Karakaj
Encyclopedia
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Location (geography)
The terms location and place in geography are used to identify a point or an area on the Earth's surface or elsewhere. The term 'location' generally implies a higher degree of can certainty than "place" which often has an ambiguous boundary relying more on human/social attributes of place identity...
Zvornik
Zvornik is a city on the Drina river in northeastern Bosnia and Herzegovina, located south of the town of Bijeljina in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The town Mali Zvornik lies directly across the river in Serbia, and not far north is Loznica.-History:Zvornik is first mentioned in 1410, although it was...
, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Republika Srpska
Republika Srpska
Republika Srpska is one of two main political entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other being the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina...
Population
A population is all the organisms that both belong to the same group or species and live in the same geographical area. The area that is used to define a sexual population is such that inter-breeding is possible between any pair within the area and more probable than cross-breeding with individuals...
– (est.)
– (1991 census)
8,500
Time zone
A time zone is a region on Earth that has a uniform standard time for legal, commercial, and social purposes. In order for the same clock time to always correspond to the same portion of the day as the Earth rotates , different places on the Earth need to have different clock times...
Central European Time
Central European Time , used in most parts of the European Union, is a standard time that is 1 hour ahead of Coordinated Universal Time . The time offset from UTC can be written as +01:00...
(UTC +1)
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
Karakaj (Serbian Cyrillic
Serbian language
Serbian is a form of Serbo-Croatian, a South Slavic language, spoken by Serbs in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and neighbouring countries....
: Каракај) is a town located 2 km north from the city Zvornik
Zvornik
Zvornik is a city on the Drina river in northeastern Bosnia and Herzegovina, located south of the town of Bijeljina in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The town Mali Zvornik lies directly across the river in Serbia, and not far north is Loznica.-History:Zvornik is first mentioned in 1410, although it was...
in Republika Srpska
Republika Srpska
Republika Srpska is one of two main political entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other being the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina...
, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...
, on the Drina River
Drina
The Drina is a 346 kilometer long river, which forms most of the border between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia. It is the longest tributary of the Sava River and the longest karst river in the Dinaric Alps which belongs to the Danube river watershed...
, it has also the border checkpoint
Border checkpoint
A border checkpoint is a place, generally between two countries, where travellers and/or goods are inspected. Authorization often is required to enter a country through its borders. Access-controlled borders often have a limited number of checkpoints where they can be crossed without legal...
with Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
. The word Karakaj comes from Turkish word which means dark stone. The dark stone is located near the bridge in the center of the town, and there are lots of legends and myths about this great art of nature.
History
There are numerous archeological sites in the Karakaj area from the Neolithic Age and later: a Greek colony was located here, later replaced by a Celtic one. The RomansAncient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
conquered the area from the Illyrians
Illyrians
The Illyrians were a group of tribes who inhabited part of the western Balkans in antiquity and the south-eastern coasts of the Italian peninsula...
, and also established a settlment here.
In the early Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
, the Ostrogoths conquered the town over from the Byzantines
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
, who later recovered it. In the 6th century it was captured by the Slavs. Karakaj was a part of the first Serbian state which later collapsed into several Serbian dukedoms. Karakaj changed owners between Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia trough the Middle Ages.
Demographics
The population of Karakaj is about 8,500. The population of today's Karakaj is almost 100% Serbian. Karakaj provided shelter for many refugees after the Bosnain civil warBosnian War
The Bosnian War or the War in Bosnia and Herzegovina was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between April 1992 and December 1995. The war involved several sides...
.Today karakaj and Zvornik have a very large natural growth,one of the largest in Srpska.
Economy
Karakaj is an industrial place. In the socialist period, there were many factories in the town, but after the Bosnian civil war, many of them were closed. Karakaj in the Yugoslav period was a workers' town. It had many companies. Some of them bankrupted, but many are now recovering from the war. Currently Karakaj has many strong companies. Some of them are: Birac, Vezionica, Gumara Fagum and many other. Despite the war Karakaj is a quite developed place. It has a railroad station, many roads and two shopping centers. Interex, a major shopping center in many cities all over Bosnia, is a very popular shopping center in Karakaj too. There is also a "Border crossing" in Karakaj. It connects Serbia and Republika Srpska. Alexandria, the chocolate, candy and biscuits industry company, also has business in Karakaj. These and many more companies make Karakaj one of the most developed places in Republika Srpska. Many citizens of the outskirts of Karakaj are farmers, and they have farms surrounding Karakaj. They usually grow maize and wheat. In the hills above Karakaj, people grow plums and apples. Trade is usual in Karakaj. There are shops everywhere. Hunting is also developed in Karakaj. People hunt rabbits and foxes, mostly for fun.Education
Karakaj's Technician School Center (TSC) is a local well-known school which has won prizes in many sport and educational events. It is planned that TSC will open a vocational schoolVocational school
A vocational school , providing vocational education, is a school in which students are taught the skills needed to perform a particular job...
in the next few years.
There is also a Faculty of Technology in Karakaj, which is a part of University of East Sarajevo
University of East Sarajevo
University of East Sarajevo is a public university located in east part of East Sarajevo city, Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is derived from the University of East Sarajevo....
. It's called a Tehnološki fakultet with a motto Count on us!
Tourist locations
In this area you can find many Serbian Orthodox churches, beautiful bridges over the Drina RiverDrina
The Drina is a 346 kilometer long river, which forms most of the border between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia. It is the longest tributary of the Sava River and the longest karst river in the Dinaric Alps which belongs to the Danube river watershed...
and the river itself (which is the great place for watersports) and the untouched nature. A Jeep racing is usual in the hills of Karakaj, and it attracts many tourists. Karakaj is still not tourist orientated, but development of this area is a local community's target for a next years.
External links and references
- Hans Fredrik Lehne, Chronology of Events in the Area of Zvornik http://digitalcase.case.edu:9000/fedora/get/ksl:mps17-ChronoZvornik000000/mps17-ChronoZvornik000000.pdf
- Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Chronology of Events: September 1991 - July 1992, 1 July 1992. Online. UNHCR Refworld http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/3ae6a81114.html
- The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (Case no. IT-00-40-I)
- The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (map of Bosnian cases)
- The Humanitarian Law Center
- Haverford College