Polac or ( sr-cyr, Пољанце; sometimes
transliterated
Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one script to another that involves swapping letters (thus ''trans-'' + '' liter-'') in predictable ways, such as Greek → , Cyrillic → , Greek → the digraph , Armenian → or L ...
as Poljance) is a village in
Kosovo
Kosovo ( sq, Kosova or ; sr-Cyrl, Косово ), officially the Republic of Kosovo ( sq, Republika e Kosovës, links=no; sr, Република Косово, Republika Kosovo, links=no), is a partially recognised state in Southeast Euro ...
. The village is exclusively inhabited by ethnic
Albanians; in the 2011 census, it had 2701 inhabitants.
Geography
It lies in the
Drenica
Drenica ( al, Drenicë, Drenica, ), also known as the Drenica Valley, is a hilly region in central Kosovo, covering roughly around of Kosovo's total area (6%). It consists of two municipalities, Drenas and Skenderaj, and several villages in Kli ...
region, at the source of the
Vrbica river, a left confluence of the
Drenica river.
[Stamenković 2002, p. 81] It lies on both sides of the regional Skenderaj-Glogavac road, 4–7 km southeast of Skenderaj.
[ It is 640–680 m over sea level.][ The rural settlement lies on a cadastral area with the a total of 2195 hectares (K.O. Staro Poljance 694, K.O. Novo Poljance 767, K.O. Kraljica 734 ha).][
Poljance includes two major physiognomic parts: Staro Poljance (Džamijska, Gruda, Koca, Veljić and Zonić Mahala) and Novo Poljance, of which the latter was administratively joined into the present settlement in 1975.][ Novo Poljance was an independent village before, situated to the east, established after World War I, with Serb and Montenegrin settlers from the vicinity of ]Danilovgrad
Danilovgrad ( cnr, Даниловград) is a town in central Montenegro. It has a population of 6,852 (2011 census). It is situated in the Danilovgrad Municipality which lies along the main route between Montenegro's two largest cities, Podgori ...
, Nikšić
Nikšić ( cnr, Никшић, italic=no, sr-cyrl, Никшић, italic=no; ), is the second largest city in Montenegro, with a total population of 56,970 located in the west of the country, in the centre of the spacious Nikšić field at the foot ...
, Mrkonjić Grad
Mrkonjić Grad ( sr-cyrl, Мркоњић Град, ) is a town and municipality located in the western part of Republika Srpska, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is located in the region of Bosanska Krajina, between Banja Luka and Jajce. A ...
, Bosanska Krupa
Bosanska Krupa ( sr-cyrl, Босанска Крупа) is a municipality located in the Una-Sana Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. As of 2013, it has a population of 29,659 inhabitants.
It is ...
, among others.[
]
History
Middle Ages
The 1330 Dečani chrysobulls of Serbian King Stephen Uroš III (r. 1322–1331) mention the great village of "Strelac", and several surrounding villages: Čigotovo (Čikatovo), Vrbovec, ''Poljance'', Glabotino and Kudrino (Kudrin).[Božanić 2009, pp. 14, 16] Toponomastic study shows that Poljance bordered Strelac on the northeast.[
]
World War II
6 soldiers, hailing from Poljance, of the "Boro Bukmirović" and "Razim Sadiku" battalions of the First Macedonian-Kosovan National liberation Brigade (Yugoslav Partisans
The Yugoslav Partisans,Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian, Slovene: , or the National Liberation Army, sh-Latn-Cyrl, Narodnooslobodilačka vojska (NOV), Народноослободилачка војска (НОВ); mk, Народноослобод ...
) fell in January and February 1945.
Kosovo War
According to the Serbian newspaper ''Pravda
''Pravda'' ( rus, Правда, p=ˈpravdə, a=Ru-правда.ogg, "Truth") is a Russian broadsheet newspaper, and was the official newspaper of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, when it was one of the most influential papers in the ...
'' in January in February 1997, Jonuz Veliqi, an Albanian official working for the state structures of the Republic of Serbia, was nearly killed by during attacks of the Albanian paramilitaries. On August 3, 1998, a civilian worker for the Serbian Interior Ministry was wounded by an automatic weapon. Poljance was in the hands of the Kosovo Liberation Army until March 22, 1999, when Serbian police forces launched an offensive into Drenica. After March 23, 1999, several abducted ethnic Serbs were held prisoners in an old mine near a brick factory in Poljance by Albanians.[IWPR'S BALKAN CRISIS REPORT, NO. 92, November 12, 1999]
SERBIAN JUSTICE ON TRIAL
By Laura Rozen
Demographics
Annotations
Notes
References
*Božanić, S. 2009, "O zemljišnim međama srpskog srednjovekovnog sela", Istraživanja, no. 20, pp
47–64
*Srboljub Đ Stamenković, Географска енциклопедија населjа Србије: С-Ш
Volume 4
Географски факултет, 2002, p. 81: "Пољанце"
{{Settlements in Srbica
Villages in Skenderaj
Drenica