Middle Ages It is not known since when this area is called by its current name, however it was first mentioned in the 13th century when the Tsar
Konstantin Tih left the villages in his endowment. The name was mentioned again in 1300, in the charter of
King Milutin in the Church of Saint George in Skopje. After the Ottoman conquest of Skopje, the name was translated into Kara-Dag, which is used until this day. The Kosovar part of the region was turned into a
nahiya by the Ottomans and was named Karatonlu, while the Macedonian part was turned into a
Kaza and was named Karadak. In this period many
Albanian Clans (
vllazni) settled in the region, thus around 8-10% of the Albanian population belonged to the
Berisha tribe, while descendants of the
Krasniqi tribe settled in the villages of
Gošince,
Slupčane,
Alaševce and
Runica. There are also members of the
Mirdita and
Sopi tribes which settled in the region. The Ottoman
defter recorded statistics for the Kaza of Karadak in 1831. There were 4,282 males, of which 2,722 were Muslims, 1452 Christians, and 108
Roma gypsies. The general population is therefore estimated to have consisted of 8,564 people, including 5,444 Muslim Albanians, 2,904 Christians (mainly Albanians and Bulgarians) and 216 Roma gypsies. Following
Tanzimat reforms in 1839 and the sacking of local pashas, Albanians from Skopska Crna Gora and
Šar, led by
Dervish Cara,
revolted in
Aračinovo. In January 1844 the rebels captured
Gostivar and
Tetovo. In February 1844 the rebels attacked and captured the whole region, including the towns of
Skopje,
Kumanovo,
Preševo,
Bujanovac,
Vranje and
Leskovac. A National Council led by Dervish Cara was created, but the revolt was ultimately suppressed by the Ottomans, led by Hayredin Pasha in the summer of 1844. During the mid-1800s, Catholic Albanians were
expelled by Ottoman authorities. During the
Albanian revolt of 1910, Albanian fighters from Skopska Crna Gora under the command of
Idriz Seferi rebelled against the Ottomans and managed to defeat them in the
Battle of Kaçanik. In 1912, the Albanians
rebelled again and managed to capture
Skopje.
Modern history The region became part of the
Kingdom of Serbia after the
First Balkan War. Following this the region became a battleground between the Serbian forces supported by
Chetniks and
Albanian Kachaks under
Idriz Seferi and
Ajet Sopi Bllata as well as the
Macedonian IMRO insurgents. The region was
occupied by the
Kingdom of Bulgaria during the
First World War and became part of the newly established
Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes after it ended. During the
Interwar period many Serb colonizers settled in the region After the
Invasion of Yugoslavia in 1941 the region was given to the
Kingdom of Bulgaria, which resulted in Albanian resistance led by
Mulla Idriz Gjilani. The Karadak Uprising was later mostly quelled by
Bulgaria and the
Yugoslav partisan forces after the
Stracin–Kumanovo and
Kosovo Operation, but low intense fighting under the command of Hasan Ali Remniku continued until 1951. During the
Yugoslav Wars, Serb separatists supported by the
FR Yugoslavia sought to create a Serbian breakaway State named "Karadak republic" in the region. From 1998 to 1999, during the
Kosovo War the "Karadak Operational Zone" (which also included large parts of the
Anamorava region) of the
Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) remained inactive, thus the region saw less fighting than other parts of Kosovo. From 1999 to 2001, during the
insurgency in the Preševo Valley and the
insurgency in Macedonia the Serbian and Macedonian parts of the region became major strongholds of the Albanian insurgent organizations
National Liberation Army (NLA) and
Liberation Army of Preševo, Medveđa and Bujanovac (LAPMB). ==Culture==