Pristina

Wednesday, 12 December 2012

The Arrival of Russian Troops. Pristina, 1999

Pristina (Prishtina), Kosovo. My best pictures

faith no more - Pristina - Album Of The Year

Caglavica (near Pristina) after March 17, 2004

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Abkhazia
Abkhazia (Abkhaz: Аҧсны́ Apsny, IPA /apʰsˈnɨ/; Georgian: აფხაზეთი Apkhazeti; Russian: Абхазия Abkhaziya) is a disputed territory on the eastern coast of the Black Sea and the south-western flank of the Caucasus.
Abkhazia considers itself an independent state, called the Republic of Abkhazia or Apsny. This status is recognised by Russia, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Nauru, Tuvalu and Vanuatu and also by the partially recognised states of South Ossetia, Transnistria and Nagorno-Karabakh.
The Georgian government and the majority of the world's governments consider Abkhazia a part of Georgia's territory. Under Georgia's official designation it is an autonomous republic, called the Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia, whose government sits in exile in Tbilisi. On 28 August 2008, the Parliament of Georgia passed a resolution declaring Abkhazia a "Russian-occupied territory".
The status of Abkhazia is a central issue of the Georgian–Abkhazian conflict. The wider region formed part of the Soviet Union until 1991. As the Soviet Union began to disintegrate towards the end of the 1980s, ethnic tensions grew between Abkhaz and Georgians over Georgia's moves towards independence. This led to the 1992–1993 War in Abkhazia that resulted in a Georgian military defeat, de facto independence of Abkhazia and the mass exodus and ethnic cleansing of the Georgian population from Abkhazia. In spite of the 1994 ceasefire agreement and years of negotiations, the status dispute has not been resolved, and despite the long-term presence of a United Nations monitoring force and a Russian-dominated Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) peacekeeping operation, the conflict has flared up on several occasions. In August 2008, the sides again fought during the South Ossetia War, which was followed by the formal recognition of Abkhazia by Russia, the annulment of the 1994 cease fire agreement and the termination of the UN and CIS missions.^{[citation needed]}

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Albania
Albania (ⁱ/ælˈbeɪniə/ al-BAY-nee-ə, Albanian: Shqipëri/Shqipëria; Gheg Albanian: Shqipnia), officially known as the Republic of Albania (Albanian: Republika e Shqipërisë pronounced Albanian pronunciation: [ɾɛpuˈblika ɛ ʃcipəˈɾiːs]), is a country in Southern Europe. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the west, and on the Ionian Sea to the southwest. It is less than 72 km (45 mi) from Italy, across the Strait of Otranto which links the Adriatic Sea to the Ionian Sea.
Albania is a member of the UN, NATO, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, Council of Europe, World Trade Organisation, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and one of the founding members of the Union for the Mediterranean. Albania has been a potential candidate for accession to the European Union since January 2003, and it formally applied for EU membership on 28 April 2009.

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Amsterdam
Amsterdam (English /ˈæmstərdæm/; Dutch: [ˌɑmstərˈdɑm] ( listen)) is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The city's status as the capital of the nation is governed by the constitution. Amsterdam has a population of 790,654 within city limits, an urban population of 1,209,419 and a metropolitan population of 2,289,762. The city is located in the province of North Holland in the west of the country. It comprises the northern part of the Randstad, one of the larger conurbations in Europe, with a population of approximately 7 million.
Amsterdam's name is derived from Amstelredamme, indicative of the city's origin: a dam in the river Amstel. Settled as a small fishing village in the late 12th century, Amsterdam became one of the most important ports in the world during the Dutch Golden Age, a result of its innovative developments in trade. During that time, the city was the leading center for finance and diamonds. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the city expanded, and many new neighborhoods and suburbs were formed. The 17th-century canals of Amsterdam (in Dutch: 'Grachtengordel'), located in the heart of Amsterdam, were added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in July 2010.

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Andorra
Andorra (ⁱ/ænˈdɔrə/; Catalan pronunciation: [ənˈdorə], locally: [anˈdɔra]), officially the Principality of Andorra (Catalan: Principat d'Andorra), also called the Principality of the Valleys of Andorra, (Catalan: Principat de les Valls d'Andorra), is a small landlocked country in southwestern Europe, located in the eastern Pyrenees mountains and bordered by Spain and France. It is the sixth smallest nation in Europe having an area of 468 km² (181 sq mi) and an estimated population of 84,082 in 2009. Its capital, Andorra la Vella, is the highest capital city in Europe, at an elevation of 1,023 metres (3,356 ft) above sea level. The official language is Catalan, although Spanish, Portuguese, and French are also commonly spoken.
The Principality was formed in 1278. The role of monarch is exercised jointly by the two co-princes, the Catalan Bishop of Urgell and the President of France (the whole state is a part of Diocese of Urgell).
Andorra is a prosperous country mainly because of its tourism industry, which services an estimated 10.2 million visitors annually, and also because of its status as a tax haven. It is not a member of the European Union, but the euro is the de facto currency. The people of Andorra have the 4th highest human life expectancy in the world — 82 years at birth.

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Andorra la Vella
Andorra la Vella (Catalan pronunciation: [ənˈdorə ɫə ˈβeʎə], locally: [anˈdɔra la ˈβeʎa]) is the capital of the Principality of Andorra, and is located high in the east Pyrenees between France and Spain. It is also the name of the parish that surrounds the capital.
As of 2011, the city has a population of 22,256, and the urban area, which includes Escaldes-Engordany plus satellite villages, has over 40,000 inhabitants.
The principal industry is tourism, although the country also earns foreign income from being a tax haven. Furniture and brandies are local products. Being at an elevation of 1,023 metres (3,356 ft), it is the highest capital city in Europe and a popular ski resort.
The site of Andorra la Vella (literally, "Andorra the Old") has been settled since prior to the Christian era—notably by the Andosin tribe from the late Neolithic. The state is one of the Marca Hispanica created and protected by Charlemagne in the eighth century as a buffer from the Moorish settlers in the Iberian Peninsula.

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Ankara
Ankara (Turkish pronunciation: [ˈan.ka.ɾa]; historically known as Angora) is the capital of Turkey and the country's second largest city after Istanbul. The city has a mean elevation of 938 metres (3,077 ft), and as of 2010 the metropolitan area in the entire Ankara Province had a population of 4.4 million.
Centrally located in Anatolia, Ankara is an important commercial and industrial city. It is the center of the Turkish Government, and houses all foreign embassies. It is an important crossroads of trade, strategically located at the centre of Turkey's highway and railway networks, and serves as the marketing centre for the surrounding agricultural area. The city was famous for its long-haired Angora goat and its prized wool (mohair), a unique breed of cat (Angora cat), Angora rabbits and their prized wool (Angora wool), pears, honey, and the region's muscat grapes.
The historical center of Ankara is situated upon a rocky hill, which rises 150 m (492 ft) above the plain on the left bank of the Ankara Çayı, a tributary of the Sakarya (Sangarius) river. The city is located at 39°52'30" North, 32°52' East (39°52′30″N 32°50′00″E / 39.875°N 32.8333°E / 39.875; 32.8333Coordinates: 39°52′30″N 32°50′00″E / 39.875°N 32.8333°E / 39.875; 32.8333), about 450 km (280 mi) to the southeast of Istanbul, the country's largest city. Although situated in one of the driest places of Turkey and surrounded mostly by steppe vegetation except for the forested areas on the southern periphery, Ankara can be considered a green city in terms of green areas per inhabitant, which is 72 m² per head.

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Armenia
Armenia ⁱ/ɑrˈmiːniə/ (Armenian: Հայաստան Hayastan [hɑjɑsˈtɑn]), officially the Republic of Armenia (Հայաստանի Հանրապետություն, Hayastani Hanrapetut’yun, [hɑjɑstɑˈni hɑnɾɑpɛtuˈtʰjun]), is a landlocked, mountainous country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia to the north, the de facto independent Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and Azerbaijan to the east, and Iran and the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan to the south.
A former republic of the Soviet Union, Armenia is a unitary, multiparty, democratic nation-state with an ancient and historic cultural heritage. The Kingdom of Armenia became the first state in the world to adopt Christianity as its religion, in the early years of the 4th century (the traditional date is 301 AD). The modern Republic of Armenia recognizes the Armenian Apostolic Church, the world's oldest national church, as the country's primary religious establishment. Armenians have their own unique alphabet invented by Mesrob Mashtots in 406 AD.

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Astana
Astana (Russian/Kazakh: Астана, formerly known as Akmola (Kazakh: Ақмола / Aqmola, until 1998), Целиноград / Tselinograd until 1992) and Akmolinsk (Russian: Акмолинск, until 1961), is the capital and second largest city (after Almaty) of Kazakhstan, with an officially estimated population of 708,794 as of 1 August 2010. It is located in the north-central portion of Kazakhstan, within Akmola Province, though administrated separately from the province as a federal city area.
The current mayor of Astana is Imangali Tasmagambetov. He was appointed on 4 April 2008.
The word Astana in Kazakh literally means Capital but the word itself originates from Persian Astane (Persian: آستانه‎ means "sublime threshold," "royal porte" implying a royal capital city or a holy shrine town, (from the Persian verb Istadan (آستان) 'to stand' (in respect)), and literally means "threshold" (royal or sacred, where people stand in respect or awe),^{[citation needed]} implying where the court is seated (the capital city) or the body of a sacred person is interred (a shrine town). The city of Turkistan in Kazakhstan that hosts the body of the saint Ahmad Yasavi is also called the "astana" as is the city of Mashhad in Iran that is the burial place of the 8th Shiite Imam Reza. In fact, long before becoming the new capital of Kazakhstan, the city was "an astana," a burial ground of a saint, hence the old name of the city, Ak Mola (Ақмола), "white mausoleum."

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Austria
Austria (ⁱ/ˈɒstriə/ or /ˈɔːstriə/; German: Österreich [ˈøːstɐˌʁaɪç] ( listen)), officially the Republic of Austria (German: Republik Österreich (help·info)), is a landlocked country of roughly 8.47 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Hungary and Slovakia to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west. The territory of Austria covers 83,855 square kilometres (32,377 sq mi) and has a temperate and alpine climate. Austria's terrain is highly mountainous due to the presence of the Alps; only 32% of the country is below 500 metres (1,640 ft), and its highest point is 3,798 metres (12,461 ft). The majority of the population speak local Austro-Bavarian dialects of German as their native language, and German in its standard form is the country's official language. Other local official languages are Burgenland Croatian, Hungarian and Slovene.
The origins of modern-day Austria date back to the time of the Habsburg dynasty when the vast majority of the country was a part of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. During the 17th and 18th centuries, Austria became one of the great powers of Europe and, in response to the coronation of Napoleon I as the Emperor of the French, the Austrian Empire was officially proclaimed in 1804. In 1867, the Austrian Empire was reformed into Austria-Hungary.

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Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan (ⁱ/ˌæzərbaɪˈdʒɑːn/ AZ-ər-by-JAHN; Azerbaijani: Azərbaycan), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan (Azerbaijani: Azərbaycan Respublikası) is the largest country in the Caucasus region located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to the south. The exclave of Nakhchivan is bounded by Armenia to the north and east, Iran to the south and west, while having a short borderline with Turkey to the northwest.
Azerbaijan has an ancient and historic cultural heritage. Aside from having been the first Muslim-majority country to have operas, theater and plays, Azerbaijan today is among the Muslim-majority countries where support for secularism and tolerance is the highest. The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, the first democratic and secular republic in the Muslim world, was established in 1918, but was incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1920. Azerbaijan regained independence in 1991. Shortly thereafter, during the Nagorno-Karabakh War, neighboring Armenia occupied Nagorno-Karabakh, its surrounding territories and the enclaves of Karki, Yukhary Askipara, Barkhudarly and Sofulu. The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, which emerged in Nagorno-Karabakh, continues to be not diplomatically recognized by any nation and the region is still considered a de jure part of Azerbaijan, despite being de facto independent since the end of the war. Azerbaijan has come under repeated international criticism for its record on human rights.

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Baku
Baku (Azerbaijani: Bakı, IPA: [bɑˈcɯ]), sometimes spelled as Baki or Bakou, is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. It is located on the southern shore of the Absheron Peninsula, which projects into the Caspian Sea. The city consists of two principal parts: the downtown and the old Inner City (21.5 ha). Baku's urban population at the beginning of 2009 was estimated at just over two million people. Officially, about 25 percent of all inhabitants of the country live in the metropolitan city area of Baku.
Baku is divided into eleven administrative districts (raions) and 48 townships. Among these are the townships on islands in the Baku Bay and the town of Oil Rocks built on stilts in the Caspian Sea, 60 km (37 mi) away from Baku. The Inner City of Baku along with the Shirvanshah's Palace and Maiden Tower were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2000. According to the Lonely Planet's ranking, Baku is also among the world's top ten destinations for urban nightlife.

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Belarus
Belarus (ⁱ/bɛləˈruːs/ bel-ə-ROOSS; Belarusian: Беларусь, Russian pronunciation: [bʲɛlaˈrusʲ] Russian: Беларусь, Белоруссия, Belarus', Belorussiya), officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno (Hrodna), Gomel (Homiel), Mogilev (Mahilyow) and Vitebsk (Vitsebsk). Over forty percent of its 207,600 square kilometres (80,200 sq mi) is forested, and its strongest economic sectors are agriculture and manufacturing.
Until the 20th century, the lands of modern-day Belarus belonged to several countries, including the Principality of Polotsk, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, and the Russian Empire. In the aftermath of the Russian Revolution, Belarus became a founding constituent republic of the Soviet Union and was renamed as the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR). The borders of Belarus took their modern shape in 1939 when some lands of the Second Polish Republic were incorporated into it after the Soviet invasion of Poland. The nation and its territory were devastated in World War II, during which Belarus lost about a third of its population and more than half of its economic resources. The republic was redeveloped in the post-war years. In 1945 the Belorussian SSR became a founding member of the United Nations, along with the Soviet Union and the Ukrainian SSR.

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Belgium
Belgium (ⁱ/ˈbɛldʒəm/ BEL-jəm), officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO. Belgium covers an area of 30,528 square kilometres (11,787 sq mi), and it has a population of about 11 million people. Straddling the cultural boundary between Germanic and Latin Europe, Belgium is home to two main linguistic groups, the Dutch-speakers, mostly Flemish (about 60%), and the French-speakers, mostly Walloons (about 40%), plus a small group of German-speakers. Belgium's two largest regions are the Dutch-speaking region of Flanders in the north and the French-speaking southern region of Wallonia. The Brussels-Capital Region, officially bilingual, is a mostly French-speaking enclave within the Flemish Region. A German-speaking Community exists in eastern Wallonia. Belgium's linguistic diversity and related political conflicts are reflected in the political history and a complex system of government.

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Belgrade
Belgrade ( /ˈbɛlɡreɪd/; Serbian: Београд; [beǒɡrad] ( listen); names in other languages) is the capital and largest city of Serbia. The city is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. Its name in English translates to White city. The city proper has a population of over 1.1 million, while its metropolitan area has over 1.6 million people, making it one of the largest cities in Southeast Europe.
One of the largest prehistoric cultures of Europe, the Vinča culture, evolved around the area Belgrade in the 6th millennium BC. In antiquity, Thraco-Dacians inhabited the region, and after 279 BC Celts conquered the city, naming it Singidūn. It was conquered by the Romans during the reign of Augustus, and awarded city rights in the mid 2nd century. It was settled by the Slavs in the 520s, and changed hands several times before it became the capital of King Stephen Dragutin (1282–1316). In 1521 Belgrade was conquered by the Ottoman Empire and became the seat of a the Sanjak of Smederevo. It frequently passed from Ottoman to Habsburg rule, which saw the destruction of most of the city during the Austro-Ottoman wars. Belgrade was again named the capital of Serbia in 1841. The north of Belgrade remained a Habsburg outpost until 1918, when it was merged into the capital city. As a strategic location, the city was battled over in 115 wars and razed to the ground 44 times. Belgrade was the capital of Yugoslavia (in various forms of governments) from its creation in 1918, to its final dissolution in 2006.

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Belgrade University
The University of Belgrade (Serbian: Универзитет у Београду / Univerzitet u Beogradu) is the oldest and largest university of Serbia.
Founded in 1808 as the Belgrade Higher School in revolutionary Serbia, by 1838 it merged with the Kragujevac-based departments into a single university. The University has nearly 90,000 students (including around 1,700 postgraduates) and over 4,200 members of teaching staff.
The University comprises 31 faculties, 8 research institutes, a system of university libraries and information centres, and the Belgrade University Library (Carnegie library). The faculties are clustered into five groups based on their academic characteristics.
Since its founding, the University has educated more than 330,000 bachelors, around 21,300 magisters, 29,000 specialists and 12,600 doctors.
The University of Belgrade was established in 1808 as the Belgrade Higher School (Serbian: Велика школа) by Dositej Obradović, Serbian key figure in the Age of Enlightenment. It was the highest ranking educational institution in Serbia between 1808 and 1905, as the first Higher School (1808–1813), the Belgrade Lyceum (1838–1863), and the second Higher School (1863–1905). It was initially located at the Countess Ljubica's Residence building and then moved to another significant site in Belgrade, the Captain Miša’s Mansion, today's seat of the university.

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Berlin
Berlin ( /bɜrˈlɪn/; German pronunciation: [bɛɐ̯ˈliːn] ( listen)) is the capital city of Germany and one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.5 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city and is the second most populous city proper and the eighth most populous urban area in the European Union. Located in northeastern Germany, it is the center of the Berlin-Brandenburg Metropolitan Region, which has 5.9 million residents from over 190 nations. Located in the European Plains, Berlin is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. Around one third of the city's area is composed of forests, parks, gardens, rivers and lakes.
First documented in the 13th century, Berlin was the capital of the Kingdom of Prussia (1701–1918), the German Empire (1871–1918), the Weimar Republic (1919–1933) and the Third Reich (1933–1945).Berlin in the 1920s was the third largest municipality in the world. After World War II, the city became divided into East Berlin—the capital of East Germany—and West Berlin, a West German exclave surrounded by the Berlin Wall (1961–1989). Following German reunification in 1990, the city regained its status as the capital of Germany, hosting 147 foreign embassies.

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Brussels
Brussels (French: Bruxelles, pronounced [bʁysɛl] ( listen); Dutch: Brussel, pronounced [ˈbrʏ.səɫ] ( listen); German: Brüssel, pronounced [ˈbʁyː.səl]), officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region (French: Région de Bruxelles-Capitale (help·info), Dutch: Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest (help·info)), is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union (EU). It is also the largest urban area in Belgium, comprising 19 municipalities, including the municipality of the City of Brussels, which is the de jure capital of Belgium, in addition to the seat of the French Community of Belgium and of the Flemish Community.
Brussels has grown from a 10th-century fortress town founded by a descendant of Charlemagne into a metropolis of more than one million inhabitants. The metropolitan area has a population of over 1.8 million, making it the largest in Belgium.
Since the end of the Second World War, Brussels has been a main centre for international politics. Hosting principal EU institutions as well as the headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the city has become the polyglot home of numerous international organisations, politicians, diplomats and civil servants.

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Bucharest
Bucharest (Romanian: București pronounced [bukuˈreʃtʲ] ( listen)) is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at 44°25′57″N 26°06′14″E / 44.4325°N 26.10389°E / 44.4325; 26.10389Coordinates: 44°25′57″N 26°06′14″E / 44.4325°N 26.10389°E / 44.4325; 26.10389, and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River.
Bucharest was first mentioned in documents as early as 1459. Since then it has gone through a variety of changes, becoming the state capital of Romania in 1862 and steadily consolidating its position as the centre of the Romanian mass media, culture and arts. Its eclectic architecture is a mix of historical (neo-classical), interbellum (Bauhaus and Art Deco), Communist-era and modern. In the period between the two World Wars, the city's elegant architecture and the sophistication of its elite earned Bucharest the nickname of "Little Paris" (Micul Paris). Although many buildings and districts in the historic centre were damaged or destroyed by war, earthquakes, and Nicolae Ceaușescu's program of systematization, many survived. In recent years, the city has been experiencing an economic and cultural boom..

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Budapest
Budapest ( /ˈbuːdəpɛst/, /ˈbuːdəpɛʃt/ or /ˈbʊdəpɛst/; Hungarian pronunciation: [ˈbudɒpɛʃt] ( listen); names in other languages) is the capital and the largest city of Hungary, the largest in East-Central Europe and the seventh largest in the European Union. It is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre, sometimes described as the primate city of Hungary. According to 2011 Census, Budapest had 1.74 million inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2.1 million due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter Area is home to 3.3 million people. The city covers an area of 525 square kilometres (202.7 sq mi) within the city limits. Budapest became a single city occupying both banks of the river Danube with a unification on 17 November 1873 of west-bank Buda and Óbuda with east-bank Pest.
The history of Budapest began with Aquincum, originally a Celtic settlement that became the Roman capital of Lower Pannonia.Hungarians arrived in the territory in the 9th century. Their first settlement was pillaged by the Mongols in 1241-42. The re-established town became one of the centres of Renaissance humanist culture in the 15th century. Following the Battle of Mohács and nearly 150 years of Ottoman rule, development of the region entered a new age of prosperity in the 18th and 19th centuries, and Budapest became a global city after the 1873 unification. It also became the second capital of Austria-Hungary, a great power that dissolved in 1918. After the Treaty of Trianon in 1920, when Hungary lost 72% of its former territory, culturally and economically the country became wholly Budapest-dominated. The capital dominates the country both by the size of its population—which dwarfs those of Hungary's other cities Budapest was the focal point of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, the Hungarian Soviet Republic of 1919, Operation Panzerfaust in 1944, the Battle of Budapest of 1945, and the Revolution of 1956.

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Bulgaria
Coordinates: 42°45′N 25°30′E / 42.75°N 25.5°E / 42.75; 25.5
Bulgaria ⁱ/bʌlˈɡɛəriə/ (Bulgarian: България, IPA: [bɤ̞ɫˈɡarijɐ]), is a country located in Southeastern Europe. It is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and the Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south and the Black Sea to the east. With a territory of 110,994 square kilometres (42,855 sq mi), Bulgaria is Europe's 14th-largest country. Its location has made it a historical crossroad for various civilisations and as such it is the home of some of the earliest metalworking, religious and other cultural artifacts in the world.
Prehistoric cultures began developing on Bulgarian lands during the Neolithic period. Its ancient history was marked by the presence of the Thracians, and later by the Greeks and Romans. The emergence of a unified Bulgarian ethnicity and state dates back to the First Bulgarian Empire, which dominated most of the Balkans and functioned as a cultural hub for Slavic peoples during the Middle Ages. With the downfall of the Second Bulgarian Empire in 1396, its territories came under Ottoman rule for nearly five hundred years. The Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878 resulted in the Third Bulgarian State, recognised in 1908. The following years saw several conflicts with its neighbours, which prompted Bulgaria to align with Germany in both World Wars. In 1946 it became a Communist republic with a single-party system until 1989, when the Communist Party allowed multi-party elections. After 1990 Bulgaria transitioned to democracy and a market-based economy.

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Bursa
Bursa (Turkish pronunciation: [ˈbuɾsa]) is a city in northwestern Turkey and the seat of Bursa Province. The metropolitan area in the entire Bursa province had a population of 2.6 million as of 2010, making the city the fourth most populous in Turkey. The city is equally one of the most industrialized metropolitan centers in the country.
Bursa was the capital of the Ottoman State between 1326 and 1365. The city was referred to as "Hüdavendigar" (meaning "God's Gift") during the Ottoman period, while a more recent nickname is "Yeşil Bursa" (meaning "Green Bursa") in reference to the parks and gardens located across its urban tissue, as well as to the vast forests in rich variety that extend in the surrounding region. The city is synonymous with Mount Uludağ which towers behind its core and which is also a famous ski resort. The mausoleums of the early Ottoman sultans are located in Bursa and the numerous edifices built throughout the Ottoman period constitute the city's main landmarks. The surrounding fertile plain, its thermal baths, several interesting museums, notably a rich museum of archaeology, and a rather orderly urban growth are further principal elements that complete Bursa's overall picture.

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Cetinje
Cetinje (Montenegrin: Цетиње / Cetinje; Serbo-Croatian pronunciation: [tsětiɲe]) is a town and Old Royal Capital of Montenegro. It is also a historical and the secondary capital of Montenegro (Приjестоница / Prijestonica), with the official residence of the President of Montenegro. It had a population of 13,991 as of 2011.
It is the centre of municipality (population 16,757 in 2011). The city nestles on a small karst plain surrounded by limestone mountains, including Mt. Lovćen, the Black Mountain from which Montenegro gets its name.
Cetinje is a town of immense historical heritage, founded in the 15th century. It became the center of Montenegrin life and both a cradle of Montenegrin culture and a Serbian Orthodox religious center. It is because of its heritage as a long-term Montenegrin capital that it is today the honorary capital of Montenegro.
In Montenegrin and Serbian the town is known as Цетинѣ / Cetině (archaic) or Цетиње / Cetinje (modern); in Italian as Cettigne; in Greek as Κετίγνη (Ketígni); and in Turkish as Çetince.

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Chişinău
Chișinău (Romanian pronunciation: [kiʃiˈnəw]; historically also known as Kishinev, from Russian: Кишинёв) is the capital and largest city of Moldova. It is also its main industrial and commercial centre, and is located in the middle of the country, on the river Bîc. According to January 2012 official estimates, Chișinău proper has a population of 723,500 and the municipality of Chișinău is home to 794,800 residents.
Chișinău is the most economically prosperous locality in Moldova, and its largest transportation hub. As the most economically and socially important municipality in Moldova, the city has a broad range of educational facilities.
The origin of the city's name is unclear. In one version, the name comes from the archaic Romanian word chișla (meaning "spring", "source of water") and nouă ("new"), because it was built around a small spring, located at the corner of Pushkin and Albișoara streets.
An alternative version, by Ștefan Ciobanu, Romanian historian and academician, holds that the name was formed the same way as the name of Chișineu (alternative spelling: Chișinău) in Western Romania, near the border with Hungary. Its Hungarian name is Kisjenő, from which the Romanian name originates. Kisjenő in turn comes from kis "small" + the "Jenő" tribe, one of the seven Hungarian tribes that entered the Carpathian Basin in 896 and gave the name of 21 settlements.

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City of San Marino
The City of San Marino, also known simply as San Marino, is the capital city of the Republic of San Marino on the Italian peninsula, near the Adriatic Sea. The city has a population of 4,493. It is on the western slopes of San Marino's highest point, Monte Titano.
Although the capital, most of the businesses are in Borgo Maggiore. It is the third largest city in the country, after Dogana and Borgo Maggiore. It borders the San Marino municipalities Acquaviva, Borgo Maggiore, Fiorentino, and Chiesanuova and the Italian municipality San Leo.
Akademio Internacia de la Sciencoj San Marino is centered here.
Due to its being the capital and previously the only city in San Marino, the history of this city is almost the same as the History of San Marino. For more information on that topic, see that article.
The city was founded by Saint Marinus and several Christian refugees in the year 301. From then on the city became a center of Christian refugees who fled from Roman persecution. As a result, the city become the oldest republic in Europe, for the republic's territory at that time only included the single city of San Marino.

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Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( /ˈkoʊpənheɪɡən/ or /ˈkoʊpənhɑːɡən/; Danish: København pronounced [kʰøb̥m̩ˈhɑʊ̯ˀn] ( listen), Latin: Hafnia) is the capital of Denmark and its most populous city, with an urban population of 1,213,822 (as of 1 January 2012 (2012 -01-01)^[update]) and a metropolitan population of 1,935,746 (as of 1 April 2012 (2012 -04-01)^[update]). With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region. Within this region, Copenhagen and the Swedish city of Malmö are growing into a combined metropolitan area. Copenhagen is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager.
First documented in the 11th century, Copenhagen became the capital of Denmark in the beginning of the 15th century. During the 17th century, under the reign of Christian IV, it became a significant regional centre.
Copenhagen is a major regional centre of culture, business, media, and science, as indicated by several international surveys and rankings (see International rankings below). Life science, information technology and shipping are important sectors, and research & development plays a major role in the city's economy. Its strategic location and excellent infrastructure, with the largest airport in Scandinavia,Kastrup, located 14 minutes by train from the city centre, have made it a regional hub and a popular location for regional headquarters and conventions.

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Croatia
Croatia (ⁱ/kroʊˈeɪʃə/ kroh-AY-shə; Croatian: Hrvatska pronounced [xř̩ʋaːtskaː]), officially the Republic of Croatia (Croatian: Republika Hrvatska listen (help·info)), is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of Central Europe, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers 56,594 square kilometres (21,851 square miles) and has diverse, mostly continental and Mediterranean climates. Croatia's Adriatic Sea coast contains more than a thousand islands. The country's population is 4.29 million, most of whom are Croats, with the most common religious denomination being Roman Catholicism.
In the early 7th century the Croats arrived in area of present-day Croatia. They organised the state into two dukedoms by the 9th century. Tomislav became the first king by 925 AD, elevating Croatia to the status of a kingdom. The Kingdom of Croatia retained its sovereignty for nearly two centuries, reaching its peak during the rule of Kings Peter Krešimir IV and Dmitar Zvonimir. Croatia entered a personal union with Hungary in 1102. In 1527, faced with Ottoman conquest the Croatian Parliament elected Ferdinand I of the House of Habsburg to the Croatian throne. In 1918, after World War I, Croatia was included in the short-lived State of Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs that declared independence from Austria–Hungary and co-founded the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. A Croatian state briefly existed during World War II as a fascist puppet state. After the war, Croatia became a founding member and a federal constituent of the Second Yugoslavia, a socialist state. In June 1991, Croatia declared independence, which came into effect on 8 October of the same year. The Croatian War of Independence was fought successfully during the four years following the declaration.

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Crown Dependencies
The Crown Dependencies are self-governing possessions of the British Crown, as opposed to overseas territories of the United Kingdom. They comprise the Channel Island Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey in the English Channel, and the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea.
Being independently administered jurisdictions, none forms part of the United Kingdom nor of the European Union.
"The Crown" is defined differently in each Crown Dependency. In Jersey, statements in the 21st century of the constitutional position by the Law Officers of the Crown define it as the "Crown in right of Jersey", with all Crown land in the Bailiwick of Jersey belonging to the Crown in right of Jersey and not to the Crown Estate of the United Kingdom. Legislation of the Isle of Man defines the "Crown in right of the Isle of Man" as being separate from the "Crown in right of the United Kingdom". In Guernsey, legislation refers to the "Crown in right of the Bailiwick", and the Law Officers of the Crown of Guernsey submitted that "The Crown in this context ordinarily means the Crown in right of the république of the Bailiwick of Guernsey" and that this comprises "the collective governmental and civic institutions, established by and under the authority of the Monarch, for the governance of these Islands, including the States of Guernsey and legislatures in the other Islands, the Royal Court and other courts, the Lieutenant Governor, Parish authorities, and the Crown acting in and through the Privy Council." This constitutional concept is also worded as the "Crown in right of the Bailiwick of Guernsey".

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Cyprus
Cyprus ⁱ/ˈsaɪprəs/ (Greek: Κύπρος, Kýpros, IPA: [ˈcipɾos]; Turkish: Kıbrıs, IPA: [ˈkɯbɾɯs]), officially the Republic of Cyprus (Greek: Κυπριακή Δημοκρατία, Kypriakī́ Dīmokratía, IPA: [cipɾiaˈci ðimokɾaˈtia]; Turkish: Kıbrıs Cumhuriyeti, IPA: [ˈkɯbɾɯs dʒumhuɾijeˈti]), is an island country in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria, Lebanon, northwest of Israel and north of Egypt. Cyprus is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea and the Republic of Cyprus is a member state of the European Union.
The earliest known human activity on the island dates back to around the 10th millennium BC. Archaeological remains from this period include the well-preserved Neolithic village of Khirokitia, which has been declared a World Heritage Site with an "enhanced protection" status in the event of armed conflict by UNESCO, along with the archaeological sites of Paphos and the Painted Churches of the Troodos Region. Cyprus is home to some of the oldest water wells in the world.

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Czech Republic
The Czech Republic (ⁱ/ˈtʃɛk/ CHEK;Czech: Česká republika, pronounced [ˈtʃɛskaː ˈrɛpuˌblɪka] ( listen), short form Česko Czech pronunciation: [ˈtʃɛskɔ]) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the north, Germany to the west, Austria to the south and Slovakia to the east. Its capital and largest city, with 1.3 million inhabitants, is Prague.
It is a pluralist multi-party parliamentary representative democracy, a member of the European Union, NATO, the OECD, the OSCE, the Council of Europe and the Visegrád Group.
The Czech state, formerly known as Bohemia, was formed in the late 9th century as a small duchy around Prague, at that time under dominance of the powerful Great Moravian Empire (which reached its greatest territorial extent during the reign of Svatopluk I from the House of Mojmír). After the fall of the Empire in 907, the centre of power was transferred from Moravia to Bohemia, under the Přemyslids. During the rule of Přemyslid dukes/kings and their successors, the Luxembourgs, the country reached its greatest territorial extent (13th–14th century). Life in the country was significantly affected by the Hussite wars, during which it faced economic embargo and crusades from all over Europe. Following the Battle of Mohács in 1526, the Crown of Bohemia was gradually integrated into the Habsburg monarchy as one of its three principal parts alongside the Archduchy of Austria and the Kingdom of Hungary. The Bohemian Revolt (1618–20) led to the further centralization of the monarchy including forced recatholization and Germanization. During radical reforms in the 18th century the Bohemian Crown was even de facto abolished (1749). In the 19th century the Czech lands became the industrial powerhouse of the monarchy and the core of the Republic of Czechoslovakia which was formed in 1918, following the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian empire after World War I.

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Debrc
Debrc (Serbian Cyrillic: Дебрц, Hungarian: Debrecen) is a former town, today a village, located in the Vladimirci municipality, in Mačva District of Serbia. In 2002, the population of the village was 875, of which 855 were ethnic Serbs. Debrc was a capital of medieval Kingdom of Syrmia ruled by Serb king Stefan Dragutin.
Coordinates: 44°37′N 19°54′E / 44.617°N 19.9°E / 44.617; 19.9

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Denmark
The Kingdom of Denmark (Danish: Kongeriget Danmark, pronounced [ˈkɔŋəʁiːəð ˈdanmɑɡ̊] ( listen)) is a constitutional monarchy and sovereign state consisting the country of Denmark in northern Europe and two autonomous constituent countries, the Faroe Islands in the North Atlantic and Greenland in North America. The kingdom is a unitary state with some power being devolved from Denmark proper to Greenland and the Faroe Islands; this polity is referred to as the Danish Realm. Denmark proper is the hegemonial area, where judicial, executive, and legislative power resides. The Faroe Islands are defined to be a community of people within the kingdom, and the Greenlandic people are defined as a separate people with the right to self-determination.
Denmark is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, located southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. The country consists of a large peninsula, Jutland and many islands, most notably Zealand, Funen, Lolland, Falster and Bornholm, as well as hundreds of minor islands often referred to as the Danish Archipelago.

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Dečani
Dečani or Deçan (Albanian: Deçan; Serbian: Дечани, Dečani, pronounced [dɛ̌t͡ʃani]) is a town and municipality in the Peć district of western Kosovo. It is a mountainous area which borders Montenegro and Albania. There is a total of 36 villages within the municipality. The territory of the municipality is 371 km2.
During the 1998–1999 conflict, Dečani was one of the strongholds of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and subsequently suffered a large amount of infrastructure destruction by the Serbian military and paramilitary forces. Much reconstruction has taken place with the assistance of the international agencies and support from the Kosovo Albanian diaspora.^{[citation needed]} It is widely known for the Visoki Dečani monastery of the Serbian Orthodox Church.
In 2011, the population of the municipality numbered 38,984. "Others" includes Bosniaks, Kosovo Ashkalia, Egyptians and Roma. The non-Albanian communities mainly reside in the villages of Babaloc, Dubovik, Gramocelj, Irznic, Požar, Rastavica, Šaptelj, Papracane. There are Serbian Orthodox clergy in the Visoki Dečani monastery.

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Douglas, Isle of Man
Coordinates: 54°08′43″N 4°28′54″W / 54.14521°N 4.48172°W / 54.14521; -4.48172
Douglas (Manx: Doolish) is the capital and largest town of the Isle of Man, with a population of 26,218 people (2006). It is located at the mouth of the River Douglas, and a sweeping bay of two miles. The River Douglas forms part of the town's harbour and main commercial port.
Douglas is home to the High Courts and the Isle of Man Government.
The town serves as the Island's main hub for business, finance, legal services, shipping, transport, shopping, and entertainment.
The discovery of a bronze weapon in central Douglas, and the large Ballaquayle Viking treasure hoard on the outskirts, both in the 1890s, hint at the early importance of the site now occupied by Douglas. Scholars agree that the name of the town derives from Early Celtic 'Duboglassio' meaning 'black river'. Douglas is twice referred to in the Monastic 'Chronicle of the Kings of Man and the Isles'; first in 1192, when the monks of St Mary's Abbey at Rushen, were transferred there for a four-year stay, then again in 1313, when Robert (Bruce), King of Scotland, spent the night at the 'monastery of Duglas' on his way to seize Castle Rushen. These may be references to the site of the later Nunnery, a little upstream from the port.

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Dragaš
Dragaš (Albanian: Dragash or Sharri; Serbian: Драгаш, Dragaš) is a town and municipality in the Prizren district of southern Kosovo. The population of the town is approximately 33,584, that of the whole municipality is estimated at 33,584 (2011). It was named after medieval Serbian lord Constantine Dragaš.
The Dragaš municipality was created by the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) by merging the two former municipalities of Gora and Opolje.
The territory of the Dragaš municipality lies in the northern latitude of 41 52' 30" to 42 09' 03" and longitude of 20 35' 39" to 20 48' 26". The whole territory is surrounded by the Šar Mountains, then Koritnik Mountain, mountain Gjalic and Cylen in the direction of Prizren. Only one part of the territory in Prizren direction is hilly with a relatively slight slope by which this territory is connected with Prizren basin and through Prizren with the world.
The municipality is split into the regions Opoja and Gora, with the Albanian population living in Opoja and the Gorani population living in Gora.

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Dublin
Dublin ( /ˈdʌblɨn/; locally /ˈdʊbᵊlən/; Irish: Baile Átha Cliath, meaning "town of the hurdled ford", pronounced [blʲaˈklʲiə] or Áth Cliath, [aː klʲiə], occasionally Duibhlinn) is the capital and most populous city of Ireland. The English name for the city is derived from the Irish name Dubhlinn, meaning "black pool". Dublin is situated near the midpoint of Ireland's east coast, at the mouth of the River Liffey and the centre of the Dublin Region.
Originally founded as a Viking settlement, it evolved into the Kingdom of Dublin and became the island's principal city following the Norman invasion. The city expanded rapidly from the 17th century; it was briefly the second largest city in the British Empire and the fifth largest in Europe. Dublin entered a period of stagnation following the Act of Union of 1800, but it remained the economic centre for most of the island. Following the partition of Ireland in 1922, the new parliament, the Oireachtas, was located in Leinster House. Dublin became the capital of the Irish Free State and later the Republic of Ireland.

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Durrës
Durrës is the second largest city of Albania located on the central Albanian coast, about 33 km (21 mi) west of the capital Tirana. It is one of the most ancient and economically important cities of Albania. Durres is situated at one of the narrower points of the Adriatic Sea, opposite the Italian ports of Bari (300 km/186 mi away) and Brindisi (200 km/124 mi away). Durrës is home to Albania's main port, the Port of Durrës, and to the newest public university, the Aleksandër Moisiu University. It has a population of 115,550, while metropolitan area has a population of 265,330 . In addition, it is the meeting point of national roads SH2 and SH4. Founded in the 7th century BC by Greek colonists from Corinth and Corcyra under the name Epidamnos, it has been continuously inhabited for 27 centuries and is one of the oldest cities in Albania. Durrës served as Albania's national capital from 7 March 1914 until 11 February 1920 during the reign of William of Albania in Principality of Albania. In 2012, The Globe and Mail ranked Durres at no.1 among 8 exciting new cruise ports to explore.

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Faroe Islands
Coordinates: 62°00′N 06°47′W / 62°N 6.783°W / 62; -6.783
The Faroe Islands (Faroese: Føroyar pronounced [ˈfœɹjaɹ], Danish: Færøerne Danish pronunciation: [ˈfæɐ̯øːˀɐnə]) are an island group situated between the Norwegian Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, approximately halfway between Norway and Iceland. The islands form a self-governing country under the sovereignty of the Kingdom of Denmark. The total area is approximately 1,400 km² (540 sq mi) with a 2010 population of almost 50,000 people.
The Faroe Islands has been a self-governing dependency of Denmark since 1948. Over the years, the Faroese have taken control of most domestic matters. Areas that remain the responsibility of Denmark include military defence, police, justice, currency and foreign affairs. The Faroe Islands also has representatives in the Nordic Council as members of the Danish delegation.
The Faroe Islands were associated with and taxed by Denmark and Norway up to 1814, when Norway fell under the rule of Sweden. Scandinavia was in political turmoil following the Sixth Coalition of the Napoleonic Wars, when the Treaty of Kiel granted Denmark control over the Faroes, Iceland and Greenland in 1814. The Danish trade monopoly ended in 1856.

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Finland
Coordinates: 65°N 27°E / 65°N 027°E / 65; 027
Finland ⁱ/ˈfɪnlənd/ ( Finnish: Suomi; Swedish: Finland (help·info)), officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.
Around 5.4 million people reside in Finland, with the majority concentrated in the southern region. It is the eighth largest country in Europe in terms of area and the most sparsely populated country in the European Union. Finland is a parliamentary republic with a central government based in Helsinki and local governments in 336 municipalities, and an autonomous region of the Åland Islands. About one million residents live in the Greater Helsinki area, which consists of Helsinki, Espoo, Kauniainen and Vantaa, and a third of the country's GDP is produced there. Other larger cities include Tampere, Turku, Oulu, Jyväskylä, Lahti and Kuopio.

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France
France (English ⁱ/ˈfræns/ FRANSS or /ˈfrɑːns/ FRAHNSS; French: [fʁɑ̃s] ( listen)), officially the French Republic (French: République française [ʁepyblik fʁɑ̃sɛz]), is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean. It is often referred to as l’Hexagone ("The Hexagon") because of the geometric shape of its territory. It is the largest western European country and it possesses the second-largest exclusive economic zone in the world, covering 11,035,000 km² (4,260,000 sq mi), just behind that of the United States (11,351,000 km² / 4,383,000 sq mi).
Over the past 500 years, France has been a major power with strong cultural, economic, military and political influence in Europe and around the world. During the 17th and 18th centuries, France colonised great parts of North America and Southeast Asia; during the 19th and early 20th centuries, France built the second largest colonial empire of the time, including large portions of North, West and Central Africa, Southeast Asia, and many Caribbean and Pacific Islands.

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Georgia (country)
Georgia ⁱ/ˈdʒɔrdʒə/ (Georgian: საქართველო Sakartvelo, IPA: [sɑkʰɑrtʰvɛlɔ] ( listen)) is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the south by Turkey and Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of Georgia is Tbilisi. Georgia covers a territory of 69,700 km² and its population is almost 4.7 million. Georgia is a unitary, semi-presidential republic, with the government elected through a representative democracy.
During the classical era independent kingdoms became established in what is now Georgia. The kingdoms of Colchis and Iberia adopted Christianity in the early 4th century. A unified Georgia reached the peak of its political and economic strength during the reign of King David IV and Queen Tamar in the 11th–12th centuries. At the beginning of the 19th century, Georgia was annexed by the Russian Empire. After a brief period of independence following the Russian Revolution of 1917, Georgia was occupied by Soviet Russia in 1921, becoming the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic and part of the Soviet Union. After independence in 1991, post-communist Georgia suffered from civil unrest and economic crisis for most of the 1990s. This lasted until the Rose Revolution of 2003, after which the new government introduced democratic and economic reforms.

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Germany
Germany (ⁱ/ˈdʒɜrməni/), officially the Federal Republic of Germany (German: Bundesrepublik Deutschland, pronounced [ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant] ( listen)), is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km² and has a largely temperate seasonal climate. With 81.8 million inhabitants, it is the most populous member state and the largest economy in the European Union. It is one of the major political powers of the European continent and a technological leader in many fields.
A region named Germania, inhabited by several Germanic peoples, was documented before AD 100. During the Migration Period, the Germanic tribes expanded southward, and established successor kingdoms throughout much of Europe. Beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation while southern and western parts remained dominated by Roman Catholic denominations, with the two factions clashing in the Thirty Years' War, marking the beginning of the Catholic–Protestant divide that has characterized German society ever since. Occupied during the Napoleonic Wars, the rise of Pan-Germanism inside the German Confederation resulted in the unification of most of the German states into the German Empire in 1871 which was Prussian dominated. After the German Revolution of 1918–1919 and the subsequent military surrender in World War I, the Empire was replaced by the Weimar Republic in 1918, and partitioned in the Treaty of Versailles. Amidst the Great Depression, the Third Reich was proclaimed in 1933. The latter period was marked by Fascism and World War II. After 1945, Germany was divided by allied occupation, and evolved into two states, East Germany and West Germany. In 1990 Germany was reunified.

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Gibraltar
Gibraltar ( /dʒɨˈbrɒltər/) is a British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance of the Mediterranean. It has an area of 6.8 square kilometres (2.6 sq mi) and a northern border with Andalusia, Spain. The Rock of Gibraltar is the major landmark of the region. At its foot is the densely populated city area, home to almost 30,000 Gibraltarians and other nationalities.
An Anglo-Dutch force captured Gibraltar from Spain in 1704 during the War of the Spanish Succession. The territory was subsequently ceded to Britain "in perpetuity" under the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. It was an important base for the Royal Navy; today its economy is based largely on tourism, financial services, and shipping.
The sovereignty of Gibraltar is a major point of contention in Anglo-Spanish relations as Spain asserts a claim to the territory. Gibraltarians rejected proposals for Spanish sovereignty in a 1967 referendum and again in 2002. Under the Gibraltar constitution of 2006, Gibraltar governs its own affairs, though some powers, such as defence and foreign relations, remain the responsibility of the UK Government.

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Glogovac
Glogovac (Albanian: Drenas or Gllogovc; Serbian: Глоговац, Glogovac) is a town and municipality in the Pristina district of central Kosovo.
Before the Kosovo War of 1999, the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) had a strong level of influence and controlled large areas of the municipality.
Drenas municipality is located in central Kosovo, between the Čičavica mountains in the east and the Drenica hills in the north and west. The main road from Pristina‎ to Peć‎ crosses the municipality.
At a junction at Komorani village, a smaller road extends north from the highway, passing through Drenas town and continuing to Srbica town. There are a total of 36 villages in the municipality, including the town of Drenas. The municipality's population prior to the 1999 bombing was approximately 58,579 made up almost entirely of Kosovo Albanians, with a small number of Kosovo Serbs and others only in the Drenas town. No ethnic minorities remained in the municipality, thus Drenas today reflects a mono-ethnic environment. Glogovac has been the cradle of Kosovo Albanian nationalist movements.^{[citation needed]} Before the conflict the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) had a strong level of influence and controlled large areas of the municipality. Drenas municipality was consequently badly affected, as was the entire Drenica region. A series of Yugoslav police operations resulting in armed confrontation and civilian casualties represented defining episodes in the escalation of armed conflict in Kosovo.

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Gnjilane
Gnjilane or Gjilan (Albanian: Gjilani or Gjilan; Serbian: Гњилане, Gnjilane, pronounced [ɡɲîlane]; Turkish: Gilan) is a city and municipality in eastern Kosovo. It is the administrative center of the District of Gnjilane. It is famous for having been recorded the lowest temperature in Kosovo with −32.5 °C (−26.5 °F) on 25 January 1963.^{[citation needed]}
The origin of the town name is disputed. Albanian sources claim that the town was originally established in 1572 by the Gjinolli family, who arrived from Novo Brdo, one of the most important late-medieval cities in the central Balkans. However, there is no definite evidence to support that claim, and in fact no one can confirm as to who the first true inhabitants were, or when they first settled there. On the other hand, Serbian sources claim that the origin of the town name is in the Serbian word gnjio (putrid, rotten).
In the Middle Ages the city was called Morava and was a major trade and industrial center. Gnjilane was often visited by the Serbian rulers, and the first written records about it, is the 1342. year, directly related to the residence of King Stefan Dusan. The present name of the town was first mentioned in the late 14th century in a charter of Serbian princess Milica, wife of Prince Lazar. However, the first data concerning the existence of inhabited places in the area appear in the first half of the fourteenth century and the reign of Tsar Stefan Dusan, who also visited Ružica (as at that time was called Gnjilane) around 1351. year and crossed the famous bridge on the river Masketarovog Dobrusha, downtown, and thus forever marked the history of this Serbian village. In defter dating from 1455, it's stated that the village had consisted of 41 Serbian households.

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Gračanica, Kosovo
Gračanica (Serbian Cyrillic: Грачаница, pronounced [ɡratʃǎnitsa]; Albanian: Graçanicë, Graçanica) is a town and municipality in central Kosovo, and a Serb enclave centered around the Gračanica monastery, located ten kilometers away from Pristina. The 1999 Kosovo War and its aftermath transformed Gračanica from a sleepy village into an administrative center serving the needs of the 75,000 Kosovo Serbs living south of the Ibar River. International banks, internet cafes, and outlets of Serbian governmental institutions are located amidst traditional farmhouses, giving Gračanica the feel of a semi-urban center dislocated into a rural community.
Municipality of Gračanica was formed in 2008 by the Government of Kosovo out of parts of the municipalities of Lipljan, Kosovo Polje and Pristina (City of Priština, according to the Serbian laws). Although the new municipality is primarily inhabited by Serbs, this move is not recognized by Serbian government which does not recognize Municipality of Gračanica.

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Greece
Greece ⁱ/ˈɡriːs/ (Greek: Ελλάδα, Ellada, IPA: [eˈlaða] ( listen) historically in Katharevousa and Ancient Greek: Ἑλλάς, Hellas, IPA: [eˈlas] and [helːás] respectively), officially the Hellenic Republic (Ελληνική Δημοκρατία, Elliniki Dimokratia, IPA: [eliniˈci ðimokraˈtia]), is a country in Southern Europe, politically considered part of Western Europe.Athens is the capital and the largest city in the country (its urban area also including Piraeus). The population of the country is around 11 million.
Greece has land borders with Albania, the Republic of Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to the east. The Aegean Sea lies to the east of mainland Greece, the Ionian Sea to the west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. Greece has the 11th longest coastline in the world at 13,676 km (8,498 mi) in length, featuring a vast number of islands (approximately 1,400, of which 227 are inhabited), including Crete, the Dodecanese, the Cyclades, and the Ionian Islands among others. Eighty percent of Greece consists of mountains, of which Mount Olympus is the highest at 2,917 m (9,570 ft).

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Guernsey
Guernsey, officially the Bailiwick of Guernsey ( /ˈɡɜrnzi/ GURN-zee; French: Bailliage de Guernesey, IPA: [bajaʒ də ɡɛʁnəzɛ]), is a British Crown dependency in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy.
The Bailiwick of Guernsey embraces not only all 10 parishes on the Island of Guernsey, but also the islands of Herm, Jethou, and Lihou. Furthermore, the Bailiwick includes Alderney and Sark, which each has its own parliament.
Although its defence is the responsibility of the United Kingdom, the Bailiwick of Guernsey is not part of the UK; and while it participates in the Common Travel Area, it is not part of the European Union.
The Bailiwick of Guernsey is included (along with the Bailiwick of Jersey) in the grouping known as the Channel Islands.
The name of Guernsey, as well as that of neighbouring Jersey, is of Old Norse origin. The second element of Guernsey (-ey) is the Old Norse for "island". Guern similar to Spanish "Cuerno", French "Coi(r)n", Dutch "Hoorn", Frisian "Hoarn", Swedish "Hörn", Swiss "Gorn" means "Corner". - Corner Island.

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Helsinki
Helsinki ( listen (help·info); Swedish: Helsingfors, listen (help·info)) is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is 596,233 (31 January 2012), making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is located some 400 kilometres (250 mi) east of Stockholm, Sweden, 300 kilometres (190 mi) west of St. Petersburg, Russia and 80 kilometres (50 mi) north of Tallinn, Estonia. Helsinki has close historical connections with these three cities.
The Helsinki Metropolitan Area includes the city of Helsinki and three other cities: Espoo and Vantaa, which immediately border Helsinki to the west and north, respectively; and Kauniainen, which is an enclave within the city of Espoo. The Helsinki metropolitan area is the world's northernmost urban area among those with a population of over one million people, and the city is the northernmost capital of a EU member state. Altogether 1.1 million people, approximately one in five Finns, live in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area.

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Hungary
Hungary ⁱ/ˈhʌŋɡəri/ (Hungarian: Magyarország [ˈmɒɟɒrorsaːɡ] ( listen)) is a country, which is located in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The country's capital, and largest city, is Budapest. Hungary is a member of the European Union, NATO, the OECD, the Visegrád Group, and is a Schengen state. The official language is Hungarian, also known as Magyar, which is part of the Finno-Ugric group and is the most widely spoken non-Indo-European language in Europe.
Following a Celt (after c. 450 BC) and a Roman (AD 9 - c. 430) period, the foundation of Hungary was laid in the late 9th century by the Hungarian prince Árpád, whose great-grandson Saint Stephen I was crowned with a crown sent by the pope from Rome in 1000 AD. The Kingdom of Hungary lasted for 946 years, and at various points was regarded as one of the cultural centres of the Western world. After about 150 years of partial Ottoman occupation (1541–1699), Hungary was integrated into the Habsburg Monarchy, and later constituted half of the Austro-Hungarian dual monarchy (1867–1918).

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Iceland
Iceland ⁱ/ˈaɪslənd/ (Icelandic: Ísland, IPA: [ˈislant]) is a Nordic European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The country has a population of about 320,000 and a total area of 103,000 km² (40,000 sq mi). The capital and largest city is Reykjavík, with the surrounding areas in the southwestern region of the country being home to two-thirds of the country's population. Iceland is volcanically and geologically active. The interior mainly consists of a plateau characterised by sand fields, mountains and glaciers, while many glacial rivers flow to the sea through the lowlands. Iceland is warmed by the Gulf Stream and has a temperate climate despite a high latitude just outside the Arctic Circle.
According to Landnámabók, the settlement of Iceland began in AD 874 when the chieftain Ingólfur Arnarson became the first permanent Norse settler on the island. Others had visited the island earlier and stayed over winter. Over the following centuries, Norsemen settled Iceland, bringing with them thralls (slaves) of Gaelic origin. From 1262 to 1918 Iceland was part of the Norwegian and later the Danish monarchies. Until the 20th century, the Icelandic population relied largely on fisheries and agriculture, and the country was one of the poorest and least developed in the world. Industrialisation of the fisheries and aid from the Marshall Plan brought prosperity in the years after World War II, and by the 1990s it was one of the world's wealthiest countries. In 1994, Iceland became party to the European Economic Area, which made it possible for the economy to diversify into economic and financial services.

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Isle of Man
The Isle of Man ( /ˈmæn/; Manx: Ellan Vannin, pronounced [ˈɛlʲən ˈvanɪn]), otherwise known simply as Mann (Manx: Mannin, IPA: [ˈmanɪn]), is a self-governing Crown Dependency of the United Kingdom, located in the Irish Sea between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, within the British Isles. The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, who holds the title of Lord of Mann. The Lord of Mann is represented by a Lieutenant Governor. The island is not part of the United Kingdom, but its foreign relations and defence are the responsibility of the UK Government. Although the United Kingdom does not usually interfere in the island's domestic matters, its "good government" is ultimately the responsibility of the Crown (that is, in practice, the Government of the United Kingdom).
The island has been inhabited since before 6500 BC. Gaelic cultural influence began in the 5th century AD, and the Manx language, a branch of the Gaelic languages, gradually emerged. In the 9th century, the Norse began to settle there. A Norse-Gaelic culture arose and the island came under Norse control. In 1266, the island became part of Scotland as formalised by the Treaty of Perth. After a period of alternating rule by the kings of Scotland and England, the island came under the feudal overlordship of the English Crown in 1399. The lordship revested into the British Crown in 1764 but the island never became part of Great Britain or its successor the United Kingdom and retained its status as an internally self-governing Crown dependency.

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Istok
Istok or Istog (Albanian: Istog or Burimi; Serbian: Исток, Istok) is a town and municipality in the Peć district of north-western Kosovo. The town is the administrative capital of the municipality, which includes the town and the surrounding villages.
The name of the town comes from the archaic version of the Serbian word istok (modern version istek), meaning "well, water source" referring to the springs of the Istočka river, a tributary to the White Drin river. The name of the nearby village of Vrela, one of the largest settlements in the municipality, also means "springs", as does the newly proposed Albanian name of the town, Burimi.
Although there is no official data, the total population of the municipality is estimated at 65,000.
After World War II, watermills on the river of Istok were nationalized and a new fish plant was built to operate as a Socially-owned Enterprise. The company's name during socialism was "Ribnjak" (in Serbian) meaning "Piscatory or Fishery", and when it was privatized as Motel "Trofta" (in Albanian) meaning "Trout", or the type of fish it has been and is still producing, selling, and distributing. The company employs around 70 people.

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Italy
Italy ⁱ/ˈɪtəli/ (Italian: Italia [iˈtaːlja]), officially the Italian Republic or the Republic of Italy (Italian: Repubblica italiana), is a unitary parliamentary republic in south-central Europe. To the north, it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia along the Alps. To the south, it consists of the entirety of the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Sardinia–the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea–and many other smaller islands. The independent states of San Marino and the Vatican City are enclaves within Italy, while Campione d'Italia is an Italian exclave in Switzerland. The territory of Italy covers some 301,338 km² (116,347 sq mi) and is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. With 60.6 million inhabitants, it is the fifth most populous country in Europe, and the 23rd most populous in the world.
Rome, the capital of Italy, was for centuries a political and religious centre of Western civilisation as the capital of the Roman Empire and site of the Holy See. After the decline of the Roman Empire, Italy endured numerous invasions by foreign peoples, from Germanic tribes such as the Lombards and Ostrogoths, to the Byzantines and later, the Normans, among others. Centuries later, Italy became the birthplace of Maritime republics and the Renaissance, an immensely fruitful intellectual movement that would prove to be integral in shaping the subsequent course of European thought.

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Jersey
Jersey, officially the Bailiwick of Jersey, French: Bailliage de Jersey ( /ˈdʒɜrzi/, French: [ʒɛʁzɛ]; Jèrriais: Jèrri), is a British Crown Dependency off the coast of Normandy, France. As well as the island of Jersey itself, the bailiwick includes two groups of small islands that are no longer permanently inhabited, the Minquiers and Écréhous, and the Pierres de Lecq and other rocks and reefs.
Jersey is a self-governing parliamentary democracy under a constitutional monarchy, with its own financial, legal and judicial systems.
The island of Jersey is the largest of the Channel Islands. Although the Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey are often referred to collectively as 'the Channel Islands', they are not a constitutional or political unit. Jersey has a separate relationship to the British Crown from the other Crown Dependencies of Guernsey and the Isle of Man. It is not part of the United Kingdom, and has an international identity separate from that of the UK but the United Kingdom is constitutionally responsible for the defence of Jersey. Jersey is not a part of the European Union but has a special relationship with it, being treated as part of the European Community for the purposes of free trade in goods.

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Junik
Junik (Albanian: Junik; Serbian: Јуник, Junik) is a municipality and small town in the Đakovica district of western Kosovo. It is located in the west Metohija between Dečani and Đakovica along Kosovo's mountainous border with Albania. It is populated with ethnic Albanians. Junik is hometown to many widely known people including former heavyweight European boxing champion Luan Krasniqi, artist and writer Rexhep Goci, politician and writer Haxhi Kraki and poet Din Mehmeti to name a few. This is set to be one of the new municipalities of Kosovo.
Junik is composed of the following settlements, which give a combined total of 86.2 km² (33.3 sq mi).
Pursuant to the statistical data from the year 1981 and some estimations by the municipalty and local registrations that followed the 1999 conflict, it is assumed that the municipality has approximately 12,500 inhabitants. Apart from one Bosniak family, the municipality is mono ethnic Kosovo Albanian.
The economy of Junik is mainly based on extensive agriculture. The vast majority of inhabitants are in some way involved in agricultural activities. As in the rest of Kosovo, unemployment is a problem. However, after the 1999 conflict, there was an increase in registrations of private businesses in the territory of the municipality and currently more than 50 businesses are registered. Most of the enterprises are family run, especially trade enterprises. The municipal administration is currently the largest employer. The inhabitants see the vast forests around Junik and the natural beauty as the main asset of the municipality and the administration seeks possibilities for investing in the development of tourism.

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Karachi
Karachi ( Karācī (help·info), Urdu: کراچی; Sindhi: ڪراچي) is the largest city, main seaport and financial centre of Pakistan, as well as the capital of the province of Sindh. The city has an estimated population of 13 to 15 million, while the total metropolitan area has a population of over 13 million. Results in April 2012 of Pakistan's latest census initial tabulations show that the district is home to over 21 million people, at a density of nearly 6,000 people per square kilometer (15,500 per square mile). Karachi is the most populous city in the country, one of the world's largest cities in terms of population and also the 10th largest urban agglomeration in the world. It is Pakistan's premier centre of banking, industry, economic activity and trade and is home to Pakistan's largest corporations, including those involved in textiles, shipping, automotive industry, entertainment, the arts, fashion, advertising, publishing, software development and medical research. The city is a major hub of higher education in South Asia and the wider Muslim world.

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Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan (ⁱ/ˌkɑːzəkˈstɑːn/ or /ˌkæzəkˈstæn/) (Kazakh: Қазақстан, Qazaqstan, pronounced [qɑzɑqstɑ́n]; Russian: Казахстан [kəzɐxˈstan]), officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Europe. The ninth largest country in the world by land area, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of 2,727,300 square kilometres (1,053,000 sq mi) is larger than Western Europe. It is neighbored clockwise from the north by Russia, China, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and also borders on a significant part of the Caspian Sea. Although Kazakhstan does not share a border with Mongolia, its most easterly point is only 38 kilometres (24 mi) from Mongolia's western tip. The terrain of Kazakhstan ranges from flatlands, steppes, taigas, rock-canyons, hills, deltas, and snow-capped mountains to deserts. With 16.6 million people (2011 estimate) Kazakhstan has the 62nd largest population in the world, though its population density is less than 6 people per square kilometre (15 per sq. mi.). The capital was moved in 1998 from Almaty, Kazakhstan's largest city, to Astana.

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Kačanik
Kačanik or Kaçanik (Albanian: Kaçanik or Kaçaniku; Serbian: Качаник, Kačanik, pronounced [kâtʃaniːk]) is a town and municipality in southern Kosovo, in the Uroševac district. The municipality covers an area of 211 km² (81 sq mi), including the town of Kačanik and 31 villages. It has a population of approximately 33,454. With the exception of eight Roma and 30 Bosniaks, the municipality is ethnically homogeneous Kosovo Albanian.
In March 2011 the pilot municipal unit of Đeneral Janković was established within the Kačanik municipality, holding approximately 10,000 out of the 33,454 total inhabitants.
An epitaph on a tombstone found in one grave from the 2nd century AD proves that inhabited localities existed in this region even in Antiquity. This grave was discovered in the early 1980s during the erection of the Shopping Mall in Kačanik. The artifact is now secure in the Kacanik Cultural Center.
The town was founded by Koxha Sinan Pasha, who erected the town mosque which exists even today, a public kitchen for the poor (imaret), a school near the mosque, two hane (inns similar to caravanserais), one Turkish bath (hammam), the town fortress and a few mills on the Lepenac river.

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Kingdom of Serbia
The Kingdom of Serbia (Serbian: Краљевина Србија or Kraljevina Srbija) was created when Prince Milan Obrenović IV, ruler of the Principality of Serbia, was crowned King in 1882. The Principality of Serbia was ruled by the Karađorđevic dynasty from 1817 onwards (at times replaced by the Obrenović dynasty). The Principality, suzerain to the Porte, had expelled all Ottoman troops by 1867, de facto securing its independence. The Congress of Berlin in 1878 recognized the formal independence of the Principality of Serbia.
In 1918, Serbia joined the with the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs to form the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later known as Yugoslavia) under the rule of the Karađorđević dynasty who had come to power in 1903.
The Principality of Serbia was a state in the Balkans that came into existence as a result of the Serbian revolution which lasted between 1804 and 1817. Despite serious and extremely brutal oppression and revenge by the Ottoman authorities, the revolutionary leaders, first Karađorđe and then Miloš Obrenović, succeeded in their goal to liberate Serbia after centuries of Turkish rule.

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Klina
Klina or Klinë (Albanian: Klina or Klinë; Serbian: Клина, Klina) is a city and municipality in the Peć district of north-western Kosovo. It is located at the confluence of the river Klina into the White Drin.
Kosovo is the subject of a territorial dispute between the Republic of Serbia and the self-proclaimed Republic of Kosovo. The latter declared independence on 17 February 2008, while Serbia claims it as part of its own sovereign territory. Its independence is recognised by 91 UN member states.

A symbol of Klina are the Miruša Waterfalls.
Coordinates: 42°37′18″N 20°34′40″E / 42.62167°N 20.57778°E / 42.62167; 20.57778

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Kosovo
Kosovo ( /ˈkɒsəvoʊˌ ˈkoʊsəvoʊ/; Albanian: Kosovë, Kosova; Serbian: Косово or Косово и Метохија or Космет, Kosovo or Kosovo i Metohija or Kosmet) is a region in southeastern Europe. In antiquity, it was known as the independent kingdom, and later Roman province, of Dardania. Part of the medieval Serbia, it was then conquered by the Ottoman Empire, later incorporated into Serbia after the First Balkan War and before the constitution of Yugoslavia, later still it became the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija (Serbian: Autonomna Pokrajina Kosovo i Metohija) within Serbia (Serbia then being one of the constituent republics of Yugoslavia). Long-term severe ethnic tensions between Kosovo's Albanian and Serb populations have left Kosovo ethnically divided, resulting in inter-ethnic violence, including the Kosovo War of 1999. Following the Kosovo War, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) relinquished governance of this territory, whose governance was taken over by the United Nations, Kosovo remained legally the sovereign territory of the FRY after the transfer of authority. The partially recognised Republic of Kosovo (Albanian: Republika e Kosovës; Serbian: Република Косово, Republika Kosovo), a self-declared independent state, has de facto control over most of the territory, while North Kosovo, the largest Kosovo Serb enclave, is under the control of institutions of the Republic of Serbia.Serbia does not recognise the unilateral secession of Kosovo and considers it a UN-governed entity within its sovereign territory.

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Kosovo Polje
Kosovo Polje, literally Blackbird's Field, also often rendered Field of Blackbirds (Serbo-Croatian: Kosovo Polje, Косово Поље; Albanian: Fushë Kosovë or Fushë Kosova) is a town and municipality in the Pristina district of central Kosovo, at 42.63° North, 21.12° East, or approximately eight kilometres south-west of Pristina. In 2011 the Fushë Kosovë Municipality had a total population of 34,718.
Kosovo Polje is the nearest town to the site of the Battle of Kosovo of 1389. In April 1987 it became the scene of a famous incident when Slobodan Milošević–at the time chairman of the League of Communists of Serbia–was sent to Kosovo Polje's Hall of Culture (town hall) to calm a crowd of angry Serbs protesting at what they saw as anti-Serb discrimination by the Albanian-dominated Kosovo administration. When Serb citizens complained they had been beaten by Albanian police, he told them that "No one has the right to beat you.... No one will beat you ever." The incident earned Milošević the support of Serbian people, propelling him to the presidency of Serbia two years later.

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Kosovska Kamenica
Kosovska Kamenica or Kamenica (Albanian: Kamenica or Dardana; Serbian: Косовска Каменица, Kosovska Kamenica) is a town and municipality in the Gnjilane district of eastern Kosovo.
In 2011, Kosovska Kamenica municipality was estimated to have 35,600 citizens.
Kosovska Kamenica is the most eastern of Kosovo's municipalities. Currently the population is approximately 76% Kosovo Albanian and 23% Kosovo Serb with a small number of Roma.

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Kosovska Mitrovica
Kosovska Mitrovica (Albanian; Mitrovicë or Mitrovica, Serbian: Косовска Митровица, Kosovska Mitrovica; Turkish: Mitroviça), is a city and municipality in northern Kosovo. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous district.
Since the end of the Kosovo War of 1999 it has been divided between an ethnic-Albanian-majority south and an ethnic-Serb-majority north. Its northern part is the de facto capital of Serbian-majority North Kosovo.
The city was named "Civitas Sancti Demetrii" in the 14th century after Saint Demetrius of Thessaloniki, a name that later became "Mitrovica", as happened to other locations in the Balkans named after Saint Demetrius.
After Tito's death, when each of the constituent parts of Yugoslavia had to have one place named with the word 'Tito' (or 'Tito's') included, the city was also known as Titova Mitrovica (Титова Митровица) in Serbian or Mitrovica e Titos in Albanian.
The city is known as Kosovska Mitrovica (Косовска Митровица) in Serbian listen (help·info) and Mitrovica or Mitrovicë in Albanian.

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Kragujevac
Kragujevac (Serbian Cyrillic: Крагујевац, pronounced [krǎɡujeʋat͡s] ( listen)) is the fourth largest city in Serbia, the main city of the Šumadija region and the administrative centre of Šumadija District. It is situated on the banks of the river Lepenica. According to official,results of the 2011 census, the city has a population of 147,281 inhabitants, while municipality has a population of 177,468.
Kragujevac was the first capital of modern Serbia (1818–1839), and the first constitution in the Balkans was proclaimed in this city in 1835. Further on, the first full- fledged university in the newly independent Serbia was founded in 1838, preceded by the first grammar school (Gimnazija), Printworks (both in 1833), professional National theatre (1835) and the Military academy (1837).
Belgrade took the lead by becoming the seat of the throne in 1841. The University of Kragujevac was not reestablished until 1976. Contemporary Kragujevac is known for its weapons, munition, and Zastava Automobiles company.

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Kruševac
Kruševac (Serbian: Крушевац [krûʃɛʋat͡s] ( listen)) is a city and municipality, and the administrative center of the Rasina District, in central Serbia. According to the 2011 census, the municipality has a population of 127,429, while the town has 57,627.
The city was founded in 1371, by Prince Lazar of Serbia (1371–1389), who used it as his seat.
The etymology is derived from the Serbian word for "pear", kruška.
Kruševac was founded in 1371, as a fortified town in the possession of Lord Lazar Hrebeljanović. The Lazarica Church (or Church of St. Stephen [Nemanja]) was built by Lazar between 1375–1378, in the Morava architectural style, in the village of . It is mentioned in one of Lazar's edicts in 1387, as his seat, when he affirmed the rights of Venetian merchants on Serbian territory. In preparation for the Battle of Kosovo (1389) against the Ottoman Empire, the Serbian army assembled in the city. The site of Lazar's palace is marked by a ruined enclosure containing a fragment of the tower of his spouse Princess Milica, and according to legend, tidings of the defeat were brought to her by crows from the battlefield. After the battle, the city was held by Princess Milica as her seat. The little remains of Lazar's city is the Kruševac Fortress, which was declared a Cultural Monument of Exceptional Importance in 1979. Several old Ottoman houses were left at the beginning of the 20th century, besides an old Turkish fountain and bath, which was known as Alacahisar (Aladža Hisar) during Ottoman rule between 1427-1833 (nominally to 1867) except Austrian occupations between 1688–1690 and 1717-1739.

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Latvia
Latvia ⁱ/ˈlætviə/ (Latvian: Latvija), officially the Republic of Latvia (Latvian: Latvijas Republika), is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia (border length 343 km), to the south by Lithuania (588 km), to the east by the Russian Federation (276 km), to the southeast by Belarus (141 km), and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden. With 2,067,887 inhabitants and a territory of 64,589 km² (24,938 sq mi) it is one of the least populous and least densely populated countries of the European Union. The capital of Latvia is Riga. The official language is Latvian and the currency is called Lats (Ls). The country has a temperate seasonal climate.
The Latvians are a Baltic people, culturally related to the Lithuanians. Together with the Finno-Ugric Livs (or Livonians), the Latvians are the indigenous people of Latvia.Latvian is an Indo-European language and along with Lithuanian the only two surviving members of the Baltic branch. Indigenous minority languages are Latgalian and the nearly extinct Finno-Ugric Livonian language. In terms of geography, territory and population Latvia is the middle of three Baltic states: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Latvia and Estonia share a long common history: historical Livonia, times of German (Teutonic Order), Polish-Lithuanian, Swedish, Russian, Nazi German and Soviet rule, 13th century Christianization and 16th century Protestant Reformation. Both countries are home to a large number of ethnic Russians (26.9% in Latvia and 25.5% in Estonia) of whom some are non-citizens. Latvia is historically predominantly Protestant, except for the region of Latgalia in the southeast which is historically predominantly Roman Catholic.

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Leposavić
Leposavić (Albanian: Leposaviq or Albaniku; Serbian: Лепосавић, pronounced [lɛ̌pɔsaʋitɕ]) is a town and northernmostmunicipality in the district of Kosovska Mitrovica of northern Kosovo. It is a part of North Kosovo, a region populated with at least 98% ethnic Serbs that functions largely autonomously from the remainder of Kosovo, which is majority ethnic Albanian. According to OSCE and UNHCR estimates, the municipality has a population of approximately 18,600 (2007). The municipality consists of a town and 72 villages with an area of 750+km².
Leposavić municipality includes 72 villages with a total of 18,600 inhabitants, according to the UNHCR and OSCE estimates. Kosovo Serbs constitute the large majority (18,000), while small numbers of other communities are also present. Approximately 200 Kosovo Albanians live in the three southern villages of Košutovo, Šaljska Bistrica, and Ceranje. There are also 240 Kosovo Bosniaks, Romas, Ashkalis, and Egyptians.
According to the 1991 census, the municipality of Leposavić had a population of 16,395 people.^{[citation needed]}

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Liechtenstein
Liechtenstein, officially the Principality of Liechtenstein (ⁱ/ˈlɪktənstaɪn/ LIK-tən-styn; German: Fürstentum Liechtenstein, German pronunciation: [ˈfʏʁstn̩tuːm ˈlɪçtn̩ʃtaɪn]) is a doubly landlocked alpine country in Central Europe, bordered by Switzerland to the west and south and by Austria to the east. Its area is just over 160 square kilometres (62 sq mi), and it has an estimated population of 35,000. Its capital is Vaduz. The biggest town is Schaan. Liechtenstein has the highest gross domestic product per person in the world when adjusted by purchasing power parity, and has the world's lowest external debt. Liechtenstein also has the second lowest unemployment rate in the world at 1.5% (Monaco is first).
Liechtenstein is the smallest yet the richest (by measure of GDP per capita) German-speaking country in the world and the only country to lie entirely within the Alps. It is known as a principality as it is a constitutional monarchy headed by a prince. Liechtenstein is divided into 11 municipalities. Much of its terrain is mountainous, making it a winter sports destination. Many cultivated fields and small farms characterize its landscape both in the south (Oberland, upper land) and in the north (Unterland, lower land). The country has a strong financial sector located in the capital, Vaduz, and has been identified as a tax haven. It is a member of the European Free Trade Association and part of the European Economic Area, the Schengen Area but not of the European Union.

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Lipljan
Lipljan (Albanian: Lipjan or Lipjani; Serbian: Липљан, Lipljan) is a city and municipality in the Pristina district of central Kosovo.
In Roman times the city was known as Ulpiana from which the name Lipljan is derived. Ulpiana was named by the Romans in honor of the Roman Emperor Marcus Ulpius Nerva Traianus. The neo-Latin form Lypenion for the city occurs for the first time in a Greek text from 1018 AD.
It is thought^{[weasel words]} to be the birth place of Lekë Dukagjini (1410–1481), who replaced Skanderbeg as leader of the Albanian resistance against the Ottomans following the latter's death in 1468. During the reign of Lekë Dukagjini as Prince of Dukagjini Ulpiana was his second capital city.
The municipality is predominantly agriculture-oriented. After the 1999 conflict, most of the businesses are no longer operational. Many shops and restaurants have opened in the town, but approximately 80% of the population remains unemployed.^[when?]
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Coordinates: 42°31′48″N 21°08′19″E / 42.53°N 21.13861°E / 42.53; 21.13861

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Lithuania
Lithuania (ⁱ/ˌlɪθuːˈeɪniə/ or /ˌlɪθjuːˈeɪniə/; Lithuanian: Lietuva), officially the Republic of Lithuania (Lithuanian: Lietuvos Respublika) is a country in Northern Europe, the largest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark. It borders Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, Poland to the south, and a Russian exclave (Kaliningrad Oblast) to the southwest. Lithuania has an estimated population of 3.2 million as of 2011, and its capital and largest city is Vilnius. The Lithuanians are a Baltic people, and the official language, Lithuanian, is one of only two living languages (together with Latvian) in the Baltic branch of the Indo-European language family.
For centuries, the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea was inhabited by various Baltic tribes. In the 1230s the Lithuanian lands were united by Mindaugas, who was crowned as King of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the first Lithuanian state, on 6 July 1253. During the 14th century, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was the largest country in Europe: present-day Belarus, Ukraine, and parts of Poland and Russia were territories of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. With the Lublin Union of 1569, Lithuania and Poland formed a voluntary two-state union, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Commonwealth lasted more than two centuries, until neighboring countries systematically dismantled it from 1772 to 1795, with the Russian Empire annexing most of Lithuania's territory.

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Ljubljana
Ljubljana (locally: [lʲubˈlʲana] ( listen); German: Laibach, Italian: Lubiana, Latin: Labacum or Aemona) is the capital of Slovenia and its only centre of international importance. It is located in the centre of the country in the Ljubljana Basin, and is the centre of the City Municipality of Ljubljana. With approximately 272,000 inhabitants, it classifies as the only Slovenian large town. Throughout its history, it has been influenced by its geographic position at the crossroads of the Slavic world with the Germanic and Latin cultures.
For centuries, Ljubljana was the capital of the historical region of Carniola. Now it is the cultural, educational, economic, political and administrative centre of Slovenia, independent since 1991. Its transport connections, concentration of industry, scientific and research institutions and cultural tradition are contributing factors to its leading position.

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London
London ⁱ/ˈlʌndən/ is the capital city of England and the United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its founding by the Romans, who named it Londinium. London's ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its square-mile mediaeval boundaries. Since at least the 19th century, the name London has also referred to the metropolis developed around this core. The bulk of this conurbation forms the London region and the Greater London administrative area, governed by the elected Mayor of London and the London Assembly.
London is a leading global city, with strengths in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism and transport all contributing to its prominence. It is the world's leading financial centre alongside New York City and has the fifth-largest city GDP in the world (and the largest in Europe). London has been described as a world cultural capital. It was the world's most visited city during 2011 and London Heathrow is the world's busiest airport by number of international passengers. London's 43 universities form the largest concentration of higher education in Europe. In 2012 London will become the first city to host the modern Summer Olympic Games three times.

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Longyearbyen
Coordinates: 78°13′N 15°39′E / 78.22°N 15.65°E / 78.22; 15.65
Longyearbyen is the largest settlement and the administrative center of Svalbard, Norway. As of 2008, the town had a population of 2,040. Longyearbyen is located in the valley of Longyeardalen and on the shore of Adventfjorden, a bay of Isfjorden located on the west coast of Spitsbergen. Since 2002, Longyearbyen Community Council has had many of the same responsibilities of a municipality, including utilities, education, cultural facilities, fire department, roads and ports. The town is also the seat of the Governor of Svalbard and is the world's northernmost town.
Known as Longyear City until 1926, the town was established by and named after John Munroe Longyear, whose Arctic Coal Company started coal mining operations in 1906. Operations were taken over by Store Norske Spitsbergen Kulkompani (SNSK) in 1916, which still conducts mining. The town was almost completely destroyed by the German Kriegsmarine on 8 August 1943, but was rebuilt after the Second World War. Traditionally, Longyearbyen was a company town, but most mining operations have moved to Sveagruva since the 1990s, while the town has seen an large increase in tourism and research. This has seen the arrival of institutions such as the University Centre in Svalbard, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault and Svalbard Satellite Station. The community is served by Svalbard Airport, Longyear and Svalbard Church.

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Luxembourg
Luxembourg (ⁱ/ˈlʌksəmbɜrɡ/ LUKS-əm-burg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg (Luxembourgish: Groussherzogtum Lëtzebuerg, French: Grand-Duché de Luxembourg, German: Großherzogtum Luxemburg, Dutch: Groothertogdom Luxemburg), is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland ("good country") in the south. Luxembourg has a population of over half a million people in an area of approximately 2,586 square kilometres (998 sq mi). A representative democracy with a constitutional monarch, it is ruled by a grand duke. It is now the world's only remaining sovereign grand duchy. The country has a highly developed economy, with the world's highest GDP (nominal) per capita according to the IMF. Its historic and strategic importance dates back to its founding as a Roman era fortress site and Frankish count's castle site in the Early Middle Ages. It was an important bastion along the Spanish Road when Spain was the principal European power influencing the whole western hemisphere and beyond in the 16th–17th centuries.

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Luxembourg (city)
The city of Luxembourg (Luxembourgish: Lëtzebuerg, German: Luxemburg), also known as Luxembourg City (Luxembourgish: Stad Lëtzebuerg, French: Ville de Luxembourg, German: Stadt Luxemburg), is a commune with city status, and the capital of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. It is located at the confluence of the Alzette and Pétrusse Rivers in southern Luxembourg. The city contains the historic Luxembourg Castle, established by the Franks in the Early Middle Ages, around which a settlement developed.
Luxembourg City lies at the heart of Western Europe, situated 213 km (132 mi) by road from Brussels, 372 km (231 mi) from Paris, 209 km (130 mi) from Cologne, and 65 km (40 mi) from Metz in northeast France.
As of 2011, the commune of Luxembourg City had a population of 94,034, which was almost three times the population of the country's second most populous commune. The city's metropolitan population, including that of surrounding communes of Hesperange, Sandweiler, Strassen, and Walferdange, is 103,973.

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Madrid
Madrid (English /məˈdrɪd/, Spanish: [ma'ðrid]) is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan area is the third largest in the European Union after London and Paris. The city spans a total of 604.3 km² (233.3 sq mi).
The city is located on the Manzanares river in the centre of both the country and the Community of Madrid (which comprises the city of Madrid, its conurbation and extended suburbs and villages); this community is bordered by the autonomous communities of Castile and León and Castile-La Mancha. As the capital city of Spain, seat of government, and residence of the Spanish monarch, Madrid is also the political centre of Spain. The current mayor is Ana Botella from the People's Party (PP).
Madrid urban agglomeration has the 3rd largest GDP in the European Union and its influences in politics, education, entertainment, environment, media, fashion, science, culture, and the arts all contribute to its status as one of the world's major global cities. Due to its economic output, high standard of living, and market size, Madrid is considered the major financial centre of Southern Europe and the Iberian Peninsula; it hosts the head offices of the vast majority of the major Spanish companies, such as Telefónica, Iberia or Repsol. Madrid is the most touristic city of Spain, the fourth-most touristic of the continent, and is the 10th most livable city in the world according to Monocle magazine, in its 2010 index. Madrid also ranks among the 12 greenest European cities in 2010. Madrid is currently a Candidate City for the 2020 Summer Olympics.

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Mališevo
Mališevo (Albanian Malishevë or Malisheva; Serbian: Малишево, Mališevo) is a town and municipality in the Prizren District of central Kosovo. The town itself has approximately 2,300 inhabitants while the municipality has an estimated 54,664 inhabitants.
The area was once under the Bajrakut of Oštrozubit and had a long history of successful resistance against the Ottomans. The town was a stronghold for the ethnically Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army during the conflict in Kosovo in 1998/1999. The United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) formally re-established the municipality of Mališevo in July 2000. During the war, a number of atrocities were committed by both Albanian and Yugoslav forces. One such incident occurred in Mališevo, the execution of no fewer than seven Serbian men, named the Mališevo Massacre. The UN-run Office on Missing Persons and Forensics began the excavations at the site in May 2005.
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Coordinates: 42°28′58″N 20°44′45″E / 42.48278°N 20.74583°E / 42.48278; 20.74583

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Malta
Malta ⁱ/ˈmɒltə/, officially known as the Republic of Malta (Maltese: Repubblika ta' Malta), is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, 80 km (50 mi) south of Sicily, 284 km (176 mi) east of Tunisia and 333 km (207 mi) north of Libya, with Gibraltar 1,755 km (1,091 mi) to the west and Alexandria 1,508 km (937 mi) to the east. Malta covers just over 316 km² (122 sq mi) in land area, making it one of the world's smallest states. It is also one of the most densely populated countries worldwide. The de facto capital city of Malta is Valletta; the largest town, Birkirkara. The main island comprises many towns, which together form one Larger Urban Zone (LUZ) with a population of 368,250 according to Eurostat. The country has two official languages, Maltese (constitutionally the national language) and English.
Throughout history, Malta's location has given it great strategic importance, and a succession of powers including the Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Normans, Aragonese, Habsburg Spain, Knights of St John, French and the British ruled the islands. Malta gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1964 and became a republic in 1974, whilst retaining membership in the Commonwealth of Nations. Malta was admitted to the United Nations in 1964 and to the European Union in 2004. Malta is also party to the Schengen Agreement and in 2008 it became part of the eurozone.

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Mariehamn
Mariehamn (Finnish: Maarianhamina) is the capital of Åland, an autonomous territory under Finnish sovereignty. Mariehamn is the seat of the Government and Parliament of Åland, and 40% of the population of Åland live in the city. Like all of Åland, Mariehamn is unilingually Swedish-speaking and around 88% of the inhabitants speak it as their native language.
The town was named after Maria Alexandrovna, the Empress consort of Alexander II of Russia. Mariehamn was founded in 1861, around the village of Övernäs, in what was at the time part of the municipality of Jomala. The city has since expanded and incorporated more of Jomala territory. The city is located on a peninsula, and has two important harbours, one located on the western shore and one on the eastern shore. The Western Harbour is an important international harbour with daily traffic to Sweden and mainland Finland. A powerful incentive for Baltic ferries to stop at Mariehamn is that, with respect to indirect taxation, Åland is not part of the EU customs zone and so duty-free goods can be sold aboard. Mariehamn Airport is located in the neighbouring municipality of Jomala, some 3 kilometres (2 mi) north-west of Mariehamn city centre.

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Minsk
Coordinates: 53°54′N 27°34′E / 53.9°N 27.567°E / 53.9; 27.567
Minsk (Russian: Минск, [mʲinsk]; Belarusian: Мінск, pronounced [minsk]) is the capital and largest city in Belarus, situated on the Svislach and Niamiha rivers. Minsk is also a headquarters of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). As the national capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus; it is also the administrative centre of Minsk Region (voblast) and Minsk raion (district). It has a population of 1,836,808 inhabitants (2009).
The earliest historic references to Minsk date to the 11th century (1067), when it was noted as a provincial city within the principality of Polotsk. The settlement developed on the rivers. In 1242, Minsk became a part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. It received town privileges in 1499.
From 1569, it was a capital of the Minsk Voivodship in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. It was part of a region annexed by the Russian Empire in 1793, as a consequence of the Second Partition of Poland. From 1919–1991, after the Russian Revolution, Minsk was the capital of the Belorussian Soviet Socialist Republic within the Soviet Union.

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Moldova
Moldova ⁱ/mɒlˈdoʊvə/, officially the Republic of Moldova (Moldovan/Romanian: Republica Moldova pronounced [reˈpublika molˈdova]) is a landlocked state in Eastern Europe located between Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. It declared itself an independent state with the same boundaries as the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1991 as part of the dissolution of the Soviet Union. On 29 July 1994, the new constitution of Moldova was adopted. A strip of Moldova's internationally recognized territory on the east bank of the river Dniester has been under the de facto control of the breakaway government of Transnistria since 1990.
The nation is a parliamentary republic with a president as head of state and a prime minister as head of government. Moldova is a member state of the United Nations, Council of Europe, WTO, OSCE, GUAM, CIS, BSEC and other international organizations. Moldova currently aspires to join the European Union, and has implemented the first three-year Action Plan within the framework of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP).

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Monaco
Monaco ⁱ/ˈmɒnəkoʊ/, officially the Principality of Monaco (French: Principauté de Monaco; Monégasque: Principatu de Múnegu; Italian: Principato di Monaco; Occitan: Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city state, located on the French Riviera in Western Europe. Bordered by France on three sides, with one side bordering the Mediterranean Sea, its center is about 16 km (9.9 mi) from Italy, and is only 15 km (9.3 mi) north east of Nice, France. It has an area of 1.98 km² (0.76 sq mi), and a population of 35,986, making Monaco the second smallest and the most densely populated country in the world. Monaco has a land border of only 4.4 km (2.7 mi), a coastline of 4.1 km (2.5 mi), and a width that varies between 1.7 km (1.1 mi) and 349 metres (382 yards). The highest point in the country is a narrow pathway named Chemin des Révoires on the slopes of Mont Agel, in the Les Révoires district, which is 161 metres (528 feet) above sea level. Monaco's most populated Quartier is Monte Carlo, and the most populated Ward is Larvotto/Bas Moulins. After a recent expansion of Port Hercules, Monaco's total area is 2.05 km² (0.79 sq mi), with new plans to extend the district of Fontvieille, with land reclaimed from the Mediterranean Sea.

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Montenegro
Montenegro (ⁱ/ˌmɒntɨˈneɪɡroʊ/ or /ˌmɒntɨˈniːɡroʊ/; or /ˌmɒntɨˈnɛɡroʊ/; Montenegrin: Crna Gora Црна Гора [tsr̩̂ːnaː ɡɔ̌ra] ( listen), meaning "Black Mountain") is a country in Southeastern Europe. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south-west and is bordered by Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast and Albania to the southeast. Its capital and largest city is Podgorica, while Cetinje is designated as the Prijestonica (Пријестоница), meaning the former Royal Capital City.
In the 10th century, there existed three Slavic principalities on the territory of Montenegro: Duklja, roughly corresponding to the southern half, Travunia, the west, and Rascia, the north. In 1042, archon Stefan Vojislav led a revolt that resulted in independence of Duklja and the establishment of the Vojislavljević dynasty. Duklja reached its zenith under Vojislav's son, Mihailo (1046–81), and his son Bodin (1081–1101). By the 13th century, Zeta had replaced Duklja when referring to the realm, which at the time was part of the Serbian Grand Principality of the Nemanjić dynasty.

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Moscow
Moscow ( /ˈmɒskaʊ/ or /ˈmɒskoʊ/; Russian: Москва́, tr. Moskva; IPA: [mɐˈskva] ( listen)) is the capital and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural and scientific center of Russia and the continent. Moscow is the northernmost megacity on Earth, the most populous city in Europe, and the 6th largest city proper in the world. Its population, according to the results of the 2010 Census, is 11,503,501. Based on Forbes 2011, Moscow has the largest community of billionaires in the world.
Moscow is situated on the Moskva River in the Central Federal District of European Russia. In the course of its history the city has served as the capital of a progression of states, from the medieval Grand Duchy of Moscow and the subsequent Tsardom of Russia to the Soviet Union. Moscow is the site of the Moscow Kremlin, an ancient fortress that is today the residence of the Russian President and of the executive branch of the Government of Russia. The Kremlin is also one of several World Heritage Sites in the city. Both chambers of the Russian parliament (the State Duma and the Federation Council) also sit in Moscow.

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NATO
Coordinates: 50°52′34.16″N 4°25′19.24″E / 50.8761556°N 4.4220111°E / 50.8761556; 4.4220111
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization or NATO ( /ˈneɪtoʊ/ NAY-toh; French: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique Nord (OTAN)), also called the (North) Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty which was signed on 4 April 1949. The organization constitutes a system of collective defence whereby its member states agree to mutual defense in response to an attack by any external party. NATO's headquarters are in Brussels, Belgium, one of the 28 member states across North America and Europe, the newest of which, Albania and Croatia, joined in April 2009. An additional 22 countries participate in NATO's Partnership for Peace, with 15 other countries involved in institutionalized dialogue programs. The combined military spending of all NATO members constitutes over 70% of the world's defence spending.
For its first few years, NATO was not much more than a political association. However, the Korean War galvanized the member states, and an integrated military structure was built up under the direction of two U.S. supreme commanders. The course of the Cold War led to a rivalry with nations of the Warsaw Pact, which formed in 1955. The first NATO Secretary General, Lord Ismay, stated in 1949 that the organization's goal was "to keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down." Doubts over the strength of the relationship between the European states and the United States ebbed and flowed, along with doubts over the credibility of the NATO defence against a prospective Soviet invasion—doubts that led to the development of the independent French nuclear deterrent and the withdrawal of the French from NATO's military structure in 1966.

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Netherlands
The Netherlands (ⁱ/ˈnɛðərləndz/; Dutch: Nederland [ˈneːdə(r)lɑnt] or [ˈneɪ̯də(r)lɑnt] ( listen); West Frisian: Nederlân; Papiamento: Hulanda) is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with some islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders with Belgium, Germany and the United Kingdom. It is a parliamentary democracy organised as a unitary state. The country capital is Amsterdam and the seat of government is The Hague. The Netherlands in its entirety is often referred to as Holland, although North and South Holland are actually only two of its twelve provinces (a case of pars pro toto; see terminology of "the Netherlands").

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Nicosia
Nicosia (/ˌnɪkəˈsiːə/ NIK-ə-SEE-ə), known locally as Lefkosia (Greek: Λευκωσία, Turkish: Lefkoşa), is the capital and largest city in Cyprus, as well as its main business center. After the collapse of the Berlin Wall, Nicosia remained the only divided capital in the world, with the southern and the northern portions divided by a Green Line. It is located near the center of the island, on the banks of the Pedieos River.
Nicosia is the capital and seat of government of the Republic of Cyprus. The northern part of the city functions as the capital of the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, a disputed breakaway region whose independence is recognized only by Turkey, and which the rest of the international community considers as occupied territory of the Republic of Cyprus since the Turkish Invasion in 1974.
Despite the division Nicosia has managed to become a sophisticated and cosmopolitan city, rich in history and culture that combines its historic past with the amenities of a modern city.

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Niš
Niš (Serbian: Ниш, pronounced [nîːʃ] ( listen)) is the largest city of southern Serbia and the third-largest city in Serbia (after Belgrade and Novi Sad). According to the preliminary results of the 2011 census, the city has an urban population of 182,208 inhabitants, while its municipality has a population of 257,867. The city covers an area of 597 km², including the urban core, town of Niška Banja and 68 suburbs. Niš is the administrative center of the Nišava District.
It is one of the oldest cities in the Balkans and Europe, and has from ancient times been considered a gateway between the East and the West. The Paleo-Balkan Thracians first inhabited the area in the Iron Age, and Triballians dwelled here prior to the Celtic invasion in 279 BC which established the Scordisci as masters of the region. Modern-day Niš was among the cities taken in the Roman conquest in 75 BC. The Romans built the Via Militaris in the 1st century, with Naissus being one of the key towns. Niš is also notable as the birthplace of Constantine the Great, the first Christian Roman Emperor and the founder of Constantinople, as well as two other Roman emperors, Constantius III and Justin I. It is home to one of Serbia's oldest churches dating to the 4th century AD in the suburb of Mediana.

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North Nicosia
North Nicosia or Northern Nicosia (Turkish: Lefkoşa Greek: Λευκωσία), is the capital and largest city of the de facto Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. It is the northern half of Nicosia, and governed by the Nicosia Turkish Municipality. Located on the River Pedieos and situated almost in the center of the island, it is the host for the seat of the government as well as the main business center.
Following the intercommunal violence of the 1960s, the capital of Republic of Cyprus was divided between the island's Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities in the south and north respectively in 1963. An attempted coup by the Greek military-junta to unite the island with Greece in 1974 led to the Turkish invasion of Cyprus.
84,893 people live in North Nicosia. North Nicosia is important commercially with many shops, two modern shopping malls, restaurants and entertainment. The city is a trade centre and manufactures textiles, leather, pottery, plastic, and other products. Nicosia is the seat of two Turkish Cypriot Universities.

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Northern Cyprus
The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) (Turkish: Kuzey Kıbrıs Türk Cumhuriyeti), commonly called Northern Cyprus, is a self-declared state that comprises the northeastern part of the island of Cyprus. Recognised only by Turkey, Northern Cyprus is considered by the international community to be occupied territory of the Republic of Cyprus.
Northern Cyprus extends from the tip of the Karpass Peninsula in the north east, westward to Morphou Bay and Cape Kormakitis (the Kokkina/Erenköy exclave marks the westernmost extent of the area), and southward to the village of Louroujina/Akıncılar. A buffer zone under the control of the United Nations stretches between Northern Cyprus and the rest of the island and divides Nicosia, the island's largest city and capital of both states.
Tensions between the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot populations in Cyprus culminated in 1974 with a coup d'état, an attempt to annex the island to Greece, and an invasion by Turkey in response. This resulted in the partitioning of the island, the resettlement of many of its inhabitants, and a unilateral declaration of independence by the north in 1983. Due to its lack of recognition, Northern Cyprus is heavily dependent on Turkey for economic, political and military support.

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Norway
Norway ⁱ/ˈnɔrweɪ/ (Norwegian: Norge (Bokmål) or Noreg (Nynorsk)), officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and the subantarctic Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of 385,252 square kilometres (148,747 sq mi) and a population of about 5 million. It is the second least densely populated country in Europe. The majority of the country shares a border to the east with Sweden; its northernmost region is bordered by Finland to the south and Russia to the east; in its south Norway borders the Skagerrak Strait across from Denmark. The capital city of Norway is Oslo. Norway's extensive coastline, facing the North Atlantic Ocean and the Barents Sea, is home to its famous fjords.

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Novi Sad
Novi Sad (Serbian Cyrillic: Нови Сад, pronounced [nɔ̝̂v̞iː sâːd] ( listen)) is the second largest city in Serbia, capital of the northern Serbian province of Vojvodina, and the administrative centre of the South Bačka District.
According to preliminary results of the latest census in Serbia conducted in October 2011, the urban area of Novi Sad has a population of 221,854, while its municipal area has a population of 335,701. It is located in the southern part of Pannonian Plain, on the border of the Bačka and Srem regions, on the banks of the Danube river and Danube-Tisa-Danube Canal, facing the northern slopes of Fruška Gora mountain.
The city was founded in 1694, when Serb merchants formed a colony across the Danube from the Petrovaradin fortress, a Habsburg strategic military post. In the 18th and 19th centuries, it became an important trading and manufacturing centre, as well as a centre of Serbian culture of that period, earning the nickname Serbian Athens. The city was heavily devastated in the 1848 Revolution, but it was subsequently restored. During the city's long history, it has maintained its multi-cultural identity, with Serbs, Hungarians and Germans being the main ethnic groups. Today, Novi Sad is an industrial and financial centre of the Serbian economy, as well as a major cultural hub.

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Obilić
Obilić (Albanian: Obiliq or Kastriot; Serbian: Обилић, Obilić) is a town and municipality in central Kosovo, belonging to the Pristina district. The municipality includes the town of Obilić and 19 villages, with a total population of approximately 21,548.
The municipality is located immediately north-west of Pristina on the main road to Kosovska Mitrovica. It was created in 1989, prior to which it formed part of Pristina municipality.
The name for the town, Obilić, refers to Miloš Obilić who is regarded as a Serbian hero of the 1389 Battle of Kosovo, during which he killed the Ottoman Sultan Murad I.
An Albanian version for the name for the town was produced in 2001, Kastriot, refers to George Kastrioti Skanderbeg, the national hero of the Albanian people, who lived during the time period of the Second Battle of Kosovo (1448). Skanderbeg was supposed to join the Hungarian-led Catholic coalition under John Hunyadi, but failed to appear on the battlefield.
In 2011, the municipality had a population of 21,548. As of 2008 the municipality has a population of approximately 19,500. The majority -some 15,000- are Kosovo Albanian; the minorities include some 2,200 Kosovo Serbs, 350 Roma, 300 Ashkali, 70 Bosnian Serbs and others.

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Orahovac
Orahovac (Albanian: Arraveci or Rahoveci; Serbian: Ораховац, Orahovac) is a town and municipality in western Kosovo, in the District of Đakovica.
Its Serbian name stems from the Serbian word orah (орах), meaning "walnut".^{[citation needed]} The Albanian name Arraveci also stems from the Albanian word "Arrë", also meaning walnut.
The municipality coveres an area of approximately 276 km² (107 sq mi) and contains 35 villages. In 2006 the town had a total population of 25.000 and the population of the municipality was 55,053. Besides a small Serbian enclave in the town numbering around 400 residents, in the municipality of Orahovac is another Serbian enclave named Velika Hoča, numbering around 700 residents.
During NATO's bombing campaign, Yugoslav Army units from Niš and Leskovac, Serbian police (MUP) units from Kraljevo and Pirot, Russian volunteers, and others from Republika Srpska (Bosnia and Herzegovina) were stationed in Orahovac^{[citation needed]}.
During the mid-March 2004 riots, hundreds of Kosovo Albanians gathered in the center of town protesting, while many of them went to the Upper Part (where the majority of ethnic Serbs reside) and severely assaulted a Kosovo Serb couple. A house was set on fire, a few others were vandalized. On 18 March, the Serbian Orthodox Church in the village of Brnjača was set on fire. 5 Kosovo Serb families left Orahovac during these riots.^{[citation needed]} Since 1999, the Serbian population of Orahovac has left the area for several reasons to find shelter in northern Serbia.

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Oslo
Oslo (English pronunciation: /ˈɒzloʊ/, OZ-loh,Norwegian pronunciation: [²ʊʃlʊ] ( listen) or [²ʊslʊ]) is the capital of and most populous city in Norway. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III, the city was elevated to a bishopric in 1070 and a capital under Haakon V around 1300. Personal unions with Denmark from 1397 to 1523 and again from 1536 to 1814 and with Sweden from 1814 to 1905 reduced its influence. After being destroyed by a fire in 1624, the city was moved closer to Akershus Castle during the reign of King Christian IV and renamed Christiania in his honour. It was established as a municipality (formannskapsdistrikt) on 1 January 1838. Following a spelling reform, it was known as Kristiania from 1877 to 1925, when its original Norwegian name was restored.
Oslo is the economic and governmental centre of Norway. The city is also a hub of Norwegian trade, banking, industry and shipping. It is an important centre for maritime industries and maritime trade in Europe. The city is home to many companies within the maritime sector, some of which are amongst the world's largest shipping companies, shipbrokers and maritime insurance brokers. Oslo is a pilot city of the Council of Europe and the European Commission intercultural cities programme.

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Pakistan
Pakistan (ⁱ/ˈpækɨstæn/ or ⁱ/pɑːkiˈstɑːn/; Urdu: پاکستان) (Urdu pronunciation: [paːkɪˈst̪aːn] ( listen)), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan (Urdu: اسلامی جمہوریۂ پاکستان), is a sovereign country in South Asia. It sits at the crossroads of the strategically important regions of South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. It has a 1,046-kilometre (650 mi) coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by India to the east, Afghanistan to the west and north, Iran to the southwest and China in the far northeast. It is separated from Tajikistan by Afghanistan's narrow Wakhan Corridor in the north, and it shares a marine border with Oman.
The territory of modern Pakistan was the site of several ancient cultures, including the Neolithic Mehrgarh and the Bronze Age Indus Valley Civilisation, and has undergone invasions or settlements by Hindu, Persian, Indo-Greek, Islamic, Turco-Mongol, Afghan and Sikh cultures. Thus the area has been ruled by numerous empires and dynasties, including the Indian Mauryan Empire, the Persian Achaemenid Empire, the Arab Umayyad Caliphate, the Mongol Empire, the Mughal Empire, the Durrani Empire, the Sikh Empire and the British Empire. As a result of the Pakistan Movement led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah and India's struggle for independence, Pakistan was created in 1947 as an independent nation for Muslims from the regions in the east and west of India where there was a Muslim majority. Initially a dominion, Pakistan adopted a new constitution in 1956, becoming an Islamic republic. A civil war in 1971 resulted in the secession of East Pakistan as the new country of Bangladesh.

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Peć
Peć (pronounced [pɛ̂ːt͡ɕ], Serbian: Пећ / Peć) or Pejë (pronounced [ˈpɛjə]) is a city and municipality in north-western Kosovo, and the administrative centre of the homonymous district. The governor of the city is Ali Berisha .
The Serbian name of the city is Peć (Пећ); the Albanian name's definite form is Peja and the indefinite Pejë. Other names of the city include the Latin Pescium and Siparantum, the Greek Episkion (Επισκιον), the Ottoman Turkish ايپك (İpek), the Slavonic Petcha, and the formerly used form Pentza. In Serbian language Peć means furnace or cave and its name is probably connected with nearby caves in Rugova Canyon which served as hermit cells for orthodox monks. In mediaeval Ragusan documents, the Serbian name of the city (Peć, lit. "furnace") is sometimes translated as Forno, meaning furnace in Italian.
The municipality covers an area of 602 km² (232 sq mi), including the city of Peć and 95 villages; it is divided into 28 territorial communities. As of 2011, the whole municipality has a population of approximately 95,723, of which ca. 60,000 live in the city of Peć.

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Podujevo
Podujevo or Podujeva (Albanian: Podujevë, Podujeva or Besiana; Serbian: Подујево, Podujevo) is a town and municipality located in the district of Pristina of north-eastern Kosovo.
Podujevo is situated in a strategic position due to a regional motorway and railroad passing through it which links surrounding regions. Pristina, the capital of Kosovo, is located some 35 km (22 mi) to the south. Although there is no official data, the total population of the municipality is estimated at 87,933, including the estimated 35,000 inhabitants of the town.
The Albanian name Besiana dates back at least from the 6th century in the writings of Prokopius, who lists Podujevo's fort as one of the forts of Dardania restaured by Justinian.
The founding member of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), Zahir Pajaziti, was from the Podujevo region.
During the 1998-99 Kosovo War, the town was the site of the Podujevo massacre, on March 28, in which 14 Kosovo Albanian women and children were executed by Serbian paramilitary forces.

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Poland
Poland ⁱ/ˈpoʊlənd/ (Polish: Polska), officially the Republic of Poland (Polish: Rzeczpospolita Polska; Kashubian: Pòlskô Repùblika; Silesian: Polsko Republika), is a country in Central Europe, bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north. The total area of Poland is 312,679 square kilometres (120,726 sq mi), making it the 69th largest country in the world and the 9th largest in Europe. Poland has a population of over 38 million people, which makes it the 34th most populous country in the world and the sixth most populous member of the European Union, being its most populous post-communist member. Poland is a unitary state made up of 16 voivodeships. Poland is a member of the European Union, NATO, the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), European Economic Area, International Energy Agency, Council of Europe, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, International Atomic Energy Agency, G6, Council of the Baltic Sea States, Visegrád Group, Weimar Triangle and Schengen Agreement.

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Portugal
Portugal ⁱ/ˈpɔrtʃʉɡəl/ (Portuguese: Portugal, IPA: [puɾtuˈɣaɫ]), officially the Portuguese Republic (Portuguese: República Portuguesa) is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula . Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira are part of Portugal. The country is named after its second largest city, Porto, whose Latin name was Portus Cale.
The land within the borders of the current Portuguese Republic has been continuously settled since prehistoric times: occupied by Celts like the Gallaeci and the Lusitanians, integrated into the Roman Republic and later settled by Germanic peoples such as the Suebi, Swabians, Vandals and the Visigoths. In the 8th century most of the Iberian Peninsula was conquered by Moorish invaders professing Islam, which were later expelled by the Knights Templar under the Order of Christ. During the Christian Reconquista, Portugal established itself as an independent kingdom from León in 1139, claiming to be the oldest European nation state.

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Prague
Prague ( /ˈprɑːɡ/; Czech: Praha pronounced [ˈpraɦa] ( listen)) is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic and fourteenth largest city in European Union. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of nearly 2.0 million. The city has a temperate oceanic climate with warm summers and chilly winters.
Prague has been a political, cultural, and economic centre of central Europe with waxing and waning fortunes during its 1,100 year existence. Founded during the Romanesque and flourishing by the Gothic and Renaissance eras, Prague was the seat of two Holy Roman Emperors and thus then also the capital of the Holy Roman Empire. It was an important city to the Habsburg Monarchy and its Austro-Hungarian Empire and after World War I became the capital of Czechoslovakia. The city played major roles in the Protestant Reformation, the Thirty Years' War, and in modern history generally as the principal conurbation in Bohemia and Moravia whose second city is Brno.

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Prilep
Prilep (Macedonian: Прилеп [ˈpriːlɛp] ( listen)) is the fourth largest city in the Republic of Macedonia. It has a population of 66,246 citizens. Prilep is known as "the city under Marko's Towers" because of its proximity to the towers of Prince Marko.
The name of the city in different languages is:
Prilep covers 1,675 km² (647 sq mi) and is located in the northern Pelagonia plain, in southern Macedonia. Prilep is the seat of a municipality with the same name (Prilep municipality) and is accessed by the M5/E65. It is only 128 km (80 mi) (airline) from the capital Skopje, 44 km (27 mi) from Bitola, and 32 km (20 mi) from Kruševo.
Prilep is a center for high-quality tobacco and cigarettes and the metal processing, electronics, timber, textiles, and food industries. The city also produces a large quantity of Macedonian Bianco Sivec (pure white marble).
Tobacco is one of Prilep's traditional cash crops and prospers in the Macedonian climate. Many of the world's largest cigarette makers, such as Marlboro, West and Camel use Prilep's tobacco in their cigarettes after it is processed in local factories such as Tutunski kombinat Prilep. A Tobacco Institute is established in the city in order to produce new types of tobacco and it was the first example of applying genetics to agriculture in the Balkans.^{[citation needed]}.

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Pristina
Pristina, also spelled Prishtina listen (help·info) and Priština (Albanian: Prishtinë or Prishtina, Serbian: Приштина or Priština; Turkish: Priştine) is the capital and largest city of Kosovo. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous municipality and district.
Preliminary results of the 2011 census put the population of Pristina at 198,000. The city has a majority Albanian population, alongside other smaller communities including Bosniaks, Roma and others. It is the administrative, educational, and cultural centre of Kosovo. The city is home to the University of Pristina and is served by the Pristina International Airport.
The name of the city is derived from a Slavic form *Prišьčь, a possessive adjective from the personal name *Prišьkъ, (preserved in the Kajkavian surname Prišek, in the Old Polish personal name Przyszek, and in the Polish surname Przyszek) and the derivational suffix -ina 'belonging to X and his kin'.^{[citation needed]} The name is most likely a patronymic of the personal name *Prišь, preserved as a surname in Polish Przysz and Sorbian Priš, a hypocoristic of the Slavic personal name Pribyslavъ. A false etymology^{[citation needed]} connects the name Priština with Serbo-Croatian prišt (пришт), meaning 'ulcer' or 'tumour', referring to its 'boiling'. However, this explanation cannot be correct, as Slavic place names ending in -ina corresponding to an adjective and/or name of an inhabitant lacking this suffix are built from personal names or denote a person and never derive, in these conditions, from common nouns (SNOJ 2007: loc. cit.). The inhabitants of this city call themselves Prishtinali in local Gheg Albanian or Prištevci (Приштевци) in the local Serbian dialect.

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Prizren
Prizren (Albanian: Prizren or Prizreni; Serbian: Призрен, Prizren, pronounced [prîzrɛn]; Turkish: Prizren, Pürzeyn, Perzerrin) is a historical city located in Kosovo. It is the administrative center of the eponymous municipality and district. The city has a population of around 178,000 (2011 census preliminary results), mostly Albanians. Prizren is located on the slopes of the Šar Mountains (Albanian: Malet e Sharrit) in the southern part of Kosovo. The municipality has a border with Albania and the Republic of Macedonia.
The Roman town of Theranda in Ptolemy's Geography is mentioned in the 2nd century AD. In the 5th century, it is mentioned as being restored in Dardania with the name of Petrizên by Procopius of Caesarea in De aedificiis (Book IV, Chapter 4). Sometimes it is mentioned even in relation to the Justiniana Prima.^{[citation needed]} It is thought that its modern name comes from old Slavic Призрѣнь, from при-зрѣти, indicating fortress which could be seen from afar (compare with Czech Přízřenice or mount Ozren).

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Priština
Pristina, also spelled Prishtina listen (help·info) and Priština (Albanian: Prishtinë or Prishtina, Serbian: Приштина or Priština; Turkish: Priştine) is the capital and largest city of Kosovo. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous municipality and district.
Preliminary results of the 2011 census put the population of Pristina at 198,000. The city has a majority Albanian population, alongside other smaller communities including Bosniaks, Roma and others. It is the administrative, educational, and cultural centre of Kosovo. The city is home to the University of Pristina and is served by the Pristina International Airport.
The name of the city is derived from a Slavic form *Prišьčь, a possessive adjective from the personal name *Prišьkъ, (preserved in the Kajkavian surname Prišek, in the Old Polish personal name Przyszek, and in the Polish surname Przyszek) and the derivational suffix -ina 'belonging to X and his kin'.^{[citation needed]} The name is most likely a patronymic of the personal name *Prišь, preserved as a surname in Polish Przysz and Sorbian Priš, a hypocoristic of the Slavic personal name Pribyslavъ. A false etymology^{[citation needed]} connects the name Priština with Serbo-Croatian prišt (пришт), meaning 'ulcer' or 'tumour', referring to its 'boiling'. However, this explanation cannot be correct, as Slavic place names ending in -ina corresponding to an adjective and/or name of an inhabitant lacking this suffix are built from personal names or denote a person and never derive, in these conditions, from common nouns (SNOJ 2007: loc. cit.). The inhabitants of this city call themselves Prishtinali in local Gheg Albanian or Prištevci (Приштевци) in the local Serbian dialect.

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Republic of Ireland
Ireland (/ˈaɪərlənd/ or /ˈɑrlənd/; Irish: Éire, pronounced [ˈeːɾʲə] ( listen)) is a sovereign state in Europe occupying about five-sixths of the island of Ireland. Its capital is Dublin. The population of the state was 4.59 million in 2011. It is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy, with an elected president serving as head of state. In the 1937 constitution, the name of the state is given as simply "Ireland". The Constitution of Ireland (Article 4) and the Republic of Ireland Act 1948 provides that the "Republic of Ireland" (Irish: Poblacht na hÉireann) is "the description of the state".
Ireland is a member of the European Union, the Council of Europe, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organisation and the United Nations. A developed country with the seventh highest Human Development Index, Ireland is also highly ranked for press freedom, economic freedom and democracy and political freedom.
The modern Irish state was established in 1922 as the Irish Free State, a dominion within the British Empire, following the Anglo-Irish Treaty which brought an end to the Irish War of Independence. The partition of Ireland had already been provided for in previous British legislation in 1921 in response to opposition to Irish Home Rule or independence by Unionists, who formed a majority in the north-eastern part of the country. Six of the nine counties in the northern province of Ulster were established under that legislation as Northern Ireland, part of the United Kingdom, with which the Irish state shares its only land border. The state is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the Celtic Sea to the south, St George's Channel to the south east, and the Irish Sea to the east.

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Reykjavík
Reykjavík (Icelandic pronunciation: [ˈreiːcaˌviːk] ( listen)) is the capital and largest city in Iceland.
Its latitude, at 64°08' N, makes it the world's northernmost capital of a sovereign state. It is located in southwestern Iceland, on the southern shore of Faxaflói Bay. With a population of around 120,000 (and over 200,000 in the Greater Reykjavík Area), it is the heart of Iceland's economic and governmental activity.
Reykjavík is believed to be the location of the first permanent settlement in Iceland, which Ingólfur Arnarson is said to have established around 870 C.E. Until the 18th century, there was no urban development in the city location. The city was founded in 1786 as an official trading town and grew steadily over the next decades, as it transformed into a regional and later national centre of commerce, population, and governmental activities.
The first permanent settlement in Iceland by Norsemen is believed to have been established in Reykjavík by Ingólfur Arnarson around AD 870; this is described in Landnámabók, or the Book of Settlement. Ingólfur Arnarson is said to have decided the location of his settlement using a traditional Viking method; by casting his high seat pillars (Öndvegissúlur) into the ocean when he saw the coastline, then settled where the pillars came to shore. Steam from hot springs in the region is said to have inspired Reykjavík's name, which loosely translates to Smoke Cove (the city is often referred to as the Bay of Smokes or Bay of Smoke) The original name was Reykjarvík with an additional "r" that vanished around 1300.^{[citation needed]}

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Riga
Riga (Latvian: Rīga, pronounced [riːɡa] ( listen)) is the capital and largest city of Latvia. With 657,424 inhabitants ( 2011) Riga is the largest city of the Baltic states, one of the largest cities in Northern Europe and home to more than one third of Latvia's population. The city is an important seaport and a major industrial, commercial, cultural and financial centre of the Baltic Sea region.^{[citation needed]} The city lies on the Gulf of Riga, at the mouth of the river Daugava. Riga's territory covers 307.17 km² (118.60 sq mi) and lies between 1 and 10 metres (3.3 and 33 ft) above sea level, on a flat and sandy plain.
Riga was founded in 1201 and is a former Hanseatic League member. Riga's historical centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, noted for its Art Nouveau/Jugendstil architecture and 19th century wooden architecture. The city will be the European Capital of Culture in 2014, along with Umeå in Sweden. The city hosted the 2006 NATO Summit, the Eurovision Song Contest 2003 and the 2006 IIHF Men's World Ice Hockey Championships. It is home to the European Union's office of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC). Riga is served by Riga International Airport, the largest airport in the Baltic states.

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Romania
Romania (ⁱ/roʊˈmeɪniə/ roh-MAY-nee-ə; dated: Roumania; or Rumania;Romanian: România [romɨˈni.a] ( listen)) is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea. Romania shares a border with Hungary and Serbia to the west, Ukraine and Moldova to the northeast and east, and Bulgaria to the south.
At 238,400 square kilometers (92,000 sq mi), Romania is the ninth largest country of the European Union by area, and has the seventh largest population of the European Union with over 19 million people. Its capital and largest city is Bucharest, the tenth largest city in the EU with about two million people.
The Kingdom of Romania emerged when the principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia were united under Prince Alexander Ioan Cuza in 1859. Independence from the Ottoman Empire was declared on 9 May 1877, and was internationally recognized the following year. At the end of World War I, Transylvania, Bukovina and Bessarabia united with the Kingdom of Romania. Greater Romania emerged into an era of progression and prosperity that would continue until World War II. By the end of the War, many north-eastern areas of Romania's territories were occupied by the Soviet Union, and Romania forcibly became a socialist republic and a member of the Warsaw Pact.

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Rome
Rome (/ˈroʊm/; Italian: Roma pronounced [ˈroːma] ( listen); Latin: Rōma) is a city and special comune ("Roma Capitale") in Italy. Rome is the capital of Italy and the capital of Lazio (Latin: Latium). With 2.8 million residents in 1,285.3 km² (496.3 sq mi), it is also the country's largest and most populated comune and fourth-most populous city in the European Union by population within city limits. Between 3.2 and 3.7 million people live in the Rome metropolitan area. The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.
Rome's history spans two and a half thousand years. It was the capital city of the Roman Kingdom, the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, which was the dominant power in Western Europe and the lands bordering the Mediterranean for over seven hundred years from the 1st century BC until the 7th century AD and the city is regarded as one of the birthplaces of western civilization. Since the 1st century AD Rome has been the seat of the Papacy and, after the end of Byzantine domination, in the 8th century it became the capital of the Papal States, which lasted until 1870. In 1871 Rome became the capital of the Kingdom of Italy, and in 1946 that of the Italian Republic.

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Russia
Russia ⁱ/ˈrʌʃə/ or /ˈrʊʃə/ (Russian: Россия, tr. Rossiya; IPA: [rɐˈsʲijə] ( listen)), also officially known as the Russian Federation (Russian: Российская Федерация, tr. Rossiyskaya Federatsiya; IPA: [rɐˈsʲijskəjə fʲɪdʲɪˈratsɨjə] ( listen)), is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects. From northwest to southeast, Russia shares borders with Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland (both via Kaliningrad Oblast), Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia, and North Korea. It also has maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, and the US state of Alaska by the Bering Strait. At 17,075,400 square kilometres (6,592,800 sq mi), Russia is the largest country in the world, covering more than one eighth of the Earth's inhabited land area. Russia is also the eighth most populous nation with 143 million people. It extends across the whole of northern Asia and 40% of Europe, spanning nine time zones and incorporating a wide range of environments and landforms. Russia has the world's largest reserves of mineral and energy resources and is the largest producer of oil and natural gas globally. Russia has the world's largest forest reserves and its lakes contain approximately one-quarter of the world's fresh water.

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Saint Helier
Saint Helier (French language: Saint-Hélier, Jèrriais: Saint Hélyi) is one of the twelve parishes of Jersey, the largest of the Channel Islands in the English Channel. St. Helier has a population of about 28,000, roughly 31.2% of the total population of Jersey, and is the capital of the Island (although Government House is situated in St. Saviour). The urban area of the parish of St. Helier makes up most of the largest town in Jersey, although some of the town area is situated in adjacent St. Saviour, with suburbs sprawling into St. Lawrence and St. Clement. The greater part of St. Helier is predominantly rural.
The parish covers a surface area of 4.1 square miles (10.6 km²), being 9% of the total land area of the Island (this includes reclaimed land area of 494 acres (2.00 km²) or 200 ha).
The parish crest is two crossed gold axes on a blue background, symbolising the martyrdom of Helier and the sea.
It is thought that the site of St. Helier was settled at the time of the Roman control of Gaul.

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Saint Peter Port
Saint Peter Port is the capital of Guernsey as well as the main port. The population in 2001 was 16,488. In Guernésiais and in French, historically the official language of Guernsey, the name of the town and its surrounding parish is St Pierre Port. The "port" distinguishes this parish from Saint Pierre Du Bois.
As well as being a parish, St. Peter Port is a small town consisting mostly of steep narrow streets and steps on the overlooking slopes. It is known that a trading post/town has existed here since before Roman times, the pre-Christian name of which has not survived into the modern era.
The post code for addresses in this parish starts with GY1.
People from St. Peter Port, were nicknamed "les Villais" (the townspeople) or "cllichards" in Guernésiais.
St. Peter Port is located on the East coast of Guernsey. It borders St Sampson's in the North, The Vale in the North-West, St Andrew's in the West and St Martin's in the South.
The land in the North and by the harbour is low lying but in the South, the land gets much higher (but not as high as St Martin's or the Forest). This means that there are quite a few cliffs on the coast between Havelet and Fermain.

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San Marino
San Marino, officially the Republic of San Marino (ⁱ/sæn məˈriːnoʊ/ san-mə-REE-noh; Italian: Repubblica di San Marino) and also known as the Most Serene Republic of San Marino (Italian: Serenissima Repubblica di San Marino), is a state situated on the Italian Peninsula on the eastern side of the Apennine Mountains. It is an enclave surrounded by Italy. Its size is just over 61 km² (24 sq mi) with an estimated population of over 30,000. Its capital is the City of San Marino. San Marino has the smallest population of all the members of the Council of Europe.
San Marino is the oldest surviving sovereign state and constitutional republic in the world, as the continuation of the monastic community founded on 3 September 301, by stonecutter Marinus of Rab. Legend has it that Marinus left Rab, then the Roman colony of Arba, in 257 when the future emperor, Diocletian, issued a decree calling for the reconstruction of the city walls of Rimini, which had been destroyed by Liburnian pirates.
The constitution of San Marino, enacted in 1600, is the world's oldest constitution still in effect. The country's economy mainly relies on finance, industry, services and tourism. It is one of the wealthiest countries in the world in terms of GDP (per capita), with a figure comparable to some of the more developed Italian regions, such as Lombardy and Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol. San Marino is considered to have a highly stable economy, with one of the lowest unemployment rates in Europe, no national debt and a budget surplus.

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Sarajevo
Sarajevo (Cyrillic: Сарајево) (pronounced [sǎrajɛʋɔ]) is the capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with an estimated population of over 311,161 people within its administrative limits. It is also the capital of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina entity, as well as the center of the Sarajevo Canton, which has a population of 438,757. Nestled within the greater Sarajevo valley of Bosnia, it is surrounded by the Dinaric Alps and situated along the Miljacka River in the heart of Southeastern Europe and the Balkans.
Sarajevo is the leading social and cultural center of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and its region-wide influence in politics, education, entertainment, media, fashion, science, and the arts contribute to its status as Bosnia and Herzegovina's major economic center.
The city is historically famous for its traditional cultural and religious diversity, with adherents of Islam, Orthodoxy, Catholicism and Judaism coexisting there for centuries. Due to this long and rich history of religious and cultural variety, Sarajevo is often called the "Jerusalem of Europe" or "Jerusalem of the Balkans". It was, until recently in the 20th century, the only major European city to have a mosque, cathedral, Orthodox church and synagogue within the same neighborhood.

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Serbia
Serbia ⁱ/ˈsɜrbiə/, officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: Република Србија / Republika Srbija, pronounced [rɛpǔblika sř̩bija]), 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. Serbia borders Hungary to the north; Romania and Bulgaria to the east; the Republic of Macedonia to the south; and Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro to the west; additionally, it borders Albania through Kosovo, whose status as part of Serbia is disputed. Serbia covers an area of 88,361 km² and has a population of just over 7.1 million, while the capital and largest city is Belgrade.
The arrival of the Serbs to the Balkans in the 7th century, established several states, eventually forming the Serbian Empire in the 14th century. By the 16th century, Serbia was conquered and occupied by the Ottoman Empire, at times interrupted by the Habsburgs. In the early 19th century the Serbian revolution re-established the country as the region's first constitutional monarchy, which subsequently expanded its territory and pioneered the abolition of feudalism in the Balkans. The former Habsburg crownland of Vojvodina united with Serbia in 1918. Following World War I, Serbia formed Yugoslavia with other South Slavic peoples which existed in several forms up until 2006, when the National Assembly of Serbia declared independence and the legal succession to the former State Union. In February 2008 the parliament of UNMIK-governed Kosovo, Serbia's southern province, declared independence, with mixed responses from international governments.

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Skopje
Skopje (Macedonian: Скопје, [ˈskɔpjɛ] ( listen)) is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Macedonia with about a third of the total population. It is the country's political, cultural, economic, and academic centre. It was known in the Roman period under the name Scupi.
The territory of Skopje has been inhabited since at least 4000 BC; remains of Neolithic settlements have been found within the old Kale Fortress that overlooks the modern city centre. On the eve of the 1st century AD, the settlement was seized by the Romans and became a military camp. When the Roman Empire was divided into eastern and western halves in 395 AD, Scupi came under Byzantine rule from Constantinople. During much of the early medieval period, the town was contested between the Byzantines and the Bulgarian Empire, whose capital it was between 972 and 992. From 1282 the town was part of the Serbian realm and its capital city since 1346. In 1392 the city was conquered by the Ottoman Turks who called the town Üsküp. The town stayed under Ottoman control over 500 years, serving as the capital of pashasanjak of Üsküb and later the Vilayet of Kosovo. At that time the city was famous for its oriental architecture. In 1912 the city was conquered by the Kingdom of Serbia during the Balkan Wars and after the First World War the city became part of the newly formed Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (Kingdom of Yugoslavia). In the Second World War the city was conquered by the Bulgarian Army, which was part of Axis powers. In 1944 it became the capital city of Democratic Macedonia (later Socialist Republic of Macedonia), which was a federal state, part of Democratic Federal Yugoslavia (later Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia). The city developed rapidly after World War II, but this trend was interrupted in 1963 when it was hit by a disastrous earthquake. In 1991 it became the capital city of independent Macedonia.

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Slovakia
The Slovak Republic (short form: Slovakia ⁱ/sloʊˈvɑːkiə/ or /sləˈvækiə/; Slovak: Slovensko (help·info), long form Slovenská republika (help·info)) is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about 49,000 square kilometres (19,000 sq mi). Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south. The largest city is the capital, Bratislava, and the second largest is Košice. Slovakia is a member state of the European Union, NATO, United Nations, OECD and WTO among others. The official language is Slovak, a member of the Slavic language family.
The Slavs arrived in the territory of present day Slovakia in the 5th and 6th centuries during the migration period. In the course of history, various parts of today's Slovakia belonged to Samo's Empire (the first known political unit of Slavs), Principality of Nitra (as independent polity, as part of Great Moravia and as part of Hungarian Kingdom), Great Moravia, Kingdom of Hungary, the Austro-Hungarian Empire or Habsburg Empire, and Czechoslovakia. A separate Slovak state briefly existed during World War II, during which Slovakia was a dependency of Nazi Germany between 1939 and 1944. From 1945 Slovakia once again became a part of Czechoslovakia. The present-day Slovakia became an independent state on 1 January 1993 after the peaceful dissolution of Czechoslovakia.

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Slovenia
Slovenia (ⁱ/sloʊˈviːniə/ sloh-VEE-nee-ə, Slovene: Slovenija), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Republika Slovenija, [reˈpublika sloˈveːnija]) is a Slavic nation state, situated in South-Central Europe, at the crossroad of main European cultural and trade routes. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Croatia to the south and southeast, and Hungary to the northeast. It covers 20,273 square kilometres (7,827 sq mi) and has a population of 2.05 million. It is a parliamentary republic, member of the European Union and NATO. Relative to its geography, history, economy, culture, and language, it is a very diverse country distinguished by a transitional character. It is characterised by a high economic and social level. Its capital and largest city is Ljubljana.
The territory of Slovenia is mainly hilly or mountainous and has an exceptionally high landscape and biological diversity and a mosaic structure, which are a result of natural attributes and the long-lasting presence of humans. Four major European geographic units interweave here: the Alps, the Dinaric Alps, the Mediterranean, with a small portion of coastline along the Adriatic Sea, and the Pannonian Plain. The climate is temperate and significantly influenced by the variety of territory, with a strong interaction of the continental climate, the sub-Mediterranean climate and Alpine climate across most of the country. The country is one of the water-richest in Europe, with a dense river network, a rich aquifer system, and significant karstic underground watercourses. Over half of the territory is covered by forest.

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Smederevo
Smederevo (Serbian Cyrillic: Смедерево, pronounced [smêderevo]) is a city and municipality in Serbia, on the right bank of the Danube, about 40 km downstream of the capital Belgrade. According to official results of the 2011 census, the city has a population of 107,528. It is the administrative center of the Podunavlje District.
Its history starts in the 1st century BC, with the conquerings of the Roman Empire, when there existed a town called Vinceia. The modern city traces its roots back to the late Middle Ages when it was the capital (1430–1439 and 1444–1459) of the last independent Serbian state before the Ottoman conquest.
In Serbian, the city is known as Smederevo (Смедерево), in Latin, Romanian and Greek as Semendria, in Hungarian as Szendrő or Vég-Szendrő, in Turkish as Semendire.
In the 7th millennium BC, the Starčevo culture existed for a millennia, succeeded by the 6th millennium BC Vinča culture that prospered in the region.
The Paleo-Balkan tribes of Dacians and Thracians emerged in the area in the 2nd millennia BC, with the Celtic Scordisci raiding the Balkans in the 3rd century BC.

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Sofia
Sofia (Bulgarian: София, pronounced [ˈsɔfijɐ] ( listen)) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria and the 15th largest city in the European Union with a population of 1.2 million people. It is located in western Bulgaria, at the foot of Mount Vitosha and approximately at the centre of the Balkan Peninsula.
Prehistoric settlements were excavated in the centre of the present city, near the royal palace, as well as in outer districts Slatina and Obelya. The well-preserved town walls (especially their substructures) date back before the 7th century BC, when Thracians established their city around a mineral spring, which exists to the present day. Sofia has had several names in the different periods of its existence. Its ancient name, Serdika or Serdica, derives from the local Celtic tribe of the serdi who inhabited the region since the 1st century BC. Serdica was a Roman capital during the tetrarchic system of government. During the Middle Ages, it was one of the major commercial centres of the Bulgarian Empire, along with Tarnovo. Sofia's population remained small until 1879, when it was declared a capital of the Principality of Bulgaria after the Liberation of Bulgaria from Ottoman rule.

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South Ossetia
South Ossetia ( /əˈsɛtiə/ə-SET-ee-ə or /ɒˈsiːʃə/o-SEE-shə; Ossetic: Хуссар Ирыстон, Xussar Iryston; Georgian: სამხრეთ ოსეთი, Samxret Oseti; Russian: Южная Осетия, Yuzhnaya Osetiya) or Tskhinvali Region (Georgian: ცხინვალის რეგიონი, Tsxinvalis regioni; Russian: Цхинвальский регион, Tskhinvalskiy region) is a disputed region and partly recognized state in the South Caucasus, located in the territory of the South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast within the former Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic.
South Ossetians declared independence from Georgia in 1990, calling themselves the Republic of South Ossetia. The Georgian government responded by abolishing South Ossetia's autonomy and trying to retake the region by force. This led to the 1991–1992 South Ossetia War. Georgian fighting against those controlling South Ossetia occurred on two other occasions, in 2004 and 2008. The last conflict led to the 2008 South Ossetia war, during which Ossetian and Russian forces gained full, de facto control of the territory of the former South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast.

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Spain
Spain (ⁱ/ˈspeɪn/ SPAYN; Spanish: España, pronounced: [esˈpaɲa] ( listen)), officially the Kingdom of Spain (Spanish: Reino de España), is a sovereign state and a member of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Its mainland is bordered to the south and east by the Mediterranean Sea except for a small land boundary with the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar; to the north and north east by France, Andorra, and the Bay of Biscay; and to the northwest and west by the Atlantic Ocean and Portugal.
Spanish territory also includes the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean, the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean off the African coast, and two autonomous cities in North Africa, Ceuta and Melilla, that border Morocco. Furthermore, the town of Llívia is a Spanish exclave situated inside French territory. With an area of 504,030 square kilometres (194,610 sq mi), it is the second largest country in Western Europe and the European Union after France, and the fourth largest country in Europe after Russia, Ukraine and France.

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Srbica
Srbica (Albanian: Skënderaj; Serbian: Србица, Srbica) is a city and municipality in the Kosovska Mitrovica district of northern Kosovo. It is the largest city in the Drenica region of Kosovo.
Because the territory of kosovo was occupied from the serbians the Serbs named it Srbica referring to Rep. of 'Serbia' . The Albanians use "Skënderaj", referring to Scanderbeg.
It is populated mainly by Albanians (98%). It is claimed to be the poorest city in Kosovo. It is the place where the Kosovo War began in 1998, and to which the most damage was done.
Skënderaj has historically been the poorest municipality in Kosovo, with little investment having been made since the time of the former Yugoslavia. It suffers from low economic activity and continuous high unemployment. Agriculture is the major local industry but the municipality has not fully developed existing arable land. Today, the local economy consists of small enterprises such as family-run shops and restaurants while two privatized factories, a brick and a flour mill, employ a few hundred people. The other major sector of employment is the municipality’s civil service.

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Stari Ras
Stari Ras (Serbian Cyrillic: Стари Рас; meaning Old Ras), known at the time as Ras, was one of the first capitals of the medieval Serbian state of Raška, and the most important one for a long period of time. Located in today's region of Raška or Sandžak (Turkish name) of Serbia, the city was right in the centre of the early medieval state that started to spread in all directions. It was founded between 8th and 9th centuries and got deserted sometime in the 13th century. Its favorable position in the area known as Old Serbia, along the Raška gorge, on the crossroads between the Adriatic Sea and state of Zeta, Bosnia in the west and Kosovo in the east added to its importance as a city. There is an impressive group of medieval monuments consisting of fortresses, churches and monasteries. The monastery at Sopoćani is a reminder of the contacts between Western world and the Byzantine world. Today the city lies in mostly unenclosed and unprotected ruins close to the city of Novi Pazar, which probably began its own life as a trading enclave for Ras. However, there are plans for future reconstruction of the site. The site of Stari Ras, in combination with the nearby Monastery of Sopoćani, is already a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and Stari Ras monastery (12th century) is being reconstructed and it too may be included on the UNESCO World Heritage List with the site. Stari Ras and Sopoćani World Heritage site is not far from another UNESCO World Heritage Site of Serbia, the magnificent medieval monastery and churches of Studenica. The 8th century Church of Saint Apostles Peter and Paul is one of the oldest in the Balkans.

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Stepanakert
Stepanakert (Armenian: Ստեփանակերտ; called Khankendi (Azerbaijani: Xankəndi) by Azerbaijan) is the largest city and capital of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, a de facto independent republic, though is internationally recognized as a part of Azerbaijan. The city population comprises about 53,000 ethnic Armenians.
According to medieval Armenian sources, the settlement was first mentioned as Vararakn (Վարարակն, meaning "rapid spring" in Armenian) which it remained until it was renamed Khankendi in 1847. Azerbaijani sources generally say that the settlement was founded in the late eighteenth century by a Karabakh khan, and was thus called Khankendi (Turkic for "the khan's village").
In 1923 Khankendi was renamed Stepanakert by the Soviet government to honor Stepan Shahumyan, ethnic Armenian leader of the 26 Baku Commissars, and, after the Shusha pogrom had resulted in major destruction at Shusha, the former regional capital, Stepanakert was made the capital of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast. In time, Stepanakert grew to become the region's most important city (a status it received in 1940). Its population rose from 10,459 in 1939 to 33,000 in 1978.

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Stockholm
Stockholm (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈstɔkːˈhɔlm, ˈstɔkːˈɔlm, ˈstɔkːɔlm]( listen to the second one)) is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 864,324 in the municipality (2010), 1.4 million in the urban area (2010), and around 2.1 million in the 6,519 km² (2,517.00 sq mi) metropolitan area (2010). As of 2010, the Stockholm metropolitan area is home to approximately 22% of Sweden's population.
Founded no later than c. 1250, possibly as early as 1187, Stockholm has long been one of Sweden's cultural, media, political, and economic centres. Its strategic location on 14 islands on the south-central east coast of Sweden at the mouth of Lake Mälaren, by the Stockholm archipelago, has been historically important. Stockholm has been nominated by GaWC as a global city, with a ranking of Alpha-. In The 2008 Global Cities Index, Stockholm ranked 24th in the world, 10th in Europe, and first in Scandinavia. Stockholm is known for its beauty, its buildings and architecture, its abundant clean and open water, and its many parks. It is sometimes referred to as Venice of the North.

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Sukhumi
Sukhumi (Abkhaz: Аҟәа, Aqwa; Georgian: სოხუმი, Sokhumi; Russian: Сухум or Сухуми, Sukhum or Sukhumi) is the capital of Abkhazia, a disputed region on the Black Sea coast. The city suffered heavily during the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict in the early 1990s.
In Abkhaz, the city is known as Аҟәа (Aqwa) which according to native tradition signifies water. In Georgian, the city is known as სოხუმი (Sokhumi) or აყუ (Aqu), in Megrelian as აყუჯიხა (Aqujikha), and in Russian as Сухум (Sukhum) or Сухуми (Sukhumi).
The etymology of the name Sokhumi is disputed. The medieval Georgian sources knew the town as Tskhumi (ცხუმი). Later, under the Ottoman control, the town was known in Turkish as Suhum-Kale, which can be derived from the earlier Georgian form Tskhumi or can be read to mean 'water-sand fortress'. Tskhumi in turn is supposed to be derived from the Svan language word for 'hot', or the Georgian word for 'hornbeam tree'. The competing etymologies have been used as putative evidence in the argument over the ethnicity of Sukhumi's historical inhabitants.^{[citation needed]}

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Suva Reka
Suva Reka (Albanian: Suhareka, or Theranda; Serbian: Сува Река, Suva Reka) is a town and municipality in the Prizren district of southern Kosovo.
It is located 18 km from Prizren, and 57 km from Pristina.
The name of the town means "dry river" in the Serbian language. After the 1999 Kosovo War, Albanians referred to the town as Theranda, the name of the ancient fortress of Theranda, located near Prizren.
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Coordinates: 42°22′48″N 20°49′19″E / 42.38°N 20.82194°E / 42.38; 20.82194

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Svalbard
Svalbard (Norwegian pronunciation: [ˈsʋɑlbɑɖ]) is an archipelago in the Arctic, constituting the northernmost part of Norway. It is located north of mainland Europe, midway between mainland Norway and the North Pole. The group of islands range from 74° to 81° north latitude (inside the Arctic Circle), and from 10° to 35° east longitude. Spitsbergen is the largest island, followed by Nordaustlandet and Edgeøya. The administrative center is Longyearbyen, and other settlements include the Russian mining community of Barentsburg, the research community of Ny-Ålesund and the mining outpost of Sveagruva. The archipelago is administered by the Governor of Svalbard.
The islands were first used as a whaling base in the 17th and 18th centuries, after which they were abandoned. Coal mining started at the beginning of the 20th century, and several permanent communities were established. The Svalbard Treaty of 1920 recognizes Norwegian sovereignty, and the 1925 Svalbard Act made Svalbard a full part of the Kingdom of Norway. This act also established Svalbard as a free economic zone and a demilitarized zone. The Norwegian Store Norske and the Russian Arktikugol are the only mining companies remaining on the islands. Research and tourism have become important supplementary industries. Two major research facilities are the University Centre in Svalbard and the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. No roads connect the settlements; instead snowmobiles, aircraft and boats serve inter-community transport. Svalbard Airport, Longyear serves as the main gateway to the rest of Europe.

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Sweden
Sweden (ⁱ/ˈswiːdən/ SWEE-dən; Swedish: Sverige [ˈsværjɛ] ( listen)), officially the Kingdom of Sweden (Swedish: Konungariket Sverige (help·info)), is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland, and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Øresund.
At 450,295 square kilometres (173,860 sq mi), Sweden is the third largest country in the European Union by area, with a total population of about 9.4 million. Sweden has a low population density of 21 inhabitants per square kilometre (54 /sq mi) with the population mostly concentrated to the southern half of the country. About 85% of the population live in urban areas. Sweden's capital city is Stockholm, which is also the largest city.
Sweden emerged as an independent and unified country during the Middle Ages. In the 17th century, the country expanded its territories to form the Swedish Empire. The empire grew to be one of the great powers of Europe in the 17th and early 18th century. Most of the conquered territories outside the Scandinavian Peninsula were lost during the 18th and 19th centuries. The eastern half of Sweden, present-day Finland, was lost to Russia in 1809. The last war in which Sweden was directly involved was in 1814, when Sweden by military means forced Norway into a personal union. Since then, Sweden has been at peace, practicing "non-participation in military alliances during peacetime and neutrality during wartime". However, Sweden has been a member of the European Union since 1 January 1995 and is a member of the OECD.

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Switzerland
Switzerland (German: die Schweiz[ˈʃvaɪts]; French: Suisse [sɥis(ə)]; Italian: Svizzera [ˈzvit͡sːɛra]; Romansh: Svizra [ˈʒviːtsrɐ] or [ˈʒviːtsʁːɐ]), in its full name the Swiss Confederation (Latin: Confoederatio Helvetica, hence its abbreviation CH), is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in western Europe, where it is bordered by Germany to the north, France to the west, Italy to the south, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east.
Switzerland is a landlocked country geographically divided between the Alps, the Swiss Plateau and the Jura, spanning an area of 41,285 km² (15,940 sq mi). While the Alps occupy the greater part of the territory, the Swiss population of approximately 8 million people is concentrated mostly on the Plateau, where the largest cities are to be found. Among them are the two global cities and economic centres of Zurich and Geneva.
The Swiss Confederation has a long history of armed neutrality—it has not been in a state of war internationally since 1815—and did not join the United Nations until 2002. It pursues, however, an active foreign policy and is frequently involved in peace-building processes around the world. Switzerland is also the birthplace of the Red Cross and home to a large number of international organizations, including the second largest UN office. On the European level, it is a founding member of the European Free Trade Association and is part of the Schengen Area – although it is notably not a member of the European Union, nor the European Economic Area.

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Tallinn
Tallinn (/ˈtɑːlɪn/ or /ˈtælɪn/,Estonian pronunciation: [ˈtɑlʲˑinˑ]) is the capital and largest city of Estonia. It occupies an area of 159.2 km² (61.5 sq mi) with a population of 416,470. It is situated on the northern coast of the country, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, 80 km (50 mi) south of Helsinki, east of Stockholm and west of Saint Petersburg. Tallinn's Old Town is in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. It is ranked as a global city and has been listed among the top 10 digital cities in the world. The city was a European Capital of Culture for 2011, along with Turku, Finland.
Tallinn is the oldest capital^{[clarification needed]} in Northern Europe. The city was known as Reval from the 13th century until the 1920s.
In 1154 a town called Qlwn or Qalaven (possible derivations of Kalevan or Kolyvan) was put on the world map of the Almoravid by the Muslim cartographer Muhammad al-Idrisi, who described it as a small town like a large castle among the towns of Astlanda. It has been suggested that the Quwri in Astlanda may have denoted the predecessor town of today's Tallinn.

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Tbilisi
Tbilisi (Georgian: თბილისი [tʰb̥ilisi] ( listen)) is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Kura River. The name is derived from an early Georgian form T'pilisi (ტფილისი) and it was officially known as Tpilisi (in Georgian) or Tiflis (in Russian) until 1936. The city covers an area of 726 km² (280 sq mi) and has 1,480,000 inhabitants.
Founded in the 5th century by Vakhtang Gorgasali, the monarch of Georgia's precursor Kingdom of Iberia, Tbilisi has served, with various intervals, as Georgia's capital for nearly 1500 years and represents a significant industrial, social, and cultural center of the country. Located near the southeastern edge of Europe, Tbilisi's proximity to lucrative east-west trade routes often made the city a point of contention between various rival empires throughout history and the city's location to this day ensures its position as an important transit route for global energy and trade projects. Tbilisi's varied history is reflected in its architecture, which is a mix of medieval, classical, and Soviet structures.

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Timișoara
Timișoara (Romanian pronunciation: [timiˈʃo̯ara] ( listen); German: Temeswar, also formerly Temeschburg or Temeschwar, Hungarian: Temesvár, Serbian: Темишвар/Temišvar, Turkish: Temeşvar) is the capital city of Timiș County, in western Romania. One of the largest Romanian cities, with a population of 303,708 inhabitants (the third most populous city in the country, as of 2011), and considered the informal capital city of the historical region of Banat, Timișoara is the main social, economic and cultural center in the western part of Romania.
Timișoara lies at an altitude of 95 m on the southeast edge of the Banat plain, part of the great Panonia plain. The rich black soil and relatively low water table make this a fertile agricultural region.
Due to the hydrography projects undertaken in the 18th century, the city no longer lies on the Timiș River, but on the Bega canal. This is a relatively active seismic area, and earthquakes up to 6 on the Richter scale have been recorded.
Timișoara was first mentioned as a place in either 1212 or 1266. The territory later to be known as Banat was conquered and annexed by the Kingdom of Hungary in 1030. Timișoara grew considerably during the reign of Charles I, who, upon his visit here in 1307, ordered the construction of a royal palace. Timișoara's importance also grew thanks to its strategic location, which facilitated control over the Banat plain. John Hunyadi established a permanent military encampment here, and moved here together with his family. In 1552, Ahmed Pasha conquered the city with a 16,000 Ottomans and transformed it into a capital city in the region. The local military commander, Stefan Losonczy, was captured and beheaded on July 27, 1552 after resisting the Ottoman invasion with just over 2,300 men.^{[citation needed]}

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Tirana
Tirana ⁱ/tɨˈrɑːnə/ (indefinite form in Albanian: Tiranë, in the region sub-dialect of Gheg Albanian: Tirona) is the capital and the largest city of Albania. Modern Tirana was founded as an Ottoman town in 1614 by Sulejman Bargjini, a local ruler from Mullet, although the area has been continuously inhabited since antiquity. Tirana became Albania's capital city in 1920 and has a population of 400,000 , with metro area population of 763,634 . The city is host to public institutions and private universities, and is the center of the political, economical, and cultural life of the country.
The Municipality of Tirana is located at (41.33°N, 19.82°E) in Tirana District, Tirana County on the river Ishëm, about 32 kilometers (20 mi) inland. Tirana's average altitude is 110 meters (360 ft) above sea level and its highest point measures 1,828 m (5,997.38 ft) at Mali me Gropa. The city is mostly surrounded by hills, with Dajti Mountain on the East and a slight valley opening on the North-West overlooking the Adriatic Sea in the distance. The Tiranë river also runs through the city, whereas the Lanë river is a brook. The city borders the surrounding municipalities of Paskuqan, Dajt, Farkë, Vaqarr, Kashar, and Kamëz. It also contains a total of four artificial lakes: the Tirana Artificial Lake around which was built the Big Park, Paskuqani Lake, Farka Lake, and Tufina Lake. Tirana is on the same parallel as Naples, Madrid, Istanbul, and New York, and on the same meridian as Budapest and Kraków.

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Tiraspol
Tiraspol ( /tɪˈræspəl/, Romanian pronunciation: [tiˈraspol]; Russian and Ukrainian: Тирасполь) is the second largest city in Moldova and is the capital and administrative centre of the unrecognized Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic (Transnistria). The city is located on the eastern bank of the Dniester River. Tiraspol is a regional hub of light industry, such as furniture and electrical goods production.
The modern city of Tiraspol was founded by the Russian generalissimo Alexander Suvorov in 1792, although the area had been inhabited for thousands of years by varying ethnic groups. The city celebrates its anniversary every year on October 14.
The toponym consists of two words: Τύρας, Tyras — the ancient Greek name for the Dniester River, and polis, i.e., a city.^{[citation needed]}
Tyras, also spelled Tiras, was a colony of the Greek city Miletus, probably founded about 600 BCE, situated some 10 km. from the mouth of the Tiras River (Dniester). Of no great importance in early times in the 2nd century BCE, it fell under the dominion of indigenous kings whose names appear on its coins. It was destroyed by the Getae about 50 BCE.

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Transnistria
Transnistria (also called "Trans-Dniestr" or "Transdniestria") is a breakaway territory located mostly on a strip of land between the Dniester River and the eastern Moldovan border to Ukraine. Since its declaration of independence in 1990, and especially after the War of Transnistria in 1992, it is governed as the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic (PMR, also known as "Pridnestrovie"), a state with limited recognition which claims the territory to the east of the river Dniester, the city of Bender and its surrounding localities located on the west bank. The Republic of Moldova does not recognize the secession and considers the territories controlled by the PMR to be part of Moldova's autonomous region of Stînga Nistrului ("Left Bank of the Dniester").

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Tskhinvali
Tskhinvali (also spelled Cchinvali or Cxinvali; Georgian: ცხინვალი [t͡sxinvali]; Ossetic: Цхинвал or Чъреба listen (help·info), Tskhinval or Ch'reba; Russian: Цхинвал(и)), is the capital of South Ossetia, a disputed region which has been recognised as an independent Republic by Russia and another four UN members, and is regarded by Georgia and all other UN member states de jure as a region within Georgian sovereign territory.
It is located on the Great Liakhvi River approximately 100 km (62 mi) northwest of the Georgian capital Tbilisi.
The name of Tskhinvali is derived from the Georgian Krtskhinvali (Georgian: ქრცხინვალი), literally meaning "the land of hornbeams", which is the historical name of the city. From 1934 to 1961, the city was named Staliniri (Georgian: სტალინირი), after Joseph Stalin. Modern Ossetians call the city Tskhinval (leaving off the final "i", which is a nominative case ending in Georgian); the other Ossetian (unofficial) name of the city is Chreba.
The area around the present-day Tskhinvali was first populated back in the Bronze Age. The unearthed settlements and archaeological artifacts from that time are unique in that they reflect influences from both Iberian (east Georgia) and Colchian (west Georgia) cultures with possible Sarmatian elements.

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Turkey
Turkey (Turkish: Türkiye), known officially as the Republic of Turkey ( Türkiye Cumhuriyeti (help·info)), is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia (mostly in the Anatolian peninsula) and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe. Turkey is bordered by eight countries: Bulgaria to the northwest; Greece to the west; Georgia to the northeast; Armenia, Azerbaijan (the exclave of Nakhchivan) and Iran to the east; and Iraq and Syria to the southeast. The Mediterranean Sea and Cyprus are to the south; the Aegean Sea is to the west; and the Black Sea is to the north. The Sea of Marmara, the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles (which together form the Turkish Straits) demarcate the boundary between East Thrace and Anatolia; they also separate Europe and Asia.
Turkey is one of the six independent Turkic states. The vast majority of the population are Muslims. The country's official language is Turkish, whereas Kurdish and Zazaki languages are spoken by Kurds and Zazas, who constitute 18% of the population.

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Tórshavn
Tórshavn (IPA: [ˈtʰɔuʂhaun]; Danish: Thorshavn) is the capital and largest town of the Faroe Islands. It is located in the southern part on the east coast of Streymoy. To the north west of the town lies the 347-metre (1,138 ft) high mountain Húsareyn, and to the southwest, the 350-metre (1,150 ft) high Kirkjubøreyn. The city proper has a population of 13,000 (2008), and the greater urban area a population of 19,000.
The Vikings established their parliament on the Tinganes peninsula in 850 CE, thus Tórshavn was made capital of Faroe Islands and has remained so ever since. All through the Middle Ages the narrow peninsula jutting out into the sea made up the main part of Tórshavn. Sources do not mention a built-up area in Tórshavn until after the Protestant Reformation in 1539. Early on, Tórshavn became the center of the monopoly trade, thereby being the only legal place for the islanders to sell and buy goods. In 1856, the trade monopoly was abolished and the islands were left open to free trade. The town has grown rapidly ever since the turn of the 20th century into the undisputed administrative, economic and cultural center of the Faroes.

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Ukraine
Ukraine (ⁱ/juːˈkreɪn/ yew-KRAYN; Ukrainian: Україна, transliterated: Ukrayina, [ukrɑˈjinɑ]; Russian: Украина; Crimean Tatar: Ukraina) is a country in Central and Eastern Europe. Ukraine borders the Russian Federation to the east and northeast, Belarus to the northwest, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary to the west, Romania and Moldova to the southwest, and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south and southeast, respectively. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after the Russian Federation.
According to a popular and well established theory, the medieval state of Kievan Rus was established by the Varangians in the 9th century as the first historically recorded East Slavic state which emerged as a powerful nation in the Middle Ages until it disintegrated in the 12th century. By the middle of the 14th century, Ukrainian territories were under the rule of three external powers—the Golden Horde, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the Kingdom of Poland. After the Great Northern War (1700–1721) Ukraine was divided between a number of regional powers and, by the 19th century, the largest part of Ukraine was integrated into the Russian Empire with the rest under Austro-Hungarian control. A chaotic period of incessant warfare ensued, with several internationally recognized attempts at independence from 1917 to 1921, following World War I and the Russian Civil War. Ukraine emerged from its own civil war, and on December 30, 1922 Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic became one of the founding republics of the Soviet Union. The Ukrainian SSR's territory was enlarged westward during the civil war shortly before, and after World War II, and further south in 1954 with the Crimea transfer. In 1945, the Ukrainian SSR became one of the founding members of the United Nations.

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United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK, or Britain) is a sovereign state located off the north-western coast of continental Europe. The country includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border the UK is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel and the Irish Sea.
The United Kingdom is a unitary state governed under a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary system, with its seat of government in the capital city of London. It is a country in its own right and consists of four countries: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. There are three devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in Belfast, Edinburgh and Cardiff, the capitals of Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Associated with the UK, but not constitutionally part of it, are three Crown Dependencies. The United Kingdom has fourteen overseas territories. These are remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in 1922, encompassed almost a quarter of the world's land surface and was the largest empire in history. British influence can still be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former territories.

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Uroševac
Uroševac (Albanian: Ferizaj or Ferizaji; Serbian Cyrillic: Урошевац) is a city and municipality in southern Kosovo, located some 38 kilometers (24 mi) south of the capital Pristina. Uroševac is the third most populous city in Kosovo, after Pristina and Prizren. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous district. The central city postal codes include 70000, 70010, 70030 and 70040.
The municipality covers an area of 345 km² (133 sq mi), including the city of Uroševac and 45 villages. It is largely an agricultural plain. Its population is estimated at 108,690.
Ferizoviç was little more than a village until 1873, when the Belgrade-Thessaloniki railway was opened, passing through the town. Its Turkish name derives from a pre-1873 hotel owned by a local Kosovo Albanian named Feriz Shashivari; thus Serbs and Bosnians called the community Ferizovići ("Feriz's village") while Albanians called it Ferizaj.^{[citation needed]} The town was known as Ferizovich or Ferizovo in Bulgarian. It is still known informally as "Tasjan", from a Turkish form of the French word station, referring to its status as a main station on the railway line.

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Vaduz
Vaduz (German pronunciation: [faˈduːts] or [faˈdʊts]) is the capital of the principality of Liechtenstein and the seat of the national parliament. The town, located along the Rhine, has about 5,100 inhabitants (as of 2009^[update]), most of whom are Roman Catholic. Its cathedral is the seat of the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Vaduz.
Although Vaduz is the best-known town internationally in the principality, it is not the largest: neighbouring Schaan has a larger population.
Vaduz is said to be mentioned in historic 12th-century manuscripts as Farduzes. It is, however, commonly believed to have been founded circa 1322 by the Counts of Werdenberg. In 1322 a mention of the castle is made, which was sacked by the Swiss in 1499 during the Swabian War. The entire town was also destroyed.
In the 17th century the Liechtenstein family was seeking a seat in the Imperial diet, the Reichstag. However, since they did not hold any territory that was directly under the Imperial throne, they were unable to meet the primary requirement to qualify.

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Valletta
Valletta is the capital of Malta, colloquially known as Il-Belt (English: The City) in Maltese. It is located in the central-eastern portion of the island of Malta, and the historical city has a population of 6,966. The name "Valletta" is traditionally reserved for the historic walled citadel that serves as Malta's principal administrative district. However, Valletta, like many historical city centres, forms part of a larger continuous urban agglomeration; this is often referred to as "Greater Valletta."
Valletta contains buildings from the 16th century onwards, built during the rule of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, also known as Knights Hospitaller. The city is essentially Baroque in character, with elements of Mannerist, Neo-Classical and Modern architecture in selected areas, though World War II left major scars on the city. The City of Valletta was officially recognised as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1980.
The city is named for Jean Parisot de la Valette, who succeeded in defending the island from an Ottoman invasion in 1565. The official name given by the Order of Saint John was Humilissima Civitas Valletta — The Most Humble City of Valletta, or Città Umilissima in Italian. The bastions, curtains and ravelins along with the beauty of its Baroque palaces, gardens and churches, led the ruling houses of Europe to give the city its nickname Superbissima — 'Most Proud'.

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Vatican City
Vatican City ⁱ/ˈvætɨkən ˈsɪti/, or Vatican City State, in Italian officially Stato della Città del Vaticano (pronounced [ˈstaːto della t͡ʃitˈta del vatiˈkaːno]), is a landlocked sovereign city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome, Italy. It has an area of approximately 44 hectares (110 acres), and a population of just over 800. This makes Vatican City the smallest independent state in the world by both area and population.
Vatican City State was established in 1929 by the Lateran Treaty, signed by Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Gasparri, on behalf of Pope Pius XI and by Prime Minister and Head of Government Benito Mussolini on behalf of King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy. Vatican City State is distinct from the Holy See, which dates back to early Christianity and is the main episcopal see of 1.2 billion Latin and Eastern Catholic adherents around the globe. Ordinances of Vatican City are published in Italian; official documents of the Holy See are issued mainly in Latin. The two entities have distinct passports: the Holy See, not being a country, issues only diplomatic and service passports, whereas Vatican City State issues normal passports. In each case very few passports are issued.

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Vienna
Vienna ( /viːˈɛnə/; German: Wien (help·info) [viːn]) is the capital and largest city of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million (2.4 million within the metropolitan area, more than 25% of Austria's population), and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre. It is the 9th-largest city by population in the European Union. Until the beginning of the 20th century it was the largest German speaking city in the world, and before the first world war and the splitting of the Austro-Hungarian empire the city had 2 million inhabitants. Vienna is host to many major international organizations, including the United Nations and OPEC. The city lies in the east of Austria and is close to the borders of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary. These regions work together in a European Centrope border region. Along with nearby Bratislava, Vienna forms a metropolitan region with 3 million inhabitants. In 2001, the city centre was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

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Vilnius
Vilnius ([ˈvʲɪlʲnʲʊs] ( listen); see also other names) is the capital of Lithuania, and its largest city, with a population of 554,060 (838, 852 together with Vilnius County) as of 2011. It is the seat of the Vilnius city municipality and of the Vilnius district municipality. It is also the capital of Vilnius County. The first known written record of Vilnius as the Lithuanian capital is known from Gediminas' letters in 1323. Vilnius is classified as a Gamma global city according to GaWC studies.
The name of the city originated from the Vilnia River. The city has also been known by many derivate spellings in various languages throughout its history. The most notable non-Lithuanian names for the city include: Polish: Wilno, Belarusian: Вiльнюс, Вiльня, German: Wilna, Latvian: Viļņa, Russian: Вильнюс, Yiddish: ווילנע (Vilne). An older Russian name was Вильна / Вильно (Vilna/Vilno), although Вильнюс (Vilnius) is now used. The names Wilno, Wilna and Vilna have also been used in older English, German, French and Italian language publications. The name Vilna is still used in Finnish, Portuguese, Spanish, and Hebrew.

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Vitina
Vitina (Albanian: Viti, Vitia, Serbian: Витина) is a town and municipality in the Gnjilane district of south-eastern Kosovo.
Towns in the Vitina municipality include Klokot and Kabaš.
Following the 1999 Kosovo War, it was the home of A Company, 2/505 Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, the first KFOR troops to begin stabilization efforts in the municipality. After the initial unit left, Vitina was the site of a subsequent international scandal when a soldier from the U.S. Army different follow on unit raped and killed a local girl. The subsequent investigation uncovered serious training and leadership deficiencies in the 3/504 Parachute Infantry Regiment, and catalyzed a tremendous change in the training of units deploying for peacekeeping operations.^{[citation needed]}
The municipality of Vitina is economically depressed. However, it should also be noted that this area is rural and agrarian and hence the current unemployment rates might not accurately reflect true employment levels. Most private businesses are owned and operated by Kosovo Albanians, as are a majority of the public services. Both private businesses and public services are small in terms of number of employees.

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Vučitrn
Vučitrn or Vushtrri (Albanian: Vushtrri or Vushtrria; Serbian: Вучитрн, Vučitrn; Turkish: Vıçıtırın; English: Wolf thorn; Latin: Vicianum) is a city and municipality in north-eastern Kosovo. It is the seat of the Kosovska Mitrovica District. The name of the city means "wolf's thorn", the name of the spiny restharrow plant in Serbian.
Although there is no official data, the total population of the municipality is estimated at 69,881. It is also the home of the Kosovo Police Service training school where from 1999 members of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) trained the new multiethnic police service following the departure of the Serbs in 1999. The staff at the training school were made up of serving and retired police officers from the member states of the OSCE.
Vicianum ("Area of Calves") is the Roman name of the town. At the end of the first century B.C., Viciana was conquered by the Romans. During this occupation, Viciana developed a considerable economy and a thriving culture. After the fall of the Roman Empire, Viciana was transferred to Byzantine rule. After the Great Schism of the Church in 1054, the majority of Vicianum's population remained Orthodox.^{[citation needed]}

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Warsaw
Warsaw (Polish: Warszawa [varˈʂava] ( listen); see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly 260 kilometres (160 mi) from the Baltic Sea and 300 kilometres (190 mi) from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most populous city proper in the European Union. The area of the city covers 516.9 square kilometres (199.6 sq mi), while the city's agglomeration covers 6,100.43 square kilometres (2,355.39 sq mi).
Warsaw is an Alpha- global city, a major international tourist destination and an important economic hub in Central Europe. It is also known as the "phoenix city" because it has survived many wars throughout its history. Most notably, the city had to be painstakingly rebuilt after the extensive damage it suffered from World War II, during which 80% of its buildings were destroyed. On 9 November 1940 the city was awarded Poland's highest military decoration for heroism, the Virtuti Militari, for the Siege of Warsaw (1939).

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Yerevan
Coordinates: 40°11′00″N 44°31′00″E / 40.183333°N 44.516667°E / 40.183333; 44.516667
Yerevan (Armenian: Երևան, Armenian pronunciation: [jɛɾɛˈvɑn]) is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's oldest continuously-inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerevan is the administrative, cultural, and industrial center of the country. It has been the capital since 1918, the thirteenth in the history of Armenia.
The history of Yerevan dates back to the 8th century BC, with the founding of the fortress of Erebuni in 782 BC by king Argishti I at the western extreme of the Ararat plain. After World War I, Yerevan became the capital of the Democratic Republic of Armenia as thousands of survivors of the Armenian Genocide settled in the area. The city expanded rapidly during the 20th century as Armenia became one of the fifteen republics in the Soviet Union. In fifty years, Yerevan was transformed from a town of a few thousand residents within the Russian Empire, to Armenia's principal cultural, artistic, and industrial center, as well as becoming the seat of national government.

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Zagreb
Zagreb (Croatian pronunciation: [zǎːɡrɛb]) is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately 122 m (400 ft) above sea level. In the last official census of 2011, the population of the settlement of Zagreb was 686,568, while the total population of its administrative area was 792,875. The wider Zagreb metropolitan area includes the City of Zagreb and the separate Zagreb County with a population of 317,642, bringing the total metropolitan area population up to 1,110,517. It is the only metropolitan area in Croatia with a population of over one million.
Its favourable geographic position in the southwestern part of the Pannonian Basin, which extends to the Alpine, Dinaric, Adriatic and Pannonic regions, provides an excellent connection for traffic between Central Europe and the Adriatic Sea. The transport connections, concentration of industry, scientific and research institutions and industrial tradition underlie its leading economic position in Croatia. Zagreb is the seat of the central government, administrative bodies and almost all government ministries.

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Zubin Potok
Zubin Potok (Serbian: Зубин Поток , Zubin Potok; Albanian: Zubin Potok or Zubin Potoku) is a town and municipality in the Kosovska Mitrovica district of northern Kosovo. It is a part of North Kosovo, a region with an ethnic Serb majority that functions largely autonomously from the remainder of the ethnic-Albanian-majority Kosovo. According to 1991 census, the municipality had a population of 8,479 people.
Zubin Potok is an agricultural community, yet the level of agricultural production has been in decrease due to the lack of investment. Local factories have been also strongly affected by the lack of consumers in the Albanian parts of Kosovo. Since most factories were established as branches of main Serbian factory chains to serve the Kosovo market, their workers are still employed but work and get paid irregularly. A majority of products sold in the municipality are imported from Serbia.
List of the inhabited places in municipality:
Serbian name first, Albanian one second:
Notes:
References:

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Zvečan
Zvečan (Serbian: Звечан, Zvečan; Albanian: Zveçan or Zveçani) is a town and municipality in the Kosovska Mitrovica district of Kosovo. It is a part of North Kosovo, a region with an ethnic Serb majority that functions largely autonomously from the remainder of the ethnic-Albanian-majority Kosovo and Metohija. The municipality covers an area of 104 km² (40 sq mi), and consists of 35 villages. As of 2008, the municipality has a population of approximately 17,000.
In November 2005, it was estimated that the municipality was 95% Serb, with only 4 Albanian families in the area.^{[citation needed]}
According to 2006 estimates, the municipality of Zvečan had a population of 16,600 people.^{[citation needed]} As of 2008, the municipality has a population of approximately 17,000 inhabitants, of which ca. 16,050 (ca. 94 %) are Serbs. Some 350 Albanians are concentrated in the villages of Boljetin, Lipa and Žaža, with 80 Kosovo Albanian families having returned to the municipality since 2000. A small number of other minorities also reside in the munnicipality. About 4,000 Kosovo Serbs are located in the municipality as Internally displaced persons (IDPs) as well as 250 refugees from Croatia.

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Åland Islands
The Åland Islands (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈoːland], Finnish: Ahvenanmaa) form an archipelago in the Baltic Sea. They are situated at the entrance to the Gulf of Bothnia and form an autonomous, demilitarised, monolingually Swedish-speaking region of Finland. The islands collectively constitute the smallest region of Finland, with only 0.49% of its land area, and 0.50% of its population.
Åland comprises Fasta Åland (the "Main Island," with 90% of the population), together with an archipelago to the east that comprises over 6,500 skerries and islands. Fasta Åland is separated from the coast of Sweden by 38 kilometres (24 mi) of open water to the west. In the east, the Åland archipelago is contiguous with the Finnish Archipelago Sea. Åland's only land border is located on the uninhabited skerry of Märket, which it shares with Sweden.
Because of the autonomous status of the Åland Islands, the powers exercised at the provincial level by representatives of the central state administration in the rest of Finland are largely exercised by the Government of Åland in Åland.

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Đakovica
Đakovica or Gjakova (Albanian: Gjakova or Gjakovë, Albanian pronunciation: [ɟaˈkɔva] or [ɟaˈkɔvə]; Serbian: Ђаковица, Đakovica, pronounced [d͡ʑâkɔʋit͡sa]; Turkish: Yakova) is a city and municipality in western Kosovo. It is also the administrative centre of the homonymous district. The municipality's population is estimated at 94,158(2011). The city is located at 42°23′N 20°26′E / 42.39°N 20.43°E / 42.39; 20.43.
There are a number of theories concerning the name of the town: that it derives from the Serbian word đak (pupil) from earlier d(i)jak; or that it derives from the Albanian word for "blood" (gjak). In that period, the end of the sixteenth century, namely in 1594/95, Hadum Suleiman Aga Hadum Efendia-built mosque, which also bears the name of the donor-sponsors of the facility in town. Hadum Mosque, according to tradition, was built in property of Jakë Vula, hence the name would become the city – Jakovë. It is also plausible to conclude that the Albanian name for the town, 'Gjakova' may in fact represent an Albanized version^{[citation needed]} of otherwise south slavic(Serbian) genitive case 'Jakova', as in "(zemlja) Jakova", meaning "(the land) of Jakov", Jakov being a landlord and vassal of Vuk Branković, Serbian medieval nobleman. The extensive Turkish list of the 1485. Đakovica was mentioned as a village with 67 households and rural priest. All personal names in this list are Serbian, except two who may have been of Albanian origin.^{[citation needed]}

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Štimlje
Štimlje or Shtime is a town and municipality in the Uroševac district of southern Kosovo. The town is the seat of the Štimlje municipality.
The territory of the municipality covers 134 square kilometers, and it has over 27,288 inhabitants.
Notes:
References:

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Albanians
Albanians (Albanian: Shqiptarët) are an ethnic group native to Albania and neighbouring countries. In the context of an ethnicity, they are commonly referred to as ethnic Albanians to distinguish the group from the use of the term Albanians as referring to citizens of Albania. They speak the Albanian language. More than half of all Albanians live in Albania and Kosovo. The Albanian diaspora also exists in a number of other countries.
While the exonym Albania for the general region inhabited by the Albanians does hark back to Classical Antiquity, the name was lost within the Albanian language, the Albanian endonym being shqiptar, from the term for the Albanian language, shqip, a derivation of the verb shqiptoj "to utilize a correct Albanian pronunciation ". This theory pertains to Hahn and it holds that perhaps the word is ultimately a loan from Latin excipio. Thus, the Albanian endonym, like Slav and others, is in origin a term for "those who speak [intelligibly, the same language]". However another plausible theory has been advanced by Maximilian Lambertz to explain the endonym as derived from the Albanian noun shqype or shqiponjë (eagle), which, according to Albanian folk etymology, denoted a bird totem dating from the times of Skanderbeg, as displayed on the Albanian flag.

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Austria
Austria (ⁱ/ˈɒstriə/ or /ˈɔːstriə/; German: Österreich [ˈøːstɐˌʁaɪç] ( listen)), officially the Republic of Austria (German: Republik Österreich (help·info)), is a landlocked country of roughly 8.47 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Hungary and Slovakia to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west. The territory of Austria covers 83,855 square kilometres (32,377 sq mi) and has a temperate and alpine climate. Austria's terrain is highly mountainous due to the presence of the Alps; only 32% of the country is below 500 metres (1,640 ft), and its highest point is 3,798 metres (12,461 ft). The majority of the population speak local Austro-Bavarian dialects of German as their native language, and German in its standard form is the country's official language. Other local official languages are Burgenland Croatian, Hungarian and Slovene.
The origins of modern-day Austria date back to the time of the Habsburg dynasty when the vast majority of the country was a part of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. During the 17th and 18th centuries, Austria became one of the great powers of Europe and, in response to the coronation of Napoleon I as the Emperor of the French, the Austrian Empire was officially proclaimed in 1804. In 1867, the Austrian Empire was reformed into Austria-Hungary.

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Bosniaks
The Bosniaks or Bosniacs (Bosnian: Bošnjak, pl: Bošnjaci, pronounced [bɔːˈʃɲaːtsi]) are a South Slavic ethnic group, living mainly in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a smaller minority also present in other lands of the Balkan Peninsula especially in Serbia, Montenegro and Croatia. Bosniaks are typically characterized by their historic tie to the Bosnian historical region, traditional adherence to Islam since the 15th and 16th centuries, common culture and language. In the English-speaking world, Bosniaks are also referred to as Bosnian Muslims or simply Bosnians. Bosniak has replaced Muslim as an official ethnic term in part to avoid confusion with the religious term Muslim - an adherent of Islam. The term Bosnian is used to denote all inhabitants of Bosnia regardless of ethnic origin.
Bosniaks are a South Slavic people. Nonetheless, it has been proposed, based on genetic signatures, that their roots also date back to pre-Slavic inhabitants of the Dinaric region, effectively predating many modern European homogenous ethnic groups. There are well over two million Bosniaks living in the Balkans today, with an estimated additional million settled and living around the world.^{[citation needed]} Several instances of ethnic cleansing and genocide have had a tremendous effect on the territorial distribution of the population. Partially due to this,^{[citation needed]} a notable Bosniak diaspora exists in a number of countries, including Austria, Germany, Australia, Sweden, Turkey, Canada and the United States. Both within the region and throughout the world, Bosniaks are often noted for their unique culture, which has been influenced by both eastern and western civilizations and schools of thought over the course of their history.

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Hasan Prishtina
Hasan Prishtina originally known as Hasan Berisha (born 1873 in Vıçıtırın (now Vučitrn),Kosovo Province, Ottoman Empire – died 1933 in Thessaloniki, Greece) was an Albanian politician, who served as Prime Minister of Albania in December 1921.
According to Ivo Banac and Miranda Vickers, Hasan was a member of the Šiškovic clan. His father Ahmed Berisha moved from Poljance, Drenica region to Vushtri (known as Vucitrn) in 1871. His son, Hasan Berisha was born in Poljance in 1873. After finishing the French gymnasium in Thessaloniki, he studied politics and law in Istanbul.
He initially supported the Young Turks and was elected to the Turkish parliament in 1908. He changed his last name into Prishtina in 1908, when he was elected as a Prishtina delegate in the Ottoman National Parliament in Istanbul during the Second Constitutional Era of the Ottoman Empire. However, Prishtina lost his position in 1912 as did all the Albanian deputies.
After the Ottoman Government did not keep their promises for more rights and independence to the Albania nation, Hasan Prishtina and several other prominent Albanian intellectuals started organizing the Albanian National Movement. He together with Isa Boletini and Bajram Curri took the responsibility to start the Albanian National Movement in Kosovo.

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Ibrahim Rugova
Ibrahim Rugova listen (help·info) (2 December 1944 – 21 January 2006) was the first President of Kosovo, serving from 1992 to 2000 and again from 2002 to 2006, and a prominent Kosovo Albanian political leader, scholar, and writer. He oversaw a popular struggle for independence, advocating a peaceful resistance to Yugoslav rule and lobbying for U.S. and European support, especially during the Kosovo War. He strongly emphasized the heritage of ancient Dardania, the independent kingdom and later province of the Roman Empire that included modern-day Kosovo, to strengthen the country's identity and to promote his policy of closer relations with the West. Owing to his role in Kosovo's history, Rugova has been dubbed "Father of the Nation" and "Gandhi of the Balkans," awarded, among others, the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, and posthumously declared a Hero of Kosovo.
Rugova was born to a Albanian family in Yugoslavia (in what became Kosovo); Yugoslav communists executed his father and grandfather while Rugova was still an infant. He studied literature at the University of Pristina and the University of Paris, and a received a doctorate with a dissertation on Albanian literary criticism. As a student, he participated in a civil rights movement for the Albanians, although he formally joined the Communist League of Yugoslavia to secure career advancements. Thereby, he worked as editor of prestigious literary and scholarly publications and research fellow at the Institute of Albanian Studies; in 1988, he was elected president of the Kosovo Writers Union.

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Isa Mustafa
Isa Mustafa (born 15 May 1951) is an Albanian politician from Kosovo, the Mayor of Pristina and the leader of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK).
Mustafa was born in Pristina, SFR Yugoslavia (present-day Kosovo) in an area known in Albanian as Prapashticë on 15 May 1951, to Albanian parents. He finished Primary and High School in Pristina, while graduated at the University of Pristina in the Faculty of Economics, where he also mastered and became a PhD. On 1974, he began his professional work, as an examiner at the University of Pristina.
Isa Mustafa began his political career on the 1980s, when he became the head of the municipal government of Pristina, from 1984 to 1988.
In the 1990s, as Yugoslavia started to break up, Mustafa became the Minister of Economy and Finances of the government of the Republic of Kosova, in exile, headed by Bujar Bukoshi. During this time, he was issued an arrest warrant by the national authorities, and in various European countries as a political refugee, mainly in Germany, Switzerland, Albania, Slovenia, and Croatia, until 1999.

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Josip Broz Tito
Marshal Josip Broz Tito (Serbo-Croatian pronunciation: [jɔ̂sip brɔ̂ːz tîtɔ]; born Josip Broz; Cyrillic: Јосип Броз Тито; 7 May 1892 – 4 May 1980) was a Yugoslav revolutionary and statesman, serving in various roles from 1945 until his death in 1980. While his presidency has been criticized as authoritarian, due to his successful economic and diplomatic policies, Tito was seen by most as a benevolent dictator, and was a popular public figure both in Yugoslavia and abroad. Viewed as a unifying symbol, his internal policies successfully maintained the peaceful coexistence of the nations of the Yugoslav federation. He gained international attention as the chief leader of the Non-Aligned Movement, working with Jawaharlal Nehru of India and Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt.
Josip was born as the seventh child of Franjo and Marija Broz in the village of Kumrovec within Austria-Hungary (modern-day Croatia). Drafted into the army, he distinguished himself, becoming the youngest Sergeant Major in the Austro-Hungarian Army. After being seriously wounded and captured by the Russians, Josip was sent to a work camp in the Ural Mountains. He participated in the October Revolution, and later joined a Red Guard unit in Omsk. Upon his return home, Broz found himself in the newly established Kingdom of Yugoslavia, where he joined the Communist Party of Yugoslavia.

wn.com/Josip_Broz_Tito
Justinian I
Justinian I ( /dʒʌˈstɪniən/) (Latin: Flavius Petrus Sabbatius Iustinianus Augustus, Ancient Greek: Φλάβιος Πέτρος Σαββάτιος Ἰουστινιανός) (c. 482 – 14 November 565), commonly known as Justinian the Great, was Byzantine Emperor from 527 to 565. During his reign, Justinian sought to revive the Empire's greatness and reconquer the lost western half of the classical Roman Empire.
One of the most important figures of Late Antiquity and the last Roman Emperor to speak Latin as a first language, Justinian's rule constitutes a distinct epoch in the history of the Eastern Roman Empire. The impact of his administration extended far beyond the boundaries of his time and domain. Justinian's reign is marked by the ambitious but only partly realized renovatio imperii, or "restoration of the Empire". This ambition was expressed by the partial recovery of the territories of the defunct Western Roman Empire. His general Belisarius swiftly conquered the Vandal Kingdom in North Africa, extending Roman control to the Atlantic Ocean. Subsequently Belisarius, Narses, and other generals conquered the Ostrogothic Kingdom, restoring Dalmatia, Sicily, Italy, and Rome to the Empire after more than half a century of barbarian control.

wn.com/Justinian_I
Kosovo Serbs
Kosovo Serbs (Serbian: Косовци, Kosovci, meaning "people of Kosovo", sing; m Kosovac, f Kosovka) are the second largest ethnic group in Kosovo. By the 12th century, the cultural, diplomatic and religious core of the Serbian Kingdom was located in Kosovo. This became essential to the Serbian Empire of the 14th century.
During the 20th century Serbian population constantly decreased. Their share in the overall population of the region is estimated at 7% by the CIA. Serbs mostly populate the enclaves across Kosovo, North Kosovo being the largest one.
Large-scale emigration of ethnic Serbs, especially since 1999 onwards, makes them the only major ethnic group in Kosovo to have a negative natural growth rate with deaths exceeding births. BBC reports that fewer than 100,000, 5% Serbs remained in Kosovo following a post-war exodus of non-Albanians. The Serbian minority live in separate areas watched over by NATO peacekeepers. International diplomats have voiced concern over slow progress on their rights.^{[citation needed]} Human Rights Watch pointed out discrimination against Serbs and Roma in Kosovo immediately after the War in Kosovo.

wn.com/Kosovo_Serbs
Mother Teresa
Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta (Albanian: Nënë Tereza) as she is known to the Catholic Church, or Mother Teresa as she is commonly known, was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu (pronounced [aɡˈnɛs ˈɡɔndʒa bɔjaˈdʒiu]). Although born on the 26 August 1910, she considered 27 August, the day she was baptized, to be her "true birthday". “By blood, I am Albanian. By citizenship, an Indian. By faith, I am a Catholic nun. As to my calling, I belong to the world. As to my heart, I belong entirely to the Heart of Jesus.” Mother Teresa died on 5 September 1997 and is not yet a Catholic Saint. In late 2003, the leaders of the church completed the process of beatification, the third step toward possible sainthood. A second miracle credited to Mother Teresa is required before she can be recognized as a saint by the Catholic church.
Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity, a Roman Catholic religious congregation, which in 2012 consisted of over 4,500 sisters and is active in 133 countries. Members of the order must adhere to the vows of chastity, poverty and obedience, and the fourth vow, to give "Wholehearted and Free service to the poorest of the poor". The Missionaries of Charity at the time of her death had 610 missions in 123 countries including hospices and homes for people with HIV/AIDS, leprosy and tuberculosis, soup kitchens, children's and family counselling programmes, orphanages and schools.

wn.com/Mother_Teresa
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire or Turkish Empire or Sublime Ottoman State or sometimes also referred to as Turkey (Ottoman Turkish: دَوْلَتِ عَلِيّهٔ عُثمَانِیّه Devlet-i ʿAliyye-yi ʿOsmâniyye (also عثمانلى دولتى Osmanlı Devleti),Modern Turkish: Osmanlı Devleti or Osmanlı İmparatorluğu) was a Turkish empire which lasted from 27 July 1299 to 1 November 1922, when the Sultanate was abolished.
The Ottoman Empire was one of the largest and longest lasting empires in history; such that the Ottoman State, its politics, conflicts, and cultural heritage in a vast geography provide one of the longest continuous narratives. During the 16th and 17th centuries, in particular at the height of its power under the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent, the empire was one of the most powerful states in the world – a multinational, multilingual empire that stretched from the southern borders of the Holy Roman Empire to the outskirts of Vienna, Royal Hungary (modern Slovakia) and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in the north to Yemen and Eritrea in the south; from Algeria in the west to Azerbaijan in the east; controlling much of southeast Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. At the beginning of the 17th century the empire contained 32 provinces and numerous vassal states, some of which were later absorbed into the empire, while others were granted various types of autonomy during the course of centuries.

wn.com/Ottoman_Empire
Pjetër Bogdani
Pjetër Bogdani (ca. 1630 - 1689), known in Italian as Pietro Bogdano, is the most original writer of early literature in Albania. He is author of the Cuneus Prophetarum (The Band of the Prophets), 1685, the first prose work of substance written originally in Albanian (i.e. not a translation).
Born in Gur i Hasit, Has District, Albania about 1630, Bogdani was educated in the traditions of the Catholic church to which he devoted all his energy. His uncle Andrea Bogdani (ca. 1600-1683) was Archbishop of Skopje and author of a Latin-Albanian grammar, now lost. Bogdani is said to have received his initial schooling from the Franciscans at Chiprovtsi in modern northwestern Bulgaria and then studied at the Illyrian College of Loreto near Ancona, as had his predecessors Pjetër Budi and Frang Bardhi. From 1651 to 1654 he served as a parish priest in Pult and from 1654 to 1656 studied at the College of the Propaganda Fide in Rome where he graduated as a doctor of philosophy and theology. In 1656, he was named Bishop of Shkodra, a post he held for twenty-one years, and was also appointed Administrator of the Archdiocese of Antivari (Bar) until 1671.

wn.com/Pjetër_Bogdani
Serbs
The Serbs (Serbian: Срби, Srbi, pronounced [sr̩̂bi]) are a nation and South Slavic ethnic group of the Balkans and southern Central Europe. Serbs live mainly in Serbia and the disputed territory of Kosovo, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and form significant minorities in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Likewise, Serbs are an officially recognized minority in Romania, Hungary, Albania, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. There is also a large Serbian diaspora in Western Europe, particularly in Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Austria, France, Italy and the United Kingdom. More than a million people of Serbian origin live in German-speaking countries, including Luxembourg (1%), Austria (1.8%), Switzerland (1%), and Germany (~1%). Outside Europe, there are significant Serbian communities in the United States (198,000 Serbian plus additional 326,000 "Yugoslav" nationals),Canada (72,690 in 2006) and Australia (95,000 in 2006).
The Serbs are a Slavic people, specifically of the South Slavic subgroup, which has its origins in the 6th and 7th century communities developed in Southeastern Europe (see Great Migration). Slav raids on Eastern Roman territory are mentioned in 518, and by the 580s they had conquered large areas referred to as Sclavinia (transl. Slavdom, from Sklavenoi – Σκλαυηνοι, the early South Slavic tribe which is eponymous to the current ethnic and linguistic Indo-European people). In 649, Constantine III relocates conquered Slavs "from the Vardar" to Gordoservon (Serb habitat). Among communities part in the Serb ethnogenesis are the Romanized Paleo-Balkan tribes of Illyrians, Thracians and Dacians, Celts, Greek colonies and Romans.

wn.com/Serbs
Slobodan Milošević
Slobodan Milošević (sometimes transliterated as Miloshevich^{[citation needed]}; Serbian pronunciation: [slɔbɔ̌dan milɔ̌ːʃɛʋitɕ] ( listen); Serbian Cyrillic: Слободан Милошевић; 20 August 1941 – 11 March 2006) was the President of Serbia and Yugoslavia. He served as the President of the Socialist Republic of Serbia and the Republic of Serbia from 1989 until 1997 in three terms and as President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1997 to 2000. He also led the Socialist Party of Serbia from its foundation in 1990. His presidency was marked by the breakup of Yugoslavia and the subsequent Yugoslav Wars. In the midst of the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, Milošević was charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity in connection with the wars in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).
Milošević resigned the Yugoslav presidency amid demonstrations, following the disputed presidential election of 24 September 2000. He was arrested by Yugoslav federal authorities on Saturday, 31 March 2001, on suspicion of corruption, abuse of power, and embezzlement. The initial investigation into Milošević faltered for lack of evidence, prompting the Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić to send him to The Hague to stand trial for charges of war crimes instead. Milošević conducted his own defense in the five-year long trial, which ended without a verdict when he died on 11 March 2006 in his prison cell in The Hague. Milošević, who suffered from heart ailments and high blood pressure, died of a heart attack. The Tribunal denies any responsibility for Milošević's death. They claim that he refused to take prescribed medicines and medicated himself instead.

wn.com/Slobodan_Milošević
Sorbian languages
The Sorbian languages (Serbsce, Serbski) are classified under the Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages. They are the native languages of the Sorbs, a Slavic minority in the Lusatia region of eastern Germany. Historically the language has also been known as Wendish or Lusatian. Their collective ISO 639-2 code is wen. It is closely related to Polish, Kashubian, Czech and Slovak.
There are two literary languages: Upper Sorbian (hornjoserbsce), spoken by about 40,000 people in Saxony, and Lower Sorbian (dolnoserbski) spoken by about 10,000 people in Brandenburg. The area where the two languages are spoken is known as Lusatia (Łužica in Upper Sorbian, Łužyca in Lower Sorbian, or Lausitz in German).
Both languages have the dual for nouns, pronouns, adjectives and verbs; very few known living Indo-European languages retain this feature as a productive aspect of the grammar (see Slovenian grammar or Lithuanian grammar for other ones).
In Germany, Upper and Lower Sorbian are officially recognized and protected as minority languages. In the home areas of the Sorbs, both languages are officially equal to German.

wn.com/Sorbian_languages

A Tourist's Guide to Pristina, Kosovo

Michael and I travel across the border from Macedonia into Kosovo. We arrive in Pristina a...

published: 13 Jun 2009

author: cessnagbdso

The Arrival of Russian Troops. Pristina, 1999

The Arrival of Russian Troops in Pristina, Kosovo. June 12, 1999....

published: 03 Nov 2006

author: JORMUNREKKR

Pristina (Prishtina), Kosovo. My best pictures

My best photos from my brief visit to Pristina (or, Prishtina), Kosovo. Vic Stefanu, vstef...

published: 10 Aug 2011

author: Vic Stefanu

Faith No More - Pristina

Faith No More Pristina Live@ Bizarre Festival August 16, 1997...

published: 06 Mar 2008

author: buraky133

faith no more - Pristina - Album Of The Year

Hit songs for download faith no more - Pristina - Album Of The Year...

published: 12 Dec 2008

author: ThenornFab

Caglavica (near Pristina) after March 17, 2004

Documentary film With the arrival of UNMIK and KFOR to Kosovo-Metohija in June 1999, over ...

published: 10 Feb 2008

author: CaillouVert

Pristina - Hope Against Hope - EPK

making of the new Pristina single, Hope Against Hope....

published: 24 Oct 2010

author: theechoinggreen

Pristina, Kosovo

published: 30 Jul 2012

author: Richard Randall

Pristina by Faith No More

Pristina by Faith No More off Album of the Year. Enjoy! This is the last song on Album of ...

published: 27 Jul 2009

author: RuneScape560

Pristina

...

published: 21 May 2012

author: dragan038

Pristina, Kosovo 5-2010

Two year old country. The youngest in the world....

published: 05 Jun 2010

author: Kyle Pounds

Pristina - 01 Moonshiner

Album: The Drought (Ov Salt and Sorrow) [Trendkill/The Path Less Traveled, 2010] - Uploade...

published: 24 Jan 2011

author: invisibleoranges

Pristina - So Alive (Novan-K Remix)

Pristina - So Alive Single Cover of Ryan Adams...

published: 14 Nov 2010

author: 0peinup

Beer Fest Pristina 2011 .wmv

Bier Fest in Pristina Kosovo Oktober 2011.Deutsche Brauereien,Veltins u.Krombacher....

published: 14 Mar 2012

author: Kirmes Gänger

Pristina

published: 07 May 2007

author: discos invisibles

Pristina

Een kort filmpje met het weinige materiaal dat ik van Pristina heb....

published: 17 Apr 2011

author: Erik Hormes

Pristina

published: 13 Oct 2010

author: DesperadoMusic

Pristina - Belgrade

published: 08 Aug 2012

author: nuntius film

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photo: AP / Reed Saxon

FILE - In this March 8, 2012 file photo, Mexican-American singer and reality TV star Jenni Rivera poses during an interview in Los Angeles.

Singer feared dead in Mexico plane crash

Al Jazeera

10 Dec 2012

The wreckage of a small plane believed to be carrying Mexican-American singing superstar Jenni Rivera has been found in northern Mexico and there are no apparent survivors, authorities said. Transportation and Communications Minister Gerardo Ruiz Esparza said on Sunday that "everything points toward" it being the US-registered Learjet 25 carrying Rivera and six other people from Monterrey en route to Toluca, Mexico ... 192 Source . ... Share ... ....(size: 17.5Kb)

photo: USAF / Staff Sgt. Jonathan Lovelady

U.S. Army Staff Sgt. James Bates, a security force squad leader with the Farah Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT), provides security at a landing zone as his team prepares to disembark a CH-47 Chinook helicopter Sept. 26, 2012, in Pur Chaman district, Farah province, Afghanistan. The Farah PRT was composed of Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen whose mission was to provide security, support local governments and monitor reconstruction efforts throughout the province.

Are U.S. Wars and Politics Primitive?

WorldNews.com

10 Dec 2012

Article by WN.com Correspondent Dallas Darling. In the desert of central Australia still resides a primitive tribe known as the Arunta. This non-technological and stateless group, which mainly depends on hunting and gathering, had suffered several inexplicable deaths ... Therefore, they organized an atinga, or revenge group ... When the guiltless tribe learned of their approach, they sent out a delegation of young women as a token of peace....(size: 5.8Kb)

photo: AP / Bullit Marquez

Soldiers unload another victim of typhoon Bopha as retrieval operations continue at the hardest hit New Bataan township, Compostela Valley in southern Philippines Sunday Dec. 9, 2012. The number of missing in the wake of a typhoon that devastated parts of the southern Philippines has jumped to nearly 900 after families and fishing companies reported losing contact with more than 300 fishermen in the South China Sea and Pacific Ocean, officials said Sunday.

Typhoon ‘Pablo’ toll: 714 confirmed dead, 890 missing

The Daily Tribune

11 Dec 2012

The death toll brought about by typhoon “Pablo” continued to rise with 714 persons confirmed dead by the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) yesterday while those missing ballooned to 890 as massive search, retrieval and relief operations continue in the typhoon-ravaged areas in Mindanao ... 4 ... They were subsequently brought to Caraga Regional Hospital ... (NHMFC) (P100,000) ... With AFP ....(size: 5.4Kb)

photo: AP / Todd Williamson

Jenni Rivera attends a press conference on Friday, Aug. 24, 2012, in Woodland Hills, California.

Lamentan muerte de Jenni Rivera

Yahoo Daily News

10 Dec 2012

MÉXICO, D.F., diciembre 9 (EL UNIVERSAL).- La Voz México, programa de talentos de Televisa, confirmó la muerte de la cantante Jenni Rivera, a través de su Twitter. "Que toquen fuerte las bandas, suelten por mí mariposas, apláudanme con sus palmas... http.//twitpic.com/bkmhl0 .Descanse en paz Jenni Rivera" ... Además, anunció un homenaje luctuoso dedicado a la cantante ... Descanse en Paz" ... ....(size: 2.1Kb)

photo: UN / Eric Kanalstein

File - In Herat, Afghanistan, women line up to collect bags of split chick pea, wheat, and cooking oil being distributed by the UN World Food Programme (WFP), 29 June, 2012.

'Long way to go' on justice for Afghan women - UN

BBC News

11 Dec 2012

Afghan women victims of violence are still being failed by the justice system, according to a new UN report. Although there had been some progress in implementing a 2009 anti-violence law, overall use of the law "remained low", the report says. Cultural pressures and inconsistent police practices are hampering implementation of the law, it added ... 'Tip of the iceberg' ... Afghan victims of sexual abuse rarely speak out ... ....(size: 2.5Kb)

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That Crush at Kosovo’s Business Door? The Return of U.S. Heroes

The New York Times

12 Dec 2012

PRISTINA, Kosovo — Prime Minister Hashim Thaci is in a bind. His country’s largest and most lucrative enterprise, the state telecommunications company, is up for sale ... Twitter List ... A Bill Clinton statue on Bill Clinton Boulevard in Pristina reflects Kosovo’s fondness for America and its influence there ... Albright ... Pristina, the capital, may be the only city in the world where Bob Dole Street intersects Bill Clinton Boulevard ... ....(size: 9.7Kb)

IHT Quick Read: Dec. 12

The New York Times

12 Dec 2012

By INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE. NEWS North Korea launched a long-range rocket on Wednesday morning that appeared to reach as far as the Philippines, an apparent success for the country’s young and untested new leader, Kim Jong-un, and a step toward the nation’s goal of mastering the technology needed to build an intercontinental ballistic missile ... Sanger from Washington ... Matthew Brunwasser reports from Pristina, Kosovo ... ....(size: 2.6Kb)

Foreign Minister Avramopoulos at the EU Foreign Affairs Council Date: Monday, 10 December 2012 (Prime Minister of the Hellenic Republic)

noodls

11 Dec 2012

(Source. Prime Minister of the Hellenic Republic). Foreign Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos participated today in the EU Foreign Affairs Council (FAC) in Brussels ... Within the framework of the luncheon, the Foreign Ministers met with the head of the Syrian Opposition Coalition, Mr. Al Khatib. The FAC afternoon session looked at developments in Egypt and Libya, and the Belgrade-Pristina talks ... Mr ... Regarding developments in Syria, Mr ... (noodl....(size: 3.8Kb)

Serbia, Kosovo implement joint border controls

Deutsche Welle

10 Dec 2012

Serbia and Kosovo have opened jointly supervised border crossings. This is seen as a step towards normalizing relations- something the two sides need to do if they are to achieve their aspirations of entering the EU ... An 'extraordinary step' ... 'A good outlook for Kosovo' ... An attempt by the Pristina authorities to take control of the Kosovo side of the crossings in July of last year sparked a series of violent clashes with ethnic Serbs ... ....(size: 2.9Kb)

Remarks by High Representative Catherine Ashton following the Foreign Affairs Council, Brussels, 10 December 2012 (Council of the European Union)

noodls

10 Dec 2012

(Source. Council of the European Union). EUROPEAN UNION Brussels, 10 December 2012. A 567/12. Remarks by High Representative Catherine Ashton following the. Foreign Affairs Council, Brussels, 10 December 2012 ... We have made consistently our demands for the end to this unacceptable violence ... EN ... I debriefed the ministers on the state of play in the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina following the three high level meetings I have hosted ... 2....(size: 5.4Kb)

Foreign Minister Avramopoulos to participate in the EU Foreign Affairs and General Affairs Councils (Prime Minister of the Hellenic Republic)

noodls

09 Dec 2012

(Source. Prime Minister of the Hellenic Republic) ... On Monday, 10 December, Mr ... The afternoon session of the FAC will look at Southern Neighbourhood issues, with the focus on developments in Syria, Egypt, and Libya; developments in the Western Balkans, with emphasis on the Belgrade-Pristina talks; and EU-U.S. relations ... distributed by ... (noodl. 16895514) ....(size: 2.2Kb)

Kosovo and Serbia agree to joint controls at border

Irish Times

06 Dec 2012

Serb protesters burned EU and Kosovo flags after the acquittal of Ramush Haradinaj and two other ex-guerrillas, a ruling Serb president Tomislav Nikolic said would “annul efforts made so far towards normalising relations between Belgrade and Pristina and increase Euro-scepticism among the Serbian people.” ... between Belgrade and Pristina....(size: 3.6Kb)

Briefing of diplomatic correspondents by Foreign Ministry spokesman Gregory Delavekouras (Prime Minister of the Hellenic Republic)

noodls

06 Dec 2012

Then, at the afternoon meeting, they will discuss developments in the Western Balkans, with emphasis on the political situation in Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Belgrade-Pristina talks, the Southern Neighbourhood - with the focus on Syria - EU-Russian relations and EU-U.S ... Beyond that, regarding Kosovo, which you mentioned, the Belgrade-Pristina talks ......(size: 12.5Kb)

A specter is haunting the Balkans: the specter of corruption

Foreign Policy

06 Dec 2012

Transparency International's annual Corruption Perception Index (CPI) has become one of the most important barometers of good governance around the world. There are a lot of interesting stories buried within the latest CPI, which has just been released. One of them involves the Balkans ... Pristina did manage to improve a bit, rising from 112th in 2011 to 105th place in 2012, but that still leaves it as the second worst in the region ... ....(size: 6.0Kb)

Speech by Catherine Ashton at the OSCE Ministerial Council (European Commission)

noodls

06 Dec 2012

EUROPEAN UNION Dublin, 6 December 2012. A 563/12. Mr. Chairman,. Speech by High Representative Catherine Ashton at the OSCE Ministerial Council. Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,. It is a great pleasure to be here in Dublin ... P R E S S. FOR FURTHER DETAILS. ... www.eeas.europa.eu. EN ... I am personally committed to facilitating the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina to normalise their relations in order to secure the European future of both ... 2....(size: 8.2Kb)

Foreign Affairs Council and General Affairs Council (FCO - UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office)

noodls

06 Dec 2012

06 December 2012 ... Foreign Office Minister David Lidington said. ... . Foreign Affairs Council. EU-Russia Summit ... Western Balkans ... EU-US ... ... I will argue for Council conclusions that underline that Serbia still needs to make real progress to deliver a "visible and sustainable improvement" in its relations with Pristina before accession negotiations can be opened, while noting that this remains in reach if recent progress continues....(size: 14.9Kb)

Foreign Affairs Council and General Affairs Council (British Prime Minister's Office)

noodls

06 Dec 2012

Serbia's Nato envoy 'commits suicide'

The Times of India

05 Dec 2012

BELGRADE. Serbia's ambassador to Nato committed suicide by jumping from a multi-storey car park at Brussels airport on Tuesday, local media reported ... Nato expressed regret at the news. Nato head Anders Fogh Rasmussen "is deeply saddened by the tragic death of the Serbian ambassador ... Nato forces help to keep the peace between Kosovo and Serbia which refuses to recognise Pristina's 2008 declaration of independence. ....(size: 2.0Kb)

timeline:
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"Prishtina" redirects here. For the Albanian politician, see Hasan Prishtina.

Pristina
— Municipality and City —
Pristina Prishtina / Prishtinë Приштина / Priština
Pristina Location in Kosovo
Coordinates: 42°40′N 21°10′E / 42.667°N 21.167°E / 42.667; 21.167
Country	Kosovo^[a]
District	District of Pristina
Area
• Municipality and City	854 km² (330 sq mi)
Elevation	652 m (2,139 ft)
Population (2011)
• Municipality and City	198,214
• Density	230/km² (600/sq mi)
• Metro	465,186 (2,011 Census)
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
Area code(s)	+381 38
Website	Municipality of Pristina (Albanian)

Pristina, also spelled Prishtina listen (help·info) and Priština (Albanian: Prishtinë or Prishtina, Serbian: Приштина or Priština; Turkish: Priştine) is the capital and largest city of Kosovo.^[a] It is the administrative centre of the homonymous municipality and district.

Preliminary results of the 2011 census put the population of Pristina at 198,000.^[1] The city has a majority Albanian population, alongside other smaller communities including Bosniaks, Roma and others. It is the administrative, educational, and cultural centre of Kosovo. The city is home to the University of Pristina and is served by the Pristina International Airport.

Name [link]

The name of the city is derived from a Slavic form *Prišьčь, a possessive adjective from the personal name *Prišьkъ, (preserved in the Kajkavian surname Prišek, in the Old Polish personal name Przyszek, and in the Polish surname Przyszek) and the derivational suffix -ina 'belonging to X and his kin'.^{[citation needed]} The name is most likely a patronymic of the personal name *Prišь, preserved as a surname in Polish Przysz and Sorbian Priš, a hypocoristic of the Slavic personal name Pribyslavъ.^[2] A false etymology^{[citation needed]} connects the name Priština with Serbo-Croatian prišt (пришт), meaning 'ulcer' or 'tumour', referring to its 'boiling'.^[3] However, this explanation cannot be correct, as Slavic place names ending in -ina corresponding to an adjective and/or name of an inhabitant lacking this suffix are built from personal names or denote a person and never derive, in these conditions, from common nouns (SNOJ 2007: loc. cit.). The inhabitants of this city call themselves Prishtinali in local Gheg Albanian or Prištevci (Приштевци) in the local Serbian dialect.

Geography [link]

Pristina is located at the geographical coordinates 42° 40' 0" North and 21° 10' 0" East and covers 572 square kilometres (221 sq mi). It lies in the north-eastern part of Kosovo close to the Goljak mountains. From Pristina there is a good view of the Šar Mountains which lie several kilometres away in the south of Kosovo. Pristina is located beside two large towns, Obilić and Kosovo Polje. In fact Pristina has grown so much these past years that it has connected with Kosovo Polje. Lake Badovac is just a few kilometres to the south of the city.

There is no river passing through the city of Pristina now but there was one that passed through the centre. The river flows through underground tunnels and is let out into the surface when it passes the city. The reason for covering the river was because the river passed by the local market and everyone dumped their waste there. This caused an awful smell and the river had to be covered.^{[citation needed]}

The river now only flows through Pristina's suburbs in the north and in the south.

Climate [link]

Pristina has an oceanic climate (Cfb in the Köppen classification), with an obvious continental influence. The city features (very) warm summers and relatively cold, often snowy winters.

Climate data for Pristina
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Average high °C (°F)	3 (37)	6 (43)	11 (52)	15 (59)	21 (70)	25 (77)	27 (81)	28 (82)	22 (72)	17 (63)	10 (50)	4 (39)	15.8 (60.4)
Average low °C (°F)	−5 (23)	−3 (27)	0 (32)	4 (39)	9 (48)	12 (54)	14 (57)	14 (57)	10 (50)	6 (43)	1 (34)	−3 (27)	4.9 (40.9)
Avg. rainy days	6	4	7	13	13	8	7	7	8	8	9	7	97
Source: Weather2 ^[4]

Panorama [link]

Panorama of Pristina

History [link]

Early history [link]

Pristina, end of the 19th century

In Roman times, a large town called Ulpiana existed 15 kilometers (9.3 mi) to the south of modern-day Pristina. This city was destroyed but was restored by the Emperor Justinian I. Today the town of Lipljan stands on the site of the Roman city, and remains of the old city can still be seen.

After the fall of Rome, Pristina grew from the ruins of the former Roman city. The city was located at a junction of roads leading in all directions throughout the Balkans and it soon rose to become an important trading centre on the main trade routes across south-eastern Europe.

Pristina came to great importance in the medieval Serbian state, and served as the capital of King Milutin (1282–1321) and other Serbian rulers from the Nemanjić and Branković dynasties until the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, when an invading Ottoman army decisively defeated the Balkans coalition army. In the following decades the area gradually came under Ottoman control, with an Ottoman law-court established in 1423. The whole of Serbia was subsequently conquered by the Ottoman Empire in 1459.

Kosovar Government Central Building (Formerly a bank, damaged in the 1999 war, now fully renovated)

Pjetër Bogdani, an original writer of early Albanian literature, spent the last three years of his life in Kosovo and from March 1686 he promoted resistance to the armies of the Ottoman Empire. At the same time the Great Serb exodus started; tens of thousands of Kosovo Serb families withdrew from Kosovo to the Habsburg Empire, led by their patriarch Arsenije III Carnojevic and the Habsburg army.^[5]^[5] The demographic balance slowly shifted in favour of Albanians.^[6]

During the Ottoman Empire, Pristina became increasingly Ottoman in character following the conversion to Islam of many of its inhabitants, both Albanians and Slavs.

From the 1870s onwards Albanians in the region formed the League of Prizren to resist Ottoman rule, and a provisional government was formed in 1881. On the other hand Serbia tried to enlist the support of Albanians against the Ottomans but this came to nothing, as Albanian Mujahidin were encouraging a policy akin to ethnic cleansing.^[7] This increased the number of Kosovo Serbs emigrating from Kosovo, while for their part, Albanians from Albania migrated from the infertile lands of northern Albania to take advantage of the fertile lands of Kosovo.^[8]

Balkan Wars [link]

The First Balkan War erupted in 1912 and the Albanians, with Serbian assistance, launched a rebellion against Ottoman rule.^[9] By September, all of Kosovo and central and southern Albania were in rebel hands, but the Ottoman rulers persuaded the Albanians to abandon their uprising by promising reforms.^[10] The invasion of Kosovo by the Kingdoms of Serbia and Montenegro saw the expulsion of many Albanians, while the same number of Serbs fled from Albanian mercenaries who exacted vengeance.^[11] After the Serbian Army took the city of Pristina in October 1912, the retaliation against the civilian population was fierce.^[12] Austro-Hungarian news-reports claimed that immediately upon entering the city, the Serbian Army began "hunting" Albanians, causing bloodshed and "literally decimating" Pristina's population.^[13] The number of Kosovo Albanians of Pristina that were killed in the early days of Serbian rule is estimated to be approximately 5,000.^[12]^[14]

The occupation of Kosovo and Albania by Serbia's Army ensued, but the Kingdom of Serbia had to concede independence to Albania as a result of the conference of ambassadors in London in 1913, while it was agreed that Kosovo should remain within its territory.^[15] In 1918, Kosovo became a part of the newly formed Yugoslavia, though without any of the autonomy that the region later enjoyed.

World War II [link]

Before World War II, Pristina was an ethnically mixed town with large communities of Albanians and Serbs. However, a mass series of both ethnic cleansing and genocide perpetrated by ethnic Albanians backed by the Nazis swung this largely in the Albanian's favour.^[16]^[17]

Pristina after World War II [link]

National Public Library

In 1946, Pristina became the capital of the Socialist Autonomous Region of Kosovo. Between 1953 and 1999, the population increased from around 24,000 to over 300,000. All of the national communities of the city increased over this period, but the greatest increase was among the Albanian population, a large number of whom had moved from mountain areas to settle in the city. The Albanian population increased from around 9,000 in 1953 to nearly 76,000 in 1981. The Serbian and Montenegrin population increased too but by a far more modest number, from just under 8,000 in 1953 to around 21,000 by 1981. By the start of the 1980s, Albanians constituted over 70% of the city's population.

Although Kosovo was under the rule of local Albanian members of the Communist Party, economic decline and political instability in the late 1960s and at the start of the 1980s led to outbreaks of nationalist unrest. In November 1968, student demonstrations and riots in Belgrade spread to Pristina, but were put down by the Yugoslav security forces. Some of the demands of the students were nonetheless met by the Tito government, including the establishment in 1970 of the University of Pristina as an independent institution. This ended a long period when the institution had been run as an outpost of Belgrade University and gave a major boost to Albanian-language education and culture in Kosovo. The Albanians were also allowed to use the Albanian flag.

In March 1981, students at Pristina University rioted over poor food in their university canteen. This seemingly trivial dispute rapidly spread throughout Kosovo and took on the character of a national revolt, with massive popular demonstrations in Pristina and other Kosovo towns. The Communist Yugoslav presidency quelled the disturbances by sending in riot police and the army and proclaiming a state of emergency, with several people being killed in clashes and thousands subsequently being imprisoned or disciplined.

Pristina in the Kosovo War and afterwards [link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

The neutrality of this article is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved. (October 2011)

File:Grand Hotel.jpg

Grand Hotel

Following the reduction of Kosovo's autonomy by Serbian President Slobodan Milošević in 1989, a harshly repressive regime was imposed throughout Kosovo by the Serbian government with Albanians largely being purged from state industries and institutions.^{[citation needed]} The University of Pristina was seen as a hotbed of Albanian nationalism and was duly purged: 800 lecturers were sacked and 22,500 of the 23,000 students expelled.^{[citation needed]} In response, the Kosovo Albanians set up a "shadow government" under the authority of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), led by the writer Ibrahim Rugova. Although the city was formally controlled by Serbs appointed by the Milošević government, the LDK established parallel structures, funded by private contributions, to provide free services such as health care and education that were largely denied to the Albanian population.

File:Prishtina snapshot.png

View of the city

The LDK's role meant, that when the Kosovo Liberation Army began to attack Serbian and Yugoslav forces from 1996 onwards, Pristina remained largely calm until the outbreak of the Kosovo War in March 1999. The city was placed under a state of emergency at the end of March and large areas were sealed off.^{[citation needed]} After NATO began air strikes against Yugoslavia on March 24, 1999, widespread violence broke out in Pristina. Serbian and Yugoslav forces shelled several districts and, in conjunction with paramilitaries, conducted large-scale expulsions of ethnic Albanians accompanied by widespread looting and destruction of Albanian properties. Many of those expelled were directed onto trains apparently brought to Pristina's main station for the express purpose of deporting them to the border of the Republic of Macedonia, where they were forced into exile. The United States Department of State estimated in May 1999 that between 100,000–120,000 people had been driven out of Pristina by government forces and paramilitaries.^{[citation needed]}

On, or about, 1 April 1999, Serbian police went to the homes of Kosovo Albanians in the city of Pristina/Prishtinë and forced the residents to leave in a matter of minutes. During the course of Operation Horseshoe, a number of people were killed. Many of those forced from their homes went directly to the train station, while others sought shelter in nearby neighbourhoods. Hundreds of ethnic Albanians, guided by Serb police at all the intersections, gathered at the train station and then were loaded onto overcrowded trains or buses after a long wait where no food or water was provided. Those on the trains went as far as Đeneral Janković, a village near the Macedonian border. During the train ride many people had their identification papers taken from them.^[18]

— War Crimes Indictment against Milošević and others

Several strategic targets in Pristina were attacked by NATO during the war, but serious physical damage appears to have largely been restricted to a few specific neighbourhoods shelled by Yugoslav security forces. At the end of the war, most of the city's 40,000^[19] Serbs fled. The few who remained were subjected to harassment and violence in revenge attacks by gangs of Albanian thugs, which reduced Pristina's Serb population even further. Other national groups accused by the Albanians of collaboration with the Serbian war effort–notably the Roma– were also driven out. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, by August 1999 fewer than 2,000 Serbs were left in the city. The number reportedly fell even further after the March 2004 unrest in Kosovo.

Economy [link]

The number of registered businesses in Pristina is currently at 8,725, with a total of 75,089 employees^{[citation needed]}. The exact number of businesses is unknown because not all are registered. Since independence the Mayor of Pristina, Isa Mustafa has built many new roads in Pristina. Also he has plans to construct a ring road around the city.^[20] The national government is taking part in modernising the roadways as well, building motorways to Uroševac and other cities^{[citation needed]}. An Albanian millionaire in Croatia is building the largest building in the Balkans with a projected height of up to 262 metres (860 ft) and capacity to hold 20,000 people. The cost for this is 400 million Euro.^[21] The Lakriste area is designated by Municipality as high-rise area with many complex building. The buildings such as ENK, World Trade Centre, Hysi and AXIS towers are being constructed in an area which previously served as an industrial zone.^[22]

Limak Holding and French firm Aéroport de Lyon won the concession tender for Pristina International Airport. Two companies pledged investment of 140 million euros by 2012.^[23]

Places around Pristina [link]

Name	Description	Picture
New Born	The Newborn Obelisk inaugurated for Kosovo's Independence on the 17/02/2008.
Rilindja Tower	The building of the former "Rilindja" newspaper, also the tallest in Pristina.
UNMIK Headquarters	United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo Headquarters
Mother Teresa Boulevard	The Mother Teresa Boulevard.
The Ministry of Culture	The Ministry of Culture
OSCE Building	OSCE Building
The museum of Kosovo	The Kosovo Museum has an extensive collection of archaeological and ethnological artifacts, including the Neolithic Goddess on the Throne terracotta, unearthed near Pristina in 1960^[24]
City Stadium	Home to football club, KF Prishtina

Culture [link]

The Museum of Kosovo is located in an Austro-Hungarian inspired building originally built for the regional administration of the Ottoman Vilayet of Kosovo. From 1945 until 1975 it served as headquarters for the Yugoslav National Army. In 1963 it was sold to the Kosovo Museum. From 1999 until 2002, the European Agency for Reconstruction had its main office in the museum building.

The Kosovo Museum has an extensive collection of archaeological and ethnological artifacts, including the Neolithic Goddess on the Throne terracotta, unearthed near Pristina in 1960^[24] and depicted in the city's emblem. Although a large number of artifacts from antiquity is still in Belgrade, even though the museum was looted in 1999.

The Clock Tower (Sahat Kulla) dates back to the 19th century. Following a fire, the tower has been reconstructed using bricks. The original bell was brought to Kosovo from Moldavia. It bore an inscription reading "this bell was made in 1764 for Jon Moldova Rumen." In 2001, the original bell was stolen. The same year, French KFOR troops replaced the old clock mechanism with an electric one. Given Kosovo's electricity problems the tower is struggling to keep time.

Environment [link]

The neutrality of this article is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved. (March 2011)

View from city center

Pristina City Park

City Park was a badly managed, and was the only real green place in Pristina.^{[citation needed]} Three markets (one of them very large) used to be a hotspot for dumping waste and other materials on the roads.^{[citation needed]}

After the war of 1999, Pristina has changed dramatically.^{[citation needed]} City Park has been fully changed.^{[citation needed]} It now has stone pathways, tall trees, flowers have been planted and a public area has been built for children.^{[citation needed]} The much larger Gërmia Park, located to the east of the city is the best place for a family to go and relax. Restaurants, small paths for people to have a run and a large outdoor swimming pool, basketball and volleyball court have been built for the pleasure of the citizens. Lately a new green place called Tauk Bashqe has been made half way between Gërmia and City Park.^{[citation needed]}

After the construction of the new Mother Teresa Square, many trees and flowers have been planted. This had a big impact on the city because of the trees releasing oxygen in the air. Many old buildings in front of the government building have been cleared to provide open space.^{[citation needed]}

Education [link]

Universities [link]

Sport [link]

Basketball has been, since 2000, one of the most popular sports in Pristina. In this sport Pristina is represented in the Basketball National League by two teams. Streetball Kosova is a traditionally organized sport and cultural event in Germia Lake in Pristina, since Year 2000, too. Football is also very popular. Pristina's representatives KF Prishtina play their home games in the city's stadium.

Handball is also very popular. Pristina's representatives are recognised internationally and play international matches.

Demographics [link]

Ottoman Empire [link]

The Ottomans started conducting census surveys in Rumelia in 1486. Approximate populations reported were:

1486: 392 families
1487: 412 Christian households and 94 Muslim households
1569: 692 families
1669: 2,060 families
1685: 3,000 families
1689: 4,000 families

From 1850, surveys were conducted in the Vilayet of Kosovo. Populations reported were:

1850: 12,000 citizens, in 3,000 families
1902: 18,000 citizens, in 3,760 families

Serbia and Kingdom of Yugoslavia [link]

The 1921 official population census conducted by the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes listed 14,338 citizens.
The 1931 official population census organised by the Kingdom of Yugoslavia listed 18,358 inhabitants by mother languages:

Turkish – 7,573 (41%)
Serbian – 5,738 (31%)
Albanian – 2,351 (13%)
other languages (Romani, Circassian etc.) – 2,651 (14%)

Socialist Yugoslavia [link]

The 1948 official population census of the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija organised by the government of the People's Republic of Serbia under the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia government recorded 19,631 citizens in 4,667 families.

The 1953 official population census of the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija organised by the government of Serbia under the Yugoslav government recorded 24,229 citizens:

9,034 Albanians (37%)
7,951 Serbs and Montenegrins (33%)
4,726 Turks (20%)
2,518 Roma and others (10%)

The 1971 official population census of the Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo organised by the government of the Socialist Republic of Serbia under the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia government 69,514 citizens in 14,813 families:

96,00 Serbs and Montenegrins (28%)
4,00 Roma (6%)

The 1981 official population census of the Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo organised by the government of the Socialist Republic of Serbia under the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia government 108,083 citizens in 21,017 families:

75,803 Albanians (70%)
21,067 Serbs and Montenegrins (19%)
5,101 Roma (5%)
2,504 Muslims (2%)

According to the last census in 1991 (boycotted by the Albanian majority), the population of the Pristina municipality was 199,654, including 77.63% Albanians, 15.43% Serbs and Montenegrins, 1.72% Muslims by nationality, and others.^[25] This census cannot be considered accurate as it is based on previous records and estimates.

In 2004 it was estimated that the population exceeded half a million, and that Albanians form around 98% of it. The Serbian population in the city has fallen significantly since 1999, many of the city's Serbs having fled or been expelled following the end of the war. In early 1999 Pristina had about 230,000 inhabitants. There were more than 40,000 Serbs and about 6,500 Romas with the remainder being Albanians.

Year	Albanians	%	Serbs	%	Roma	%	Others²	%	Total
Ethnic Composition, Including IDPs¹
1991 census³	161,314	78.7	27,293	13.3	6,625	3.2	9,861	4.8	205,093
1998⁴	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	225,388
February 2000 estimate⁵	550,000	97.4	12,000	2.2	1,000	0.1	1,800	0.3	564,800
Source: OSCE Priština municipal profilePDF (511 KB), June 2006, page 2 (Table 1.1). 1. IDP: Internally displaced person. 2. Others include Montenegrins, Muslim Slavs, Turks, etc. 3. 1991 figures from Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) Institute for Statistics. It is noted that the 1991 census was highly politicised and is thus unreliable. 4. 1999 figures from UNHCR, "Kosovo Village List", 9 March 1999 (1998 population estimate excluding forced displacement). 5. 2001 figures from KFOR – MNB (c) and for minority figures OSCE/UNHCR ‘Situation of Ethnic Minorities in Kosovo’, February 2001.

International relations [link]

Twin towns — Sister cities [link]

Pristina is twinned with: Ankara, Turkey. Bursa, Turkey.^[26] Durrës, Albania. Tirana, Albania.^[27]^[28] Karachi, Pakistan.

Notes and references [link]

Notes:

^ ^a ^b Kosovo is the subject of a territorial dispute between the Republic of Serbia and the self-proclaimed Republic of Kosovo. The latter declared independence on 17 February 2008, while Serbia claims it as part of its own sovereign territory. Its independence is recognised by 91 UN member states.

References:

^ Official gov't census: http://esk.rks-gov.net/rekos2011/repository/docs/REKOS%20LEAFLET%20ALB%20FINAL.pdf
^ SNOJ, Marko. 2007. Origjina e emrit të vendit Prishtinë. In: BOKSHI, Besim (ed.). Studime filologjike shqiptare: konferencë shkencore, 21–22 nëntor 2007. Prishtinë: Akademia e Shkencave dhe e Arteve e Kosovës, 2008, pp. 277–281.
^ This etymology is mentioned in ROOM, Adrian: Placenames of the World, Second Edition, McFarland, 2006, page 304. ISBN 0-7864-2248-3
^ "Climate profile for Pristina | Holiday and Travel". MyWeather2.com. http://www.myweather2.com/City-Town/Serbia-And-Montenegro/Pristina/climate-profile.aspx. Retrieved 2011-06-03.
^ ^a ^b Serbia: the history behind the name. Books.google.com. http://books.google.com/books?id=0_3Wt46vBv8C&pg=PA20&lpg=PA20&dq=serb+migrations+emperor+leopold&source=bl&ots=9pUqtVbDhw&sig=ROm-TTMNu9bLWuN_8y9dSVFNwwE&hl=en&ei=zXxIS8TbFpyOnQPH8bWFCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CBEQ6AEwBDgK#v=onepage&q&f=false. Retrieved 2011-06-03.
^ Silber, Laura. "Kosovo: A Short History (9780060977757): Noel Malcolm, University Pres New York: Books". Amazon.com. http://www.amazon.com/dp/0060977752. Retrieved 2011-06-03.
^ "Kosovo: a history of clashing empires". Pubs.socialistreviewindex.org.uk. http://pubs.socialistreviewindex.org.uk/sr230/sagall.htm. Retrieved 2012-03-12.
^ "Kosovo: a history of clashing empires". Pubs.socialistreviewindex.org.uk. http://pubs.socialistreviewindex.org.uk/sr230/sagall.htm. Retrieved 2012-03-12.
^ "Kosovo: a history of clashing empires". Pubs.socialistreviewindex.org.uk. http://pubs.socialistreviewindex.org.uk/sr230/sagall.htm. Retrieved 2012-03-12.
^ "Kosovo: a history of clashing empires". Pubs.socialistreviewindex.org.uk. http://pubs.socialistreviewindex.org.uk/sr230/sagall.htm. Retrieved 2012-03-12.
^ "Kosovo: a history of clashing empires". Pubs.socialistreviewindex.org.uk. http://pubs.socialistreviewindex.org.uk/sr230/sagall.htm. Retrieved 2012-03-12.
^ ^a ^b "Archbishop Lazër Mjeda: Report on the Serb Invasion of Kosova and Macedonia". Albanianhistory.net. http://www.albanianhistory.net/texts20_1/AH1913_6.html. Retrieved 2010-07-04.
^ "Leo Freundlich: Albania's Golgotha". Albanianhistory.net. http://www.albanianhistory.net/texts20_1/AH1913_1.html. Retrieved 2010-07-04.
^ "The New York Times, 31. December 1912". New York Times. 1912-12-31. http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=2&res=9D0CEEDA1E3AE633A25752C3A9649D946396D6CF&oref=slogin. Retrieved 2010-07-04.
^ "Kosovo: what everyone needs to know - Tim Judah - Google Books". Books.google.com. http://books.google.com/books?id=M2IbzZcAnUUC&pg=PP39&lpg=PP39&dq=conference+of+ambassadors+london+kosovo&source=bl&ots=GzVZUAIJoh&sig=TQ9xKRRxVuiXomUrLtFsikhYfPw&hl=en&ei=eJXXTrDWJNCcOs6V1a4O&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CGwQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=conference%20of%20ambassadors%20london%20kosovo&f=false. Retrieved 2012-03-12.
^ Dragutin Mladich. "Carl Kosta Savich: Albanian Skenderbeg SS Division". Guskova.ru. http://www.guskova.ru/~mladich/Kosmet/skenderbeg. Retrieved 2011-06-03.
^ "Skenderbey SS Division". Kosovo.net. http://www.kosovo.net/skenderbeyss.html. Retrieved 2011-06-03.
^ "Indictment against Milosevic and others". Americanradioworks.publicradio.org. http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/kosovo/more2.htm. Retrieved 2010-07-04.
^ "EuroNews Serbs in Kosovo vote in Gracanica and Mitrovica published February 3, 2008 accessed February 3, 2008". Euronews.net. http://www.euronews.net/index.php?article=468126&lng=1&option=1. Retrieved 2010-07-04.
^ Komuna e Prishtinës: Investime të mëdha në infrastrukturë
^ Macedonia participates in large Kosovo investment
^ New Kosova Report: Record setting skyscraper to go up in Pristina
^ Todays Zaman: Kosovo to open to world with Turkish-built airport, by Ali Aslan Kiliç, 14 August 2010, Saturday
^ ^a ^b Kosovo contest for state symbols, by Nick Thorpe, BBC, Priština, 4 June 2007. Retrieved on 21 February 2008.
^ Statistic data for the municipality of Priština – grad^{[dead link]}
^ "Turkey's Bursa, Kosovo's Pristina become sister cities" worldbulletin.net 2 September 2010 Link accessed 2 September 2010
^ "Twinning Cities: International Relations" (PDF). Municipality of Tirana. www.tirana.gov.al. http://www.tirana.gov.al/common/images/International%20Relations.pdf. Retrieved 2009-06-23.
^ Twinning Cities: International Relations. Municipality of Tirana. www.tirana.gov.al. Retrieved on 2008-01-25.

External links [link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Pristina

Coordinates: 42°40′N 21°10′E / 42.667°N 21.167°E / 42.667; 21.167

v t e Municipalities of Kosovo

Dečani Dragaš Đakovica Đeneral Janković Glogovac Gnjilane Gračanica Istok Junik Kačanik Klina Klokot-Vrbovac Kosovo Polje Kosovska Kamenica Kosovska Mitrovica Leposavić Lipljan Mališevo Mamuša Novo Brdo Obilić Orahovac Parteš Peć Podujevo Pristina Prizren Ranilug Štimlje Srbica Štrpce Suva Reka Uroševac Vitina Vučitrn Zubin Potok Zvečan

Planned Municipality: North Kosovska Mitrovica

v t e Hero Cities of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia

Beograd Cetinje Drvar Ljubljana Novi Sad Prilep Pristina Zagreb

Historical capitals of Serbia

641–950 Destinikon
950–1276 Ras

1276–1283 Debrc
1283–1430 Belgrade

1300–1345 Prizren
1345–1371 Serres/Skopje
1371–1389 Priština/Kruševac

1430–1453 Smederevo
1526–1527 Subotica

1818–1841 Kragujevac
1849–1860 Temišvar
1914–1915 Kragujevac
1915 Niš

since 1841 Belgrade

Capitals of European states and territories

Capitals of non-sovereign territories or constituent nations shown in SmallCaps

Western	Northern	Central	Southern	Eastern

Amsterdam,⁶ Netherlands Andorra la Vella, Andorra Brussels,⁵ Belgium Douglas, Isle of Man⁴ Dublin, Ireland London, United Kingdom Paris, France Saint Helier, Jersey⁴ Saint Peter Port, Guernsey⁴	Copenhagen,⁷ Denmark Helsinki, Finland Longyearbyen, Svalbard Mariehamn, Åland Islands Oslo, Norway Reykjavík, Iceland Riga, Latvia Stockholm, Sweden Tallinn, Estonia Tórshavn, Faroe Islands Vilnius, Lithuania	Belgrade, Serbia Berlin, Germany Bern, Switzerland Bratislava, Slovakia Bucharest, Romania Budapest, Hungary Chişinău, Moldova Ljubljana, Slovenia Luxembourg, Luxembourg Prague, Czech Republic Vienna, Austria Warsaw, Poland Vaduz, Liechtenstein Zagreb, Croatia	Ankara, Turkey¹ Athens, Greece Gibraltar, Gibraltar⁴ Lisbon, Portugal Madrid, Spain Monaco, Monaco Nicosia, Cyprus² North Nicosia, Northern Cyprus^{2, 3} Podgorica, Montenegro Pristina, Kosovo³ Rome, Italy San Marino, San Marino Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina Skopje, Republic of Macedonia Sofia, Bulgaria Tirana, Albania Valletta, Malta Vatican City, Vatican City	Astana, Kazakhstan¹ Baku, Azerbaijan¹ Kiev, Ukraine Minsk, Belarus Moscow, Russia¹ Stepanakert, Nagorno-Karabakh^{2, 3} Sukhumi, Abkhazia^{2, 3} Tbilisi, Georgia¹ Tiraspol, Transnistria³ Tskhinvali, South Ossetia^{2, 3} Yerevan, Armenia¹

¹ Transcontinental country.
² Entirely in Southwest Asia but having socio-political connections with Europe.
³ Partially recognised country.
⁴ Crown Dependency or Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom.
⁵ Also the seat of the European Union, see Location of European Union institutions and Brussels and the European Union.
⁶ Also the capital of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

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Contents

Name [link]

Geography [link]

Climate [link]

Panorama [link]

History [link]

Early history [link]

Balkan Wars [link]

World War II [link]

Pristina after World War II [link]

Pristina in the Kosovo War and afterwards [link]

Economy [link]

Places around Pristina [link]

Culture [link]

Environment [link]

Education [link]

Universities [link]

Sport [link]

Demographics [link]

Ottoman Empire [link]

Serbia and Kingdom of Yugoslavia [link]

Socialist Yugoslavia [link]

International relations [link]

Twin towns — Sister cities [link]

See also [link]

Notes and references [link]

External links [link]

http://wn.com/Pristina

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