Mitrovica (Kosovo)

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Mitrovicë / Mitrovica 1
Kosovska Mitrovica / Косовска Митровица 2
Mitrovica coat of arms (Kosovo)
Mitrovica (Kosovo) (Kosovo)
Paris plan pointer b jms.svg
Basic data
State : KosovoKosovo Kosovo 3
District : Mitrovica
Municipality : Mitrovica e Jugut
Severna Kosovska Mitrovica
Coordinates : 42 ° 53 '  N , 20 ° 52'  E Coordinates: 42 ° 53 '24 "  N , 20 ° 52' 12"  E
Height : 510  m above sea level A.
Telephone code : +383 (0) 28
License plate : 02
1  Albanian (indefinite / definite form) ,
2  Serbian (Latin / Cyrillic spelling)
3  Kosovo's independence is controversial. Serbia continues to regard the country as a Serbian province.

Mitrovica ( Albanian  also  Mitrovicë , Serbian Косовска Митровица Kosovska Mitrovica ) is a city in northern Kosovo . It is divided by the Ibar into a northern, mainly Serbian - speaking part ( North Mitrovica ) and a southern, mainly Albanian-speaking part. From an administrative point of view, these two halves of the city have belonged to different municipalities since 2008: The larger south is part of the municipality of Mitrovica e Jugut , while the north forms the municipality of Severna Kosovska Mitrovica . The city is the administrative seat of these two municipalities and also the seat of the Mitrovica district .

geography

View over Mitrovica onto the hilly landscape to the north and west. The prominent hill on the right is the fortress hill of Zvečan .

Mitrovica is located on the southwestern edge of the Kopaonik Mountains in the hill country to the south bordering Blackbird Field . The Ibar flows through the city coming from the west and takes the Sitnica coming from the south in the north of the urban area and flows into the Western Morava at Kraljevo . Mitrovica is surrounded on all sides by wooded hills on average 700 meters high; the blackbird field opens only in the southeast .

The continental climate prevails here in the hill country.

Outside the center, the city is divided into several districts. North of the Ibar are the quite centrally located Bošnjačka mahala (Albanian Lagjja e Boshnjakëve ) as well as Mikronaselje ( Kodra e Minatorëve ) and Brđane ( Kroi i Vitakut ). On the south side are the hill Bajri and the districts Ura e Gjakut , Ilirida (Serbian Tavnik ), Lagjja Tjegullore and Lagjja 2 Korriku .

The towns of Zhabar and Shipol adjoin the southern city limits .

history

Antiquity

The strategically favorable location at the confluence of two rivers meant that today's Mitrovica site was already settled in prehistory . This fact is proven by numerous finds that date from the Neolithic Age .

In ancient times , the Illyrian tribe of the Dardans lived here . During excavations in and around Mitrovica, an Illyrian necropolis and several statues from the period were discovered. It is believed that Dardania's economy was primarily based on agriculture and livestock . In addition, remnants of metal slag from this time were found, which are the oldest evidence of mining in Kosovo.

From the 1st century the area belonged to the Roman Empire , later to the Byzantine Empire .

middle Ages

The Byzantine rule over today's Mitrovica, which was constant for almost centuries, was interrupted from 897 to 927 by an episode of the Bulgarian rule under Simeon I. From 1185 the area belonged to the Serbian Empire of the Nemanjids , which expanded further and further south. Mitrovica was initially a village settlement in Razia , which grew into a town in the 14th century - during Serbia's economic heyday. The place got its name after a church dedicated to St. Dimitrios, around which the settlement expanded. In 1455 the village of Dimitrovce was mentioned in Ottoman documents .

In the middle of the 15th century, the city came under Ottoman rule and remained so until the First Balkan War (1912–1913).

Modern times

Mitrovica Railway Station, 1894
The bridge over the Ibar, which connects the southern with the northern part of the city.

In 1689 the city was destroyed by Austrian troops under General Piccolomini, after which it lost its importance. It did not experience an economic upswing until 1873/74, when Mitrovica received its first rail connection. This line, which was built and operated by the Compagnie des Chemins de Fer Orientaux , which was headed by Baron Hirsch , had its starting point in the then Turkish port city of Thessaloniki .

The discovery of lead ore, for the extraction of which several mines were sunk , gave further development impetus .

When Serbia and Montenegro gained their independence at the Berlin Congress , Mitrovica remained in the Sanjak of Novi Pazar, which was still under Ottoman sovereignty and administration, but was occupied by Austrian troops according to the treaty . After the First Balkan War , the Kingdom of Serbia came into being in 1913 , which on October 29, 1918 became part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes , renamed the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1929. From 1941 to autumn 1944 the area was occupied by Wehrmacht troops; these were driven out by an offensive by the Red Army in 1944 .

In 1981 there were 105,000 people in the city, 66,500 of whom identified themselves as Albanians and 20,000 as Serbs and Montenegrins .

From 1982 to 1991 the city was called Titova Mitrovica (alb. Mitrovica e Titos ), after Josip Broz Tito .

Division after 1999

After the Kosovo war in 1999, the city was divided into a southern part with an almost exclusively Albanian population (approx. 60,000 inhabitants) and a northern part with a predominantly Serbian (approx. 13,000 inhabitants) population. The two parts of the city are connected by two road bridges and a footbridge over the river Ibar. Like all cities in Kosovo, the city is guarded by KFOR troops.

In Kosovska Mitrovica, where the nationwide, pogrom-like March riots began on March 17, 2004 and where, in contrast to many other places in Kosovo, KFOR soldiers and UNO police also opposed the Kosovar Albanians advancing into the northern Serbian part of the city, most of the dead were during the March riots. In contrast to all other regions in Kosovo, the violent Kosovar Albanian mob encountered armed Kosovar Serb resistance in Kosovska-Mitrovica. When about 3,000 Kosovar Albanians penetrated the UN checkpoints on the Ibar Bridge using firearms, they were prevented from entering the northern part of Serbia by Serbian self-defense forces. On the very first day of the riots, at least 200 people were reported injured from the armed clashes, including at least 13 French KFOR soldiers. That same evening, UN forces imposed a curfew, threatening to shoot anyone on the street if ignored. UN personnel were evacuated from the city by KFOR.

After the separation, the Serbian Orthodox Church of Saint Dimitri was located in the Albanian part of the city and has been inaccessible since the unrest of March 2004. As a replacement, a new church was built on a hill in the Serbian district and consecrated in 2005.

A settlement for Roma refugees was built on the rubble of houses on the western edge of the city, which were also destroyed in 2004, with international aid . By September 2007, about a dozen brick houses were completed there.

Since Kosovo's declaration of independence

After the evacuation of the Serb-occupied courthouse in the northern part of Mitrovica on March 17, 2008, around 140 people were injured in violent clashes. A Ukrainian UN police officer died from serious injuries. The UN police had previously allegedly been attacked with firearms.

Since June 2008 the northern part of Mitrovica has been the de facto seat of the parliament of the Serbian Community of Municipalities in the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija , which is not recognized by the government in Pristina .

Barricade on the Ibar Bridge, seen from south to north (2013)

In July 2011 a customs conflict between Serbia and Kosovo escalated , which resulted in the erection of road barricades in northern Kosovo by Serbs. At the north end of the Ibar bridge and at the entrance to Bošnjačka mahala Serbs blocked by heaped earth, stones, concrete and wrecked cars , the roads in the southern part of the city. Country roads in the surrounding countryside have also been temporarily blocked. After international pressure - also from Serbia - to remove the barricades, the Serbs replaced the rubble on the Ibar Bridge in 2014 with the so-called Peace Park , which consisted of plant tubs and a small lawn.

In 2017, the remaining barricades and the Peace Park were removed as part of urban development measures. A construction project in the center and the rehabilitation of the Ibar Bridge are to de facto reunite the two halves of the city.

On January 16, 2018, Oliver Ivanović , a politician from the Serb minority in Kosovo, was shot dead by unknown persons in front of his party's headquarters in Mitrovica.

population

Northern part of the city

Since the 2011 Kosovar census did not take place in the four municipalities of northern Kosovo - including North Mitrovica - information on the local population is based on estimates. In 2015, the OSCE estimated a population of 29,460, including 22,530 Serbs , 4,900 Albanians , 1,000 Bosniaks , 580 Gorans , 240 Roma and Ashkali, and 210 Turks . According to the Central Electoral Commission of Kosovo, 27,936 voters were registered in the municipality in November 2013; this number also includes people living abroad.

Southern part of the city

The 2011 census showed South Mitrovica to have 33,904 residents. Of these, 31,646 (93.34%) described themselves as Albanians , 1179 (3.48%) as Roma , Ashkali and Balkan Egyptians , 515 (1.52%) as Turks , 340 as Bosniaks , 23 as Gorans and 13 as Serbs . 36 belonged to other ethnic groups, 53 gave no information about the ethnic group and no data are available for 99 people.

Population development (before division)
census 1948 1953 1961 1971 1981 1991
Residents 13,901 17.195 26,721 42,160 52,866 64,323

Culture and sights

The central mosque of Mitrovica, newly built after the Kosovo War

In Mitrovica there are the three municipal libraries Latif Berisha , which can be found in the city and in the villages of Bare and Tunel i Parë . The number of visitors to the City Museum, which is located in the premises of the former Mitrovica Hamam , is steadily increasing. In the village of Boletin is the Boletin Fortress, which was restored in 2010. The Rexhep Mitrovica cultural center is currently not in use. Mitrovica is also home to the Sandër Prosi Municipal Theater and the Aleksandër Moisiu , Kacageli , Showmeselation and amateur theaters . A music and dance group as well as the literature group Lumi i Bardhë can also be found in the city.

Close-up of the partisan monument

The monument of the Serbian and Albanian partisans sits enthroned on a hill on the northern edge of the city and is visible from all over the city. It commemorates partisans who died in World War II and is a symbol of the city.

media

There are three radio stations and the private television station TV Mitrovica operating in the city.

Sports

There are 23 clubs in the municipality, which are divided into 17 different sports. With the KF Trepça'89 and KF Trepça, Mitrovica is the only city in Kosovo, besides the capital Pristina , that for a long time represented more than a football club in the Raiffeisen Superliga . However, Trepca was relegated in the 2016/17 season. In addition to the local football clubs , Mitrovica also places teams in the best leagues in sports such as handball and basketball .

The following sports venues can be found in Mitrovica:

  • The Minatori multipurpose hall
  • Adem Jashari Stadium (or Trepça Stadium )
  • Small sports stadium Fatime Xhaka
  • Riza Lushta football stadium
  • Ismet Sejdiu football stadium in the village of Bair
  • Stadium Nexhat Taraku
  • Football stadium in the village of Kçiq i Madh
  • Football stadium in the village of Koshtovë

Infrastructure

education

In the northern part of the city is the Mitrovica Technical University, the only higher education institution in Kosovo with predominantly Serbian-language courses. In July it hosts an English-language summer school .

traffic

Mitrovica has good road connections with Zvečan (north), Podujeva (northeast), Vushtrria (southeast), Skënderaj (south) and Zubin Potok (west). It is on an important main road that connects Kosovo with Serbia. The E 65 also leads around the city in the south.

Mitrovica is located on the railway connection from Kraljevo via Fushë Kosova to Skopje , which belongs to the Hekurudhave të Kosovës railway company and is currently not continuously operated , which once represented an important Yugoslavian transversal line and on which even the international high-speed train Akropolis-Express ran. On the route to Fushë Kosova, the railway company Trainkos operates irregular freight traffic, passenger trains are currently not running.

From the neighboring town of Zvečan to Kraljevo , the Serbian railway company Železnice Srbije operates both freight and twice daily passenger transport with modern diesel multiple units. The route between Mitrovica and Zvečan is currently completely closed.

economy

In the 20th century, the city lived almost entirely on the now closed industrial complex Trepča , in which gold , silver , copper , lead and bismuth were mined. In 1999, several UN refugee camps were set up in the immediate vicinity of the former industrial combine.

The mine , which is the largest underground mine in Europe, was closed by KFOR after the Kosovo war for environmental reasons. Today it is back in operation to a limited extent and only produces lead and zinc concentrate, which, however, is not melted down and processed on site as it used to be. Parts of the former spoil dumps contain such a high concentration of rare earths that it is worth selling the spoil for further processing. The overburden is so heavily contaminated that it cannot be transported overland through the European Union . All former processing local industries (zinc and lead plants) are still closed.

As in the rest of the country, large parts of the population are unemployed. There is little or hardly any social assistance in Kosovo. The few people in employment work in the trade sector, many are also active in services. Agriculture has lost a lot of its importance; today only a fraction is active in this area.

Personalities

Web links

Commons : Mitrovica, Kosovo  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Lista emërore e emërtimeve të lagjeve, shesheve, bulevardeve dhe të rrugëve qytetit të Mitrovicës. (No longer available online.) In: rks-gov.net. Komuna e Mitrovicës, April 21, 2009, archived from the original on February 13, 2018 ; Retrieved February 13, 2018 (Albanian). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / kk.rks-gov.net
  2. a b c d Historia. (No longer available online.) In: rks-gov.net. Mitrovica, archived from the original on April 9, 2017 ; Retrieved April 9, 2017 (Albanian). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / kk.rks-gov.net
  3. ^ A b c Susanne Dell: Kosovo - Information - Travel - Remember . 2017, ISBN 978-3-7431-1037-3 , pp. 157 ( google.de ).
  4. ^ Kosovska Mitrovica. In: mirjanadetelic.com. Retrieved May 3, 2017 (Serbian).
  5. Hrvatska enciklopedija , Dalibor Brozović (ed.), Volume 3, Leksikografski zavod "Miroslav Krleža", Zagreb 1999, ISBN 978-953-6036-29-5 , p. 180.
  6. Renate Flottau, Olaf Ihlau, Alexander Szandar and Andreas Ulrich: GERMAN SOLDIERS: Die Hasen vom Amselfeld . In: Der Spiegel . No. 19 , 2004 ( online - May 3, 2004 ).
  7. ^ "Kristallnacht" in Kosovo ( Memento from February 22, 2013 on WebCite ) , Telepolis, March 19, 2004, by Jürgen Elsässer, archived from the original .
  8. Kosovo on the Brink - Day of ethnic conflict dwarfs anything seen in the region since Serb withdrawal over four years ago ( Memento from March 12, 2013 on WebCite ) , IWPR , BCR Issue 485, February 21, 2005 [17. March 2004], by Marcus Tanner, archived from the original on March 12, 2013.
  9. Unmutation in UNMIKistan ( Memento from February 7, 2013 on WebCite ) , Neues Deutschland, March 24, 2004, by Markus Bickel, archived from the Internet version on ag-friedensforschung.de on February 7, 2013.
  10. Hronologija događaja (16 - 22 March 2004) ( Memento from February 14, 2013 on WebCite ) (Serbian), B92 Specijal: Nasilje na Kosovu , B92, archived from the original .
  11. Wolfgang Petritsch, Robert Pichler, Kosovo - Kosova - The long way to peace , Wieser, Klagenfurt et al. 2004, ISBN 3-85129-430-0 , p. 333f.
  12. ^ One dead after riots: Mitrovica under military law , ntv.de March 18, 2008.
  13. Important Serbian politician shot dead in Kosovo. Die Welt from January 16, 2018
  14. ^ Mitrovica / Mitrovicë North. (PDF) In: osce.org. OSCE , accessed May 12, 2017 .
  15. Popullsia e komunës së Mitrovicës sipas vendbanimit, gjinisë dhe etnicitetit 2011. Statistics Agency of Kosovo, accessed on May 12, 2017 (Albanian).
  16. Kosovo censuses. In: pop-stat.mashke.org. Retrieved February 19, 2018 .