagjini in Albanian, Metohija's name comes from the Greek word metochion, meaning "monastic estates" (referring to the Serbian Orthodox estates in the region). The Kingdom of Montenegro conquered Metohija from the Ottoman Empire in 1912, and it joined the Kingdom of Serbia after World War I, later merging into the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. In 1941, during World War II, Italy and its Albanian Vulnetari militia took over Metohija, but Nazi Germany took over the region in 1943 after the Italian surrender to the Allied Powers. In 1944, the Yugoslav Partisans took over the region, which became a part of Communist Yugoslavia after the war's end. Metohija was a part of SAP Kosovo until 1992, when it became a part of the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija, which declared independence as "Kosovo" following the 1999 Kosovo War. In 2011, Metohija had a population of 700,577 people.