Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Email
Answers.com

Tuzla

 
Dictionary: Tuz·la   (tūz') pronunciation

A city of northeast Bosnia and Herzegovina northeast of Sarajevo. It is an industrial center with salt springs known since Roman times. Population: 142,000.

 

Search unanswered questions...
Enter a question here...
Search: All sources Community Q&A Reference topics

Town (pop., 2005 est.: 84,100), northeastern Bosnia and Herzegovina. Deposits of rock salt are located nearby; in the 10th century the town was called Soli (meaning "salts"), and its present name is from the Turkish tuz, "salt." It was a Turkish garrison town from 1510 until it passed to the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the 19th century. It was incorporated into Yugoslavia in 1918. It is the centre for a mining region and an agricultural district. It was a target during the war in Bosnia in the 1990s (see Bosnian conflict).

For more information on Tuzla, visit Britannica.com.

 
Tuzla (tūz'), city (1991 pop. 84,244), in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Various fruits are grown in the vicinity, lignite and salt are mined, and some oil is extracted; there is a chemical plant. The city's salt springs were known in Roman times. Tuzla was under Turkish rule from 1463 until its incorporation into Yugoslavia after World War I. After Bosnia declared its independence from Yugoslavia, the city was the scene of fighting but remained under Bosnian government rule.


Wikipedia: Tuzla
Top
Tuzla

Flag

Coat of arms
Location of Tuzla within Bosnia and Herzegovina (darkgreen).
Country  Bosnia and Herzegovina
Canton Tuzla Canton
Government
 - Municipality President Jasmin Imamović (SDP)
Area
 - Total 302 km2 (116.6 sq mi)
Time zone CET (UTC+1)
 - Summer (DST) CEST (UTC+2)
Area code(s) +387 35
Website http://www.tuzla.ba

Tuzla is a city and municipality in Bosnia and Herzegovina. At the time of the 1991 census, it had 131,000 inhabitants. Taking the influx of refugees into account, the city is currently estimated to have 174,558 inhabitants.[1] After Sarajevo, and Banja Luka, Tuzla is the third largest city in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the seat of the Tuzla Canton and Tuzla Municipality. The name "Tuzla" is derived from the Turkish word for salt, and refers to the extensive salt deposits found underneath the city.

Contents

Geography

Tuzla is located in the northeastern part of Bosnia, settled just underneath the Majevica mountain range, on the Jala river. The central zone lies in an east-west oriented plain, with residential areas in the north and south of the city located on the Ilinčica, Kicelj and Gradina hills. The climate is moderate continental.

History

First mentioned in 950 as a county under rule, the town was later referred to by as Soli. Soli means "salts" in the Bosnian and languages and the city's present name means "place of salt" in Turkish. However, there is enough archaeologic evidence to suggest that Tuzla was a rich Neolithic settlement, and hence inhabited continuously for more than 6,000 years which makes Tuzla one of the oldest European settlements with sustained living. An open-air museum at Solni Trg, opened in 2004, tells the story of salt production in Tuzla.

On October 2, 1943, Tuzla became the largest liberated town in Europe to the time.[citation needed] In December of 1944, the city was unsuccessfully attacked by Chetnik forces of Draža Mihailović along with the Serbian Assault Corps.[2][3] After the war it developed into a major industrial and cultural centre during the communist period in former Yugoslavia. In the 1990 elections the Reformists won control of the municipality being the only municipality in Bosnia where non-nationalists won. During the Bosnian war, 1992-1995 the town was the only municipality not governed by nationalist authorities, and was besieged by Serb nationalist forces.

Bosnian War

The town was not spared the atrocities of the Bosnian War. On May 25, 1995, an attack on Tuzla killed 71 people, mostly children and injured 200 persons in Tuzla massacre. The youngest who died in that massacre was only two years old.

Demographics

Demographics in Tuzla municipality:

1971 Census

total: 107,293

1981 Census

total: 121,717

  • 52,400 (43.05%) - Bosniaks
  • 24,811 (20.38%) - Croats
  • 20,261 (16.64%) - Serbs
  • 19,059 (15.65%) - Yugoslavs
  • 5,186 (4.26%) - others and unknown

1991 Census

Retired tuzlaci playing chess, a favorite pastime, in the western residential area of Slatina

total: 131,618

  • 62,669 (47.61%) - Bosniaks
  • 21,995 (16.71%) - Yugoslavs
  • 20,398 (15.49%) - Croats
  • 20,271 (15.40%) - Serbs
  • 6,285 (4,77%) - others and unknown

Town of Tuzla, itself:

total: 83,770

Contemporary Tuzla

Tuzla-Kapija ulica2.jpg

The city has Europe's only salt lake as part of its central park; more than 100,000 people visit its shores every year. One of the most influential writers in the Balkans, Meša Selimović hails from Tuzla. In addition, Tuzla hosts the annual Meša Selimović book festival (in July), where an award for the best novel written in the languages of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Serbia and Montenegro is presented. The first professional theatre in Tuzla, Narodno Pozorište u Tuzli, was founded by the brothers Mihajlo and Živko Crnogorčević in 1944.

Tuzla is the seat of the Tuzla Canton, which is a canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as of Tuzla Municipality, which is one of the 13 municipalities that together constitute the Tuzla Canton. Administratively, Tuzla is divided into 39 mjesne zajednice (local districts).

Apart from Tuzla, the municipality incorporates several other adjacent settlements, including the town of Gornja Tuzla (Upper Tuzla), as well as the villages of Husino, Par Selo, Simin Han, Obodnica, Kamenjaši, Plane, Šići, Slavinovići, and others.

The Mayor of Tuzla Municipality is Jasmin Imamović, a writer and lawyer born in 1957, of the Social Democratic Party of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He was reelected to a second term in 2004.

The City council of Tuzla has 30 members, of the following parties:

The Chairwoman of the City Council, Nada Mladina, is a member of the SDP.

Extractions of the city's salt deposits, particularly in the 20th century, have caused sections of the city center to sink. Structures in the "sinking area" either collapsed or were demolished, and there are few structures in the city that predate the 20th century, despite the fact that the city was founded over 1000 years ago.

Tuzla has an international airport located at Dubrave (IATA code: TZL), and an effective and well developed public bus network. There are plans to introduce a trolleybus network in the city soon.

The airport was opened to civilian aircraft only recently. The airport had comprised a portion of "Eagle Base", an American military base that has been home to NATO troops serving in SFOR, Bosnia's stabilization force.

Several sports teams from Tuzla have participated in international competitions. Almost all of Tuzla's sports teams are named Sloboda, meaning freedom. The most popular sports in Tuzla include football (FK Sloboda); basketball (KK Sloboda), karate (KBS Tuzla-Sinalco) and many others. The women's basketball team Jedinstvo Aida were European club champions in the late eighties, with the most famous sportswoman from Tuzla in their midst - Razija Mujanović. The first and oldest sport in Tuzla is gymnastics.

Tuzla is home to the University of Tuzla, with more than 10,000 students, and also the American University in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

On September 1, 2007, 6980 couples kissed for 10 seconds in Tuzla, Bosnia erasing the previous Guinness World kissing Records of the Philippines and Hungary (for synchronised osculation in 2004 with 5327 Filipino couples, overtaken by Hungary in 2005 with 5875 couples; Filipinos came back in February this year with 6124 couples but the Hungarians responded in June with 6613 couples). The record now awaits official certification.[4]

Tuzla flag

On September 26, 2008, Tuzla began offering free wireless internet access in the city center. [1].

Twin cities

References

External links

Coordinates: 44°32′17″N 18°40′34″E / 44.53806°N 18.67611°E / 44.53806; 18.67611


 
 
Learn More
Kerch Strait (body of water, Ukraine/Russia)
Portrait of a Couple at Century's End (Further Reading) (poem)
Portrait of a Couple at Century's End (Poem Summary) (poem)

How far is Tuzla from Istanbul? Read answer...
Where did the name tuzla come from? Read answer...

Help us answer these
Tuzla osnovne skole solina generacija 1991?

Post a question - any question - to the WikiAnswers community:

 

Copyrights:

Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/ Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Tuzla" Read more