Vučitrn

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Vushtrri / Vushtrria Вучитрн / Vučitrn

Population (1991)
- Total	80,644 (municipality)
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)

Vučitrn or Vushtrri (Albanian: Vushtrri or Vushtrria; Serbian: Вучитрн, Vučitrn) is a city in north-eastern Kosovo. Is is the seat of the Mitrovica District. The name of the city means "wolf's thorn", which is the name of plant spiny restharrow in Serbian language^[1].

Although there is no official data, the total population of the municipality is estimated at 106,000. It is also the home of the Kosovo Police Service training school where from 1999 members of the OSCE trained the new multiethnic police service following the departure of the Serbs in 1999. The staff at the training school were made up of serving and retired police officers from the member states of the OSCE.

1 Ancient History
2 20th Century History
3 Demographics
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Ancient History

Vicianum ("Area of Calves"), as it was called by its ancient Illyrian inhabitants^{[citation needed]}, is an ancient population settlement, which dates back to before the Roman Empire.^{[citation needed]} At the end of the first century B.C., Viciana was conquered by the Romans. During this occupation, Viciana developed a considerable economy and a thriving culture. After the fall of the Roman Empire, Viciana was transferred to Byzantine rule. After the Great Schism of the Church in 1054, the majority of Vicianum's population remained Catholic.^{[citation needed]}

In the fourteenth century the Ottoman Empire began to expand into the Balkans, with the Ottoman presence in Vučitrn first recorded in 1439, 50 years after the 1389 Battle of Kosovo signaled the entrance of the Ottomans to Kosovo. The establishment of Ottoman administration in Vučitrn spread Islam to the municipality and the construction of mosques, inns, madrassa's and hamams (public baths) followed. Between the 15th-18th Centuries, Vučitrn was one of the largest settlements in the Balkans and it was the center of a very important sandjak (administrative unit) of the Ottoman Empire.

[edit] 20th Century History

During World War I Vučitrn was occupied by Austria-Hungary and after the war incorporated into the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. During World War II the city was incorporated into the German zone of occupation. In November 1944, the Yugoslav Communist administration was established.

In March 1989, Serbian state authorities abolished the Constitution of 1974. This eventually led to an armed uprising organized by the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), and the intervention by NATO forces in March-June 1999. NATO forces entered Vučitrn on 16 June 1999.

[edit] Demographics

Year/Population	Albanian	%	Serb	%	Roma	%	Ashkali	%	Total
Ethnic Composition, Including IDPs
January 1999	81,807	93.3	5,466	6.2	300	3.4	150	1.7	87,723
Current figure, est.	98,000	95.4	4,137	4.0	125	1.2	400	3.9	102,662
Ref: OSCE (PDF/ HTML)