Gjilan

Gjilan is located in the southeastern part of Kosovo, the region of Anamorava. It is one of the largest municipalities in the country. Its geographic position makes it possible to make good connections with other centers of Kosovo and the region. Around the town of Gjilan lis the Hill of Martyrs (Popovica), Gllama, Dheu i Bardhë, the area of Malisheva (Gjilan), Zabeli of Sahit Agës and Bregu i Thatë. There are three small rivers, Mirusha, Banja and Stanishori, which join and flow to Binačka Morava, west of the Uglara village.

Gjilan is 46km from Pristina, 27 km from Kamenica, 22 km from Vitina, and 25 km from Novo Brdo. The municipalities of the region are bordered in the southeast by Preševo (33 km) and Kumanovo (53 km), and in the east by Bujanovac (40 km).[1]

The Gjilan area is defined by the Morava River, which collects all the small rivers, with an average monthly flow rate of 6.7 cubic meters/second. In the southeast it is surrounded by the mountains of Karadak.[2]

The coordinates of the city of Gjilan are 42 degrees north and 21.20 degrees east and 501 and 590 m above sea level, while 475 m in Budrike, up to 1000 m altitude in the border zone with North Macedonia.

In seismic maps, Gjilan is known as a region of marked vulnerability to danger. In 2002, it was hit by an earthquake that killed one, injured tens and over 8,000 damaged public and private facilities.

Ottoman chronicler Evliya Çelebi mentions Morava (Serbian Cyrillic: Морава) as a settlement of the Sanjak of Vučitrn. Çelebi writes that: "The seventeen day journey from Constantinople (Istanbul) to pass through Vranje, Novo Brdo, Kriva Reka (Egridere) and Morava (Gjilan). The etymology of Gjilan is disputed. Albanian sources claim that the town (initially a village) obtained its name from Bahti Beg Gjinolli of Gjinaj clan that ruled the region of Vučitrn (Malo Kosovo and Drenica), and populated this area in the 18th century (around 1750).

The city center of Gjilan, to the clock tower. The picture also shows the Little Mosque in the center of the city.

In 1342, a place called Morava was visited by Serbian King Stefan Dušan (later Emperor, r. 1331–1355).[3] A fort was built nearby in the 14th century. Gornja Morava ("Upper Morava") was known as simply Morava under Ottoman rule, and it extended west of the Upper Žegra–Budriga–Cernica line, thus Gjilan stayed in the oblast (province) of Topolnica, which provincial seat was Novo Brdo.[4] In the 1455 defter (Ottoman tax registry), Gjilan was inhabited by Serbs, and the priest Božidar served the town.[5] There were 41 households.[6] Haji Kalfa (first half of the 17th century) mentions Morava being 17 days from Constantinople.[3] Gornja Morava and Izmornik were organized into the Sanjak of Vučitrn up until the 18th century.[7] Gjilan became a kadiluk around 1780, and 20–25 years later a large village.[8]

The exact year of establishment of Gjilan to this day is not exactly determined. In the 17th century, Evlia Çelebija mentions Gjilan, but named Morava, as a cadillac within the Sanjak of Vučitrn. Among other things, Evlia Çelebija writes that "Seventeen days the road from Constantinople (today's Istanbul) to Novo Brdo passes through Vranje, Kriva Reka (Egridere) of Morava (Gjilan)". There is a tradition in the people that Gjilan as a settlement was formed around 1750, and as an urban center – in 1772. Gjilan as a town developed in addition to the extinction of Novo Brdo, which in the Middle Ages was one of the cities and the largest commercial, economic and mining centers in the Balkans. The feudal family "Gjinaj" in the second half of the nineteenth century transferred their headquarters from Novo Brdo and built their own houses in the place where Gjilani is now located.[9]

Statue of Idriz Seferi in downtown

Modern history

Downtown Gjilan, 2014

On 23 January 1944 during World War II in Gjilan around 8000 Kosovo Albanians were killed by Yugoslav Partisans. This event is remembered every year in the framework of Flaka e Janarit and named as Gjilan massacre 1944.[10]

In 1999, Camp Monteith was established outside the city as a base of operations for KFOR during Operation Joint Guardian, on the site of a destroyed Serbian military base which was handed over to the Kosovo Protection Corps in 2007 after the U.S. Military downsized their number of troops. Gjilan has also served as the regional headquarters of the UNMIK International Police task force from 1999.

Communist-era apartment complex in Gjilan

The population of Gjilan has always been mixed, but with a predominant majority of Albanians in both periods during Turkish and Serbian-Yugoslav rule. According to the 2011 census, the Municipality of Gjilan has 90,178 inhabitants. Albanians – 87,814, Serbs – 624, Turks – 978, Bosniaks – 121, Roma – 361, Ashkali – 15, Gorani – 69, Egyptians – 1, others – 95. They preferred not to respond – 35 people. In the city live 54,239 inhabitants, while in rural areas – 35,939. Division of population by gender: male – 45,354, female – 44,824.[11] Based on the population estimates from the Kosovo Agency of Statistics in 2016, the municipality has 81,447 inhabitants.

There are 3,700 registered private businesses in the municipality employing 7,900 people. Before 1999, Gjilan was an important industrial centre in Kosovo. Still in operation are the radiator factory and tobacco factory, which has been recently privatized. The new city business incubator, supported by the European Agency for Reconstruction, was inaugurated in the summer of 2007.

Gjilan is the administrative center of the District of Gjilan of Kosovo. Since February 15, 2003, it is the headquarters of the Local Democracy Agency in Kosovo of the Council of Europe.

Gjilan is home to the basketball club KB Drita, the football clubs SC Gjilani and FC Drita and the volleyball club KV Drita, male and female competition the most successful club in Gjilan's history. It also has the football club which is in the 2nd league KF Bashkimi from Koretin, a village in Gjilan.

Gjilan hosts the biggest derby in Kosovo, the Kosovo Derby, between FC Drita and SC Gjilani. Both of the clubs are from the city, which draw thousands of viewers inside the Gjilan City Stadium.

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  City center, 1913
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  1925
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  House of Zekirja Abdullahu
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  Monastery of St. Nicholas, Straža, Gjilan
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  Main Street
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  City Theater
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  Conservatory
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  Clock Tower
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  Big Mosque
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  Oldest Mosque of 1606
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  Dunav Church

• Gjimnazi Zenel Hajdini
• Municipalities of Kosovo
• Cities and towns in Kosovo
• Populated places in Kosovo

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gnjilane.

• Municipality of Gjilan
• SOK Kosovo and its population