Žegrova Explained

Official Name:Žegrova
Settlement Type:Village
Pushpin Map:Serbia
Pushpin Label Position:bottom
Subdivision Type:Country
Subdivision Name: Serbia
Subdivision Type1:District
Subdivision Name1:Toplica District
Subdivision Type2:Municipality
Subdivision Name2:Kuršumlija
Unit Pref:Imperial
Population As Of:2002
Population Total:49
Timezone:CET
Utc Offset:+1
Timezone Dst:CEST
Utc Offset Dst:+2
Coordinates:43.1294°N 21.1719°W

Žegrova (Serbian Cyrillic:Жегрова) (Albanian:Zhegrova) is a village in the municipality of Kuršumlija, Serbia. According to the 2002 census, the village has a population of 49 people.[1]

History

Toponyms such as Arbanaška and Đjake show an historic Albanian presence in the Toplica and Southern Morava regions. As in the wider Toplica region, Kuršumlija also had an Albanian majority.[2] [3]

The village Žegrova known as Zhegrova in Albanian, was fully ethnically Albanian and the village spoke the Gheg dialect of Albanian. In 1877-78, after the Serbo-Ottoman Wars, these Albanians were expelled by Serbian forces in a way that today would be characterized as ethnic cleansing.[4] According to the travels of M. Rakić, there were 127 villages in the Kuršumlija district, Žegrova being one of these villages, with Kuršumlija being the only town. After the Serbo-Ottoman War in 1878, the town remained completely vacant, including the village of Žegrova. The Albanian migrants from this region became known as Muhaxhirs and they mostly migrated to what is today modern Kosovo, which was back then the Vilayet of Kosovo of the Ottoman Empire.

References

43.1294°N 21.1719°W

Notes and References

  1. Popis stanovništva, domaćinstava i Stanova 2002. Knjiga 1: Nacionalna ili etnička pripadnost po naseljima. Republika Srbija, Republički zavod za statistiku Beograd 2003.
  2. Geniş . Şerife . Maynard . Kelly Lynne . July 2009 . Formation of a Diasporic Community: The History of Migration and Resettlement of Muslim Albanians in the Black Sea Region of Turkey . Middle Eastern Studies . en . 45 . 4 . 553–569 . 10.1080/00263200903009619 . 0026-3206.
  3. Jagodić . Miloš . 1998-12-01 . The Emigration of Muslims from the New Serbian Regions 1877/1878 . Balkanologie. Revue d'études pluridisciplinaires . en . 2 . 2 . 10.4000/balkanologie.265 . 1279-7952.
  4. Müller . Dietmar . 2009-01-01 . Orientalism and Nation: Jews and Muslims as Alterity in Southeastern Europe in the Age of Nation-States, 1878–1941 . East Central Europe . en . 36 . 1 . 63–99 . 10.1163/187633009X411485 . 1876-3308.