Šuto Orizari (Municipality, Greater Skopje, Macedonia)

Шуто оризари

Last modified: 2005-05-28 by ivan sache
Keywords: suto orizari | skopje | rom |
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by Ivan Sache

• Presentation of Šuto Orizari
• Municipal flag of Šuto Orizari

See also:

• Macedonia
• Macedonia: Municipal flags
• Skopje (Macedonia)

Presentation of Šuto Orizari

Šuto Orizari (40,000 inhabitants), in short form Šutka, is a city part of the Greater Skoplje. It is the only municipality in the world with a Rom administration.

Roms were elected for the first time in the Municipal Council of Skoplje in 1948. A few years later, they founded the sport club, Ekipe (Unity) and the cultural association Phralipe (Fraternity), which organized Rom music, dance and theater shows. The most famous member of Phralipe is Esma Redzepova, wordly renowned as the "Tsigane Queen".
On 26 July 1963, an earthquake destroyed two-thirds of Skoplje. The Roms, who had been living since the XVIIth century in the borough of Topana, all moved to the hillside of Šuto Orizari, close to a garbage dump. They organized there their city, with an administration, shops and a cinema.
In 1996 Šuto Orizari was granted municipal statutes, according to the decentralization law. Romanes was adopted as its official language. Since 1999, more than 4,000 Roms expelled from Kosovo because they allegely supported the Serbs against the Albanians settled in Šutka.

Source: Sébastien Daycard-Heidet and Simon Mazurelle.