Misplaced Pages

Bellacërkë

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.

Village in Gjakovë, Kosovo
Fortesë (Bellacërkë)
Village
Fortesë (Bellacërkë) is located in KosovoFortesë (Bellacërkë)Fortesë (Bellacërkë)
Coordinates: 42°21′N 20°35′E / 42.350°N 20.583°E / 42.350; 20.583
LocationKosovo
DistrictGjakovë
MunicipalityRahovec
Population
 • Total2,270
Time zoneUTC+1 (CET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+2 (CEST)

Fortesë (Bellacërkë) (Albanian: Fortesë) (Serbian: Bela Crkva/Бела Црква) is a village in the municipality of Rahovec of the District of Gjakova. Before 1999 the village was called Bela Crkva.

Demographics

As of 2011, the village had a total population of 2,270 people. Of this, approximately 98.28% were Albanians, while Ashkalis and Egyptians made up 1.63%.

History

The village Fortesë (Bellacërrkë/Bela Crkva) was mentioned as 'Beloçerkova' in the Ottoman register of the 16th century. The inhabitants of Fortesë (Bellacërrkë/Bela Crkva) in the 16th century bore Albanian (Marku, Nika, Pepa, Vuja, Kragui, Bojçi) and Slavic surnames (Stojko, Radula, Janko, Pervane). The villagers predominantly had Islamic names. The mansions ('Bashtina') listed bore Islamic, Albanian and Slavic names.

On 25 March 1999, one day after NATO began bombing the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the village of Bellacërrkë was the site of a mass killing, during which over 60 ethnic Albanian civilians were executed by Serbian forces.

References

  1. 2011 Kosovo Census results
  2. 2011 Kosovo Census results
  3. Popullsia Shqiptare e Kosoves Gjate Shekujve – page 327
  4. "Fortesa massacre, proof of the serbian genocide" (In Albanian)
  5. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/386580.stm
  6. https://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/kosovo/undword-11B.html


Stub icon

This Kosovo location article is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it.

Categories: