Last modified: 2023-09-02 by rob raeside
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image by André Coutanche, 8 November 2007
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The municipality of Kaçanik (38,010 inhabitants in 1991, mostly ethnic
Albanians; 306 sq. km) is located in south-eastern Kosovo, on the
border with North Macedonia. It is made of the town of Kaçanik and 42
villages, most of them being inaccessible during winter.
According to the article "A contribution to the history of Kačanik"
published in Russian by O. Zirojević in Glasnik Ethnografskog
Instituta (Review of the Institute of Ethnography), 1993, 42, 156-160,
Kaçanik is said to have been funded by the Turks, the name of Kaçanik
being related with the Turkish words kaçmak, "to flee", and kaçak,
"refugee", "renegade". Turkish sources, however, claim that Kaçanik already
existed in the Middle Ages (that is before the Ottoman conquest) as the
settlements of Kačanik and Stara Kačanik and the district of Kačanici.
Great Vizir Gasi Sinan Pasha (d. 1595) built his vakif (religious
foundation) in Kaçanik and developed the town. Located close to the
important road linking Pristina and Skopje, the town was granted a special status and a fortress was built at the end of the 16th century.
Ivan Sache, 25 November 2006
The flag of Kačanik is gray with the municipal coat of arms surmounted by the name of the municipality, written in Albanian.
Valentin Poposki, 7 November 2006