Krushë e Madhe

Krushë e Madhe Velika Kruša
Village
Krushë e Madhe Location in Kosovo
Coordinates: 42.319°N 20.636°E / 42.319; 20.636
Location	Kosovo
District	Gjakova
Municipality	Rahovec
Population  (2011)[1]
• Total	4,473
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+2 (CEST)

Krushë e Madhe (Serbian: Velika Kruša) is a village in the municipality of Rahovec of western Kosovo. With a population of around 7,000, it is the second largest village in Kosovo.[2] During the Kosovo War, the village was a stronghold of the Kosovo Liberation Army.[3] On 25 March 1999, it was the site of a massacre by the Army of Serbia and Montenegro in which 205 Kosovo Albanian civilians were killed.[4]

History

The village Krushë e Madhe was mentioned as 'Gorna Krusha' in the Ottoman register of the Sanjak of Prizren in 1591. The villagers primarily had Islamic names, though there were also Albanian and Slavic names present. The mansions ('Bashtina') listed mostly bore Islamic and 2 Slavic names.[5]

In 1862 Bajram Curri, an Albanian activist from the Highlands of Gjakova was born in Krushë e Madhe while his family was being transferred by the Ottoman authorities from Gjakova to the prison in Prizren.[6]

On March 26, 1999, two days after NATO began bombing the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the village of Krushë e Madhe in Kosovo was the site of a mass killing, during which over 200 ethnic Albanian civilians were executed by Serbian forces.[7]

Notable people

• Ukshin Hoti, Albanian activist and philosopher
• Lumbardh Dellova, Kosovan footballer

References

1. 2011 Kosovo Census results
2. Krusha e Madhe themelon kooperativën bujqësore, Koha.NET - Arkivi. (n.d.).
3. "Case Study: Velika Krusa". BBC News. Retrieved 20 October 2019.
4. Kandić, Nataša (2011-09-30). "The Kosovo Memory Book 1998-2000". Humanitarian Law Center. Retrieved 2021-06-22.
5. Popullsia Shqiptare e Kosoves Gjate Shekujve - page 314-315
6. "A rare photo, Bajram Curri killed at Dragobi cave" (in Albanian)
7. Shefkiu, Arbisa (2022-03-26). "23 vjet nga masakrat në Krushë të Madhe dhe të Vogël" [23 years from the massacres in Krusha e Madhe and Krusha e Vogël]. Kallxo (in Albanian). Prishtinë. Retrieved 2024-01-12.