Foça Islands

Foça Islands is an island group in the Bay of Izmir, Turkey, outside the town of Foça. The largest island is Uzunada. The island group includes Fener Ada and Incir Ada.

Foča

Foča (Serbian Cyrillic: Фоча) is a town and a municipality in Bosnia and Herzegovina on the Drina river, in the Republika Srpska entity. Previously it was called Srbinje (Serbian Cyrillic: Србиње).

History

Early history

The town was known as Hotča during medieval times. It was then known as a trading centre on route between Ragusa (now Dubrovnik) and Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey). With Gornje Podrinje Foča was part of the old Serbian State up to 1376, when it was attached to the Bosnian State under the reign of King Tvrtko. After Tvrtko's death the town was ruled by the Hum Dukes among whom the best known was Herzog Stjepan.

Foča was the seat of the Ottoman Sanjak of Herzegovina established in 1483, until 1572, when it was moved to Pljevlja.

World War II

In 1941, the Ustaše killed the leading Serbs in Foča. Between December 1941 and January 1942 over two thousand Bosnian Muslims were killed in Foča by the Chetniks. Additional Chetnik massacres in Foča took place in August 1942. On February 13, 1943, Pavle Đurišić reported to Draža Mihailović the actions undertaken by the Chetniks in the Foča, Pljevlja, and Čajniče districts: "All Muslim villages in the three mentioned districts were totally burned so that not a single home remained in one piece. All property was destroyed except cattle, corn, and senna." Furthermore, "During the operation the total destruction of the Muslim inhabitants was carried out regardless of sex and age." In the operation Chetnik losses "were 22 dead, of which 2 through accidents, and 32 wounded. Among the Muslims, around 1,200 fighters and up to 8,000 other victims: women, old people, and children." Đurišić said what remained of the Muslim population fled and that actions were taken to prevent their return. The municipality is also the site of the legendary Battle of Sutjeska between the Tito's Yugoslav Partisans and the German army. A monument to the Partisans killed in the battle was erected in the village of Tjentište.

Foça

Foça (from Greek: Φώκαια, "Phocaea") is a town and district in Turkey's İzmir Province, on the Aegean coast.

The town of Foça is situated at about 69 km (43 mi) northwest of İzmir's city center. The district also has a township with its own municipality named Yenifoça (literally "New Foça"), also along the shore and at a distance of 20 km (12 mi) from Foça proper. For this reason, Foça itself is locally often called as Eskifoça ("Old Foça") in daily parlance. The ancient city of Phocaea (Greek: Φώκαια) is located between the two modern Foças.

Additionally, Yenifoça, taken over by the Genoese in 1275 as a fief from the Byzantine emperor, was the more active of the two Foças during the Middle Ages, principally due to the region's rich alum reserves (the alum mines of Foça were conceded earlier by the Byzantines, in 1267, to the Genoese brothers Benedetto and Manuele Zaccaria); the Genoese lease over them having been preserved well into the Ottoman era. Another important Byzantine concession to the Genoese through dowry was the nearby island of Lesbos (to the Gattilusio family, as a result of the marriage between Francesco I Gattilusio and Maria Palaiologina, sister of Byzantine emperor John V Palaiologos) in 1355. The possessions of the Gattilusio family eventually grew to include, among others, the islands of Imbros, Samothrace, Lemnos and Thasos, and the city of Aenos (modern Enez in Turkey.) From this position, they were heavily involved in the mining and marketing of alum, useful in textile production and a profitable trade controlled by the Genoese.

Foča (Doboj)

Foča (Cyrillic: Фоча) is a village in the municipality of Doboj, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

References

Coordinates: 44°50′53″N 17°59′43″E / 44.84806°N 17.99528°E / 44.84806; 17.99528