Džepčište ( mk, Џепчиште; sq, Xhepçisht) is a village in the municipality of Tetovo, North Macedonia.

Geography

Džepčište is located at the range of

Shar Mountain In the Unix operating system, shar (an abbreviation of ''shell archive'') is an archive format created with the Unix shar utility. A shar file is a type of self-extracting archive, because it is a valid shell script, and executing it will recre ...

- Scardica, as well as in the field of Polog valley, characterized by relatively frosty winters as mountain stream climate prevailing during the long winter and warm and dry with temperatures reaching up to 45 degrees Celsius in the summer time for a Mediterranean climate. Overall, it has four seasons and fertile agricultural land and is known for the stable and very well-grown vegetables and local fruits.

Demographics

According to the statistical office of North Macedonia, Džepčište numbers about 760 residential homes. Approximately 700 of them are inhabited by

Albanians The Albanians (; sq, Shqiptarët ) are an ethnic group and nation native to the Balkan Peninsula who share a common Albanian ancestry, culture, history and language. They primarily live in Albania, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Se ...

and around 9 houses with ethnic Macedonians. Many individuals from this village live abroad, especially in European countries where they work and live, many with their families. According to the 2021 census, the village had a total of 3.338 inhabitants. Ethnic groups in the village include:Macedonian Census (2021)
''Book 5 - Total population according to the Ethnic Affiliation, Mother Tongue and Religion''
The State Statistical Office, Skopje, 2021 *

3.198 * Macedonians 33 * Vlachs 1 * Turks 1 *Others 105 According to the 1942

Albanian Albanian may refer to: *Pertaining to Albania in Southeast Europe; in particular: **Albanians, an ethnic group native to the Balkans **Albanian language **Albanian culture **Demographics of Albania, includes other ethnic groups within the country ...

census, Džepčište was inhabited by 1408

Muslim Albanians Islam in Albania mainly arrived during the Ottoman period when the majority of Albanians over time converted to Islam. Following the Albanian National Awakening (Rilindja) tenets and the deemphasizing of religion during the 20th century, t ...

, 100 Bulgarians and 38 Serbs. In statistics gathered by Vasil Kanchov in 1900, the village of Džepčište was inhabited by 385 Muslim Albanians and 80 Orthodox Bulgarians.Vasil Kanchov (1900).
Macedonia: Ethnography and Statistics
'. Sofia. p. 264.

Sports

Since it is only a small village club, local side KF Renova astonished anyone when they won the

2009–10 Macedonian First Football League The 2009–10 Macedonian First League was the 18th season of the Macedonian First Football League, the highest football league of Macedonia. It began on 1 August 2009 and ended on 19 May 2010. Makedonija Gjorche Petrov were the defending champio ...

title. They play their home games at the Ecolog Arena, in nearby Tetovo, after this great run they went on to be abolished and ended their run as a professional team in the country, Džepčište had great football teams such as Renova, Kf Xhepçishti, etc

Politics

In Yugoslavia the Russo-Serbian regime at the time did not give the

Albanians in North Macedonia The Albanians in North Macedonia ( sq, Shqiptarët në Maqedoninë e Veriut, mk, Албанци во Северна Македонија) are the second largest ethnic group in North Macedonia, forming 446,245 individuals or 24.3% of the reside ...

their rights and also freedom of speech, they could neither vote nor have any right in the Federate; this led to the forming of PPD Partia për Prosperitet Demokratik in 1887 in the heart of Džepčište and becoming functional after the fall of Yugoslavia. They were the first Albanian Democratic Party in Kosovo and Albania.

History

Džepčište is a well known village for the history of the Polog region in North Macedonia , it could date back as the 15th Century when it was mentioned in Albanian literature and

Ottoman literature Turkish literature ( tr, Türk edebiyatı) comprises oral compositions and written texts in Turkic languages. The Ottoman and Azerbaijani forms of Turkish, which forms the basis of much of the written corpus, were highly influenced by Persian an ...

, at first the village was populated with Christian Albanians and later brought in

Slavs Slavs are the largest European ethnolinguistic group. They speak the various Slavic languages, belonging to the larger Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages. Slavs are geographically distributed throughout northern Eurasia, main ...

, it had a very well known Muslim Culture that shined in the early 17th century, with change in the Demographic reparts it became the center of Albanian Muslims which still stands to this day, Džepčište was part of the Ottoman Empire, League of Prizren, Albanian Protectorate WW2, Serbian Empire, Yugoslavia, and North Macedonia

References

External links

Villages in Tetovo Municipality Albanian communities in North Macedonia {{Tetovo-geo-stub