Medveđa
| |
---|---|
Town and
municipality | |
Coordinates: 42°50′35″N 21°35′05″E / 42.84306°N 21.58472°E | |
Country | Serbia |
Region | Southern and Eastern Serbia |
District | Jablanica |
Settlements | 44 |
Government | |
• Mayor | Dragan Kulić ( SNS) |
Area | |
• Town | 19.82 km2 (7.65 sq mi) |
• Municipality | 524 km2 (202 sq mi) |
Elevation | 440 m (1,440 ft) |
Population (2022 census)
[3] | |
• Town | 2,993 |
• Town density | 150/km2 (390/sq mi) |
• Municipality | 6,360 |
• Municipality density | 12/km2 (31/sq mi) |
Time zone | UTC+1 ( CET) |
• Summer ( DST) | UTC+2 ( CEST) |
Postal code | 16240 |
Area code | +381(0)16 |
Car plates | LE |
Website |
www |
Medveđa ( Serbian Cyrillic: Медвеђа, pronounced [ˈmɛdvɛdʑa]; Albanian: Medvegja, pronounced [ˈmedveɟa]) is a town and municipality located in the Jablanica District of southern Serbia. As of the 2022 census, the municipality has a population of 6,360, while the town has a population of 2,993. [3]
The name is derived from the Serbian word medved (медвед), "bear", hence meaning "the place of the bears".[ citation needed]
During the Roman period, there was a town (mansia) with the name Idimum located in the cadastral area of the modern town. Architectural debris dating to the 4th century AD lay at various locations of the town, as it was a transitory zone of Upper Moesia; travel and postal stations are among the finds. [4]
Toponyms such as Arbanaška and Đjake shows an Albanian presence in the Toplica and Southern Morava regions (located north-east of contemporary Kosovo) before the expulsion of Albanians during 1877–1878 period. [5] [6] The rural parts of Jablanica valley and adjoining semi-mountainous interior was inhabited by compact Muslim Albanian population while Serbs in those areas lived near the river mouths and mountain slopes and both peoples inhabited other regions of the South Morava river basin. [7] [8] [9] As the wider Jabllanica region, Medveđa also had an Albanian majority. These Albanians were expelled by Serbian forces [10] [11] [12] in a way that today would be characterized as ethnic cleansing. [13] Due to depopulation and economic considerations some small numbers of Albanians were allowed to stay and return though not to their previous settlements and instead were designated concentrated village clusters in the Toplica, Masurica and Jablanica areas. [12] Of those only in the Jablanica valley centered around the town of Medveđa have small numbers of Albanians and their descendants remained. [10] [11] This was due to a local Ottoman Albanian commander Sahit Pasha from the Jablanica area negotiating on good terms with Prince Milan and thereby guaranteeing their presence. [10] [12]
Already in 1900, a group of prominent residents of the Upper Jablanica region officially applied to the government for Medveđa to be declared a town (varoš). They also asked for the settlement to be renamed to Dubočica. Only after the fourth try by the local population, Medveđa was declared varošica ("small town") by King Alexander I of Yugoslavia on 31 December 1921. [14]
The World War II hit the town in 1941. Yugoslav Partisans took the town back in 1944 and killed around 200 people. [15] From 1945 until 1992, the municipality of Medveđa was part of SFR Yugoslavia.
In 1992, the Albanians in the area organized a referendum in which they voted that Medveđa, Preševo and Bujanovac should join the self-declared assembly of the Republic of Kosova. However, no major events happened until the end of the 1990s.
Following the breakup of Yugoslavia, and nearby Kosovo War which lasted until 1999, between 1999 and 2001, an ethnic Albanian paramilitary separatist organization, the UÇPMB, raised an armed insurgency in the Preševo Valley, in the region mostly inhabited by Albanians, with a goal to occupy these three municipalities from Serbia and join them to the self-proclaimed Republic of Kosova. The insurgency was less present in Medveđa than in other two municipalities, due to a small number of ethnic Albanians and minor importance.
Western countries condemned the attacks and described it as the "extremism" and use of "illegal terrorist actions" by the group. [16] Following the overthrow of Slobodan Milošević, the new Serbian government suppressed the violence by 2001 and defeated the separatists. NATO troops also helped the Serbian government by ensuring that the rebels do not import the conflicts back into Kosovo. [17] Thereafter, the situation has stabilized even though large number of forces exist in this small municipality.
In 2009, Serbia opened a military base Cepotina 5 kilometers south of Bujanovac, to further stabilize the area. [18]
Today, Medveđa is located in the Jablanica District of southern Serbia. On 26 November 2017, the President of Albania Ilir Meta made a historical visit to Medveđa, municipality with Albanian ethnic minority. [19]
According to the 2011 census results, the municipality of Medveđa has a population of 7,438 inhabitants. It saw a great depopulation in the past 50 years, having nearly 25,000 inhabitants in 1961 and 7,400 fifty years later. Around 43.5% of inhabitants live in urban areas. As of the 2022 census, the municipality has a population of 6,360 inhabitants. [3]
Aside from the town of Medveđa, the municipality includes the following settlements:
Year | Pop. | ±% p.a. |
---|---|---|
1948 | 22,478 | — |
1953 | 24,300 | +1.57% |
1961 | 24,244 | −0.03% |
1971 | 20,792 | −1.52% |
1981 | 17,219 | −1.87% |
1991 | 13,368 | −2.50% |
2002 | 10,760 | −1.95% |
2011 | 7,438 | −4.02% |
2022 | 6,360 | −1.41% |
Source: [20] [3] |
The majority of the municipality's population are Serbs, numbering more than 75%. Other ethnic groups include Albanians who numbered 32% in 1981 and 26.2% in the 2002 census. In 2011 they numbered only 7.1% as they mostly boycotted the census. The 2022 census showed that 14.2% of the municipality's population are Albanians. [3]
There are other small minorities of Montenegrins and Roma people. The ethnic composition of the municipality:
Ethnic group | Population 1961 [21] |
Population 1971 [22] |
Population 1981 [23] |
Population 1991 [24] |
Population 2002 [25] |
Population 2011 [26] |
Population 2022 [27] |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Serbs | 18,956 | 13,002 | 9,654 | 8,194 | 7,163 | 6,429 | 4,927 |
Albanians | 5,037 | 5,410 | 5,509 | 3,832 | 2,816 | 527 | 905 |
Montenegrins | 110 | 2,127 | 1,700 | 1,011 | 372 | 143 | 80 |
Romani | 36 | 52 | 83 | 119 | 108 | 145 | 149 |
Macedonians | 6 | 14 | 17 | - | 11 | 13 | 7 |
Muslims | 61 | 19 | 56 | 16 | 4 | 4 | 3 |
Bulgarians | - | - | - | - | 5 | 4 | 2 |
Yugoslavs | 1 | 68 | 145 | 67 | 2 | - | 2 |
Others | 37 | 100 | 55 | 129 | 279 | 173 | 285 |
Total | 24,244 | 20,792 | 17,219 | 13,368 | 10,760 | 7,438 | 6,360 |
The municipality of Medveđa is one of the least developed municipalities in Serbia. It has many natural advantages for tourism development, as it is in the vicinity of a spa resort with dozens of mineral springs in Sijarinska Banja, Stara Banja and Tulare.
On its territory there are mineral resources for mining, semi-precious stones and marble-onyx. The most promising branch of industry is mining, having mine and flotation "Lece", within the Group Farmakom. It has also solid prospects for development in agriculture and industries such as livestock (sheep, goats, cows) and fruit (plums, pears, apples, quince), also the timber industry and processing.
The following table gives a preview of total number of registered people employed in legal entities per their core activity (as of 2018): [28]
Activity | Total |
---|---|
Agriculture, forestry and fishing | 30 |
Mining and quarrying | 398 |
Manufacturing | 42 |
Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply | 10 |
Water supply; sewerage, waste management and remediation activities | 48 |
Construction | 28 |
Wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles | 135 |
Transportation and storage | 30 |
Accommodation and food services | 35 |
Information and communication | 3 |
Financial and insurance activities | 3 |
Real estate activities | 3 |
Professional, scientific and technical activities | 20 |
Administrative and support service activities | 2 |
Public administration and defense; compulsory social security | 326 |
Education | 222 |
Human health and social work activities | 229 |
Arts, entertainment and recreation | 17 |
Other service activities | 9 |
Individual agricultural workers | 230 |
Total | 1,820 |
Seats in the municipality parliament won in the 2012 local elections: [29]
Using secondary sources, we establish that there have been Albanians living in the area of Nish for at least 500 years, that the Ottoman Empire controlled the area from the fourteenth to nineteenth centuries which led to many Albanians converting to Islam, that the Muslim Albanians of Nish were forced to leave in 1878, and that at that time most of these Nishan Albanians migrated south into Kosovo, although some went to Skopje in Macedonia.; p. 557. It is generally believed that the Albanians in Samsun Province are the descendants of the migrants and refugees from Kosovo who arrived in Turkey during the wars of 1912–13. Based on our research in Samsun Province, we argue that this information is partial and misleading. The interviews we conducted with the Albanian families and community leaders in the region and the review of Ottoman history show that part of the Albanian community in Samsun was founded through three stages of successive migrations. The first migration involved the forced removal of Muslim Albanians from the Sancak of Nish in 1878; the second migration occurred when these migrants' children fled from the massacres in Kosovo in 1912–13 to Anatolia; and the third migration took place between 1913 and 1924 from the scattered villages in Central Anatolia where they were originally placed to the Samsun area in the Black Sea Region. Thus, the Albanian community founded in the 1920s in Samsun was in many ways a reassembling of the demolished Muslim Albanian community of Nish…. Our interviews indicate that Samsun Albanians descend from Albanians who had been living in the villages around the city of Nish… pp. 557–558. In 1690 much of the population of the city and surrounding area was killed or fled, and there was an emigration of Albanians from the Malësia e Madhe (North Central Albania/Eastern Montenegro) and Dukagjin Plateau (Western Kosovo) into Nish.
Medveđa
| |
---|---|
Town and
municipality | |
Coordinates: 42°50′35″N 21°35′05″E / 42.84306°N 21.58472°E | |
Country | Serbia |
Region | Southern and Eastern Serbia |
District | Jablanica |
Settlements | 44 |
Government | |
• Mayor | Dragan Kulić ( SNS) |
Area | |
• Town | 19.82 km2 (7.65 sq mi) |
• Municipality | 524 km2 (202 sq mi) |
Elevation | 440 m (1,440 ft) |
Population (2022 census)
[3] | |
• Town | 2,993 |
• Town density | 150/km2 (390/sq mi) |
• Municipality | 6,360 |
• Municipality density | 12/km2 (31/sq mi) |
Time zone | UTC+1 ( CET) |
• Summer ( DST) | UTC+2 ( CEST) |
Postal code | 16240 |
Area code | +381(0)16 |
Car plates | LE |
Website |
www |
Medveđa ( Serbian Cyrillic: Медвеђа, pronounced [ˈmɛdvɛdʑa]; Albanian: Medvegja, pronounced [ˈmedveɟa]) is a town and municipality located in the Jablanica District of southern Serbia. As of the 2022 census, the municipality has a population of 6,360, while the town has a population of 2,993. [3]
The name is derived from the Serbian word medved (медвед), "bear", hence meaning "the place of the bears".[ citation needed]
During the Roman period, there was a town (mansia) with the name Idimum located in the cadastral area of the modern town. Architectural debris dating to the 4th century AD lay at various locations of the town, as it was a transitory zone of Upper Moesia; travel and postal stations are among the finds. [4]
Toponyms such as Arbanaška and Đjake shows an Albanian presence in the Toplica and Southern Morava regions (located north-east of contemporary Kosovo) before the expulsion of Albanians during 1877–1878 period. [5] [6] The rural parts of Jablanica valley and adjoining semi-mountainous interior was inhabited by compact Muslim Albanian population while Serbs in those areas lived near the river mouths and mountain slopes and both peoples inhabited other regions of the South Morava river basin. [7] [8] [9] As the wider Jabllanica region, Medveđa also had an Albanian majority. These Albanians were expelled by Serbian forces [10] [11] [12] in a way that today would be characterized as ethnic cleansing. [13] Due to depopulation and economic considerations some small numbers of Albanians were allowed to stay and return though not to their previous settlements and instead were designated concentrated village clusters in the Toplica, Masurica and Jablanica areas. [12] Of those only in the Jablanica valley centered around the town of Medveđa have small numbers of Albanians and their descendants remained. [10] [11] This was due to a local Ottoman Albanian commander Sahit Pasha from the Jablanica area negotiating on good terms with Prince Milan and thereby guaranteeing their presence. [10] [12]
Already in 1900, a group of prominent residents of the Upper Jablanica region officially applied to the government for Medveđa to be declared a town (varoš). They also asked for the settlement to be renamed to Dubočica. Only after the fourth try by the local population, Medveđa was declared varošica ("small town") by King Alexander I of Yugoslavia on 31 December 1921. [14]
The World War II hit the town in 1941. Yugoslav Partisans took the town back in 1944 and killed around 200 people. [15] From 1945 until 1992, the municipality of Medveđa was part of SFR Yugoslavia.
In 1992, the Albanians in the area organized a referendum in which they voted that Medveđa, Preševo and Bujanovac should join the self-declared assembly of the Republic of Kosova. However, no major events happened until the end of the 1990s.
Following the breakup of Yugoslavia, and nearby Kosovo War which lasted until 1999, between 1999 and 2001, an ethnic Albanian paramilitary separatist organization, the UÇPMB, raised an armed insurgency in the Preševo Valley, in the region mostly inhabited by Albanians, with a goal to occupy these three municipalities from Serbia and join them to the self-proclaimed Republic of Kosova. The insurgency was less present in Medveđa than in other two municipalities, due to a small number of ethnic Albanians and minor importance.
Western countries condemned the attacks and described it as the "extremism" and use of "illegal terrorist actions" by the group. [16] Following the overthrow of Slobodan Milošević, the new Serbian government suppressed the violence by 2001 and defeated the separatists. NATO troops also helped the Serbian government by ensuring that the rebels do not import the conflicts back into Kosovo. [17] Thereafter, the situation has stabilized even though large number of forces exist in this small municipality.
In 2009, Serbia opened a military base Cepotina 5 kilometers south of Bujanovac, to further stabilize the area. [18]
Today, Medveđa is located in the Jablanica District of southern Serbia. On 26 November 2017, the President of Albania Ilir Meta made a historical visit to Medveđa, municipality with Albanian ethnic minority. [19]
According to the 2011 census results, the municipality of Medveđa has a population of 7,438 inhabitants. It saw a great depopulation in the past 50 years, having nearly 25,000 inhabitants in 1961 and 7,400 fifty years later. Around 43.5% of inhabitants live in urban areas. As of the 2022 census, the municipality has a population of 6,360 inhabitants. [3]
Aside from the town of Medveđa, the municipality includes the following settlements:
Year | Pop. | ±% p.a. |
---|---|---|
1948 | 22,478 | — |
1953 | 24,300 | +1.57% |
1961 | 24,244 | −0.03% |
1971 | 20,792 | −1.52% |
1981 | 17,219 | −1.87% |
1991 | 13,368 | −2.50% |
2002 | 10,760 | −1.95% |
2011 | 7,438 | −4.02% |
2022 | 6,360 | −1.41% |
Source: [20] [3] |
The majority of the municipality's population are Serbs, numbering more than 75%. Other ethnic groups include Albanians who numbered 32% in 1981 and 26.2% in the 2002 census. In 2011 they numbered only 7.1% as they mostly boycotted the census. The 2022 census showed that 14.2% of the municipality's population are Albanians. [3]
There are other small minorities of Montenegrins and Roma people. The ethnic composition of the municipality:
Ethnic group | Population 1961 [21] |
Population 1971 [22] |
Population 1981 [23] |
Population 1991 [24] |
Population 2002 [25] |
Population 2011 [26] |
Population 2022 [27] |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Serbs | 18,956 | 13,002 | 9,654 | 8,194 | 7,163 | 6,429 | 4,927 |
Albanians | 5,037 | 5,410 | 5,509 | 3,832 | 2,816 | 527 | 905 |
Montenegrins | 110 | 2,127 | 1,700 | 1,011 | 372 | 143 | 80 |
Romani | 36 | 52 | 83 | 119 | 108 | 145 | 149 |
Macedonians | 6 | 14 | 17 | - | 11 | 13 | 7 |
Muslims | 61 | 19 | 56 | 16 | 4 | 4 | 3 |
Bulgarians | - | - | - | - | 5 | 4 | 2 |
Yugoslavs | 1 | 68 | 145 | 67 | 2 | - | 2 |
Others | 37 | 100 | 55 | 129 | 279 | 173 | 285 |
Total | 24,244 | 20,792 | 17,219 | 13,368 | 10,760 | 7,438 | 6,360 |
The municipality of Medveđa is one of the least developed municipalities in Serbia. It has many natural advantages for tourism development, as it is in the vicinity of a spa resort with dozens of mineral springs in Sijarinska Banja, Stara Banja and Tulare.
On its territory there are mineral resources for mining, semi-precious stones and marble-onyx. The most promising branch of industry is mining, having mine and flotation "Lece", within the Group Farmakom. It has also solid prospects for development in agriculture and industries such as livestock (sheep, goats, cows) and fruit (plums, pears, apples, quince), also the timber industry and processing.
The following table gives a preview of total number of registered people employed in legal entities per their core activity (as of 2018): [28]
Activity | Total |
---|---|
Agriculture, forestry and fishing | 30 |
Mining and quarrying | 398 |
Manufacturing | 42 |
Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply | 10 |
Water supply; sewerage, waste management and remediation activities | 48 |
Construction | 28 |
Wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles | 135 |
Transportation and storage | 30 |
Accommodation and food services | 35 |
Information and communication | 3 |
Financial and insurance activities | 3 |
Real estate activities | 3 |
Professional, scientific and technical activities | 20 |
Administrative and support service activities | 2 |
Public administration and defense; compulsory social security | 326 |
Education | 222 |
Human health and social work activities | 229 |
Arts, entertainment and recreation | 17 |
Other service activities | 9 |
Individual agricultural workers | 230 |
Total | 1,820 |
Seats in the municipality parliament won in the 2012 local elections: [29]
Using secondary sources, we establish that there have been Albanians living in the area of Nish for at least 500 years, that the Ottoman Empire controlled the area from the fourteenth to nineteenth centuries which led to many Albanians converting to Islam, that the Muslim Albanians of Nish were forced to leave in 1878, and that at that time most of these Nishan Albanians migrated south into Kosovo, although some went to Skopje in Macedonia.; p. 557. It is generally believed that the Albanians in Samsun Province are the descendants of the migrants and refugees from Kosovo who arrived in Turkey during the wars of 1912–13. Based on our research in Samsun Province, we argue that this information is partial and misleading. The interviews we conducted with the Albanian families and community leaders in the region and the review of Ottoman history show that part of the Albanian community in Samsun was founded through three stages of successive migrations. The first migration involved the forced removal of Muslim Albanians from the Sancak of Nish in 1878; the second migration occurred when these migrants' children fled from the massacres in Kosovo in 1912–13 to Anatolia; and the third migration took place between 1913 and 1924 from the scattered villages in Central Anatolia where they were originally placed to the Samsun area in the Black Sea Region. Thus, the Albanian community founded in the 1920s in Samsun was in many ways a reassembling of the demolished Muslim Albanian community of Nish…. Our interviews indicate that Samsun Albanians descend from Albanians who had been living in the villages around the city of Nish… pp. 557–558. In 1690 much of the population of the city and surrounding area was killed or fled, and there was an emigration of Albanians from the Malësia e Madhe (North Central Albania/Eastern Montenegro) and Dukagjin Plateau (Western Kosovo) into Nish.