Monday, November 22, 2010

Republic Srpska - Мркоњић Град (Mrkonjić Grad)


Images of Mrkonjić Grad.

Sent by Nevena from Mrkonjić Grad in Bosnia Herzegovina.

This is from Wikipedia : Mrkonjić Grad (Cyrillic: Мркоњић Град) is a town and municipality in western Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the Republika Srpska entity. It is located in the Bosanska Krajina, between Banja Luka and Jajce.

The city changed its name several times in history: Gornje Kloke, Novo Jajce (Jenidži Jajce), Varcarev Vakuf, Varcar Vakuf, and ultimately the present one. The last renaming took place in 1924 after King Peter I of Serbia, who had taken the nom de guerre 'Mrkonjić' while fighting as a hajduk in the uprising (1875-1878) against the Ottoman Empire.

In World War II, the city became renowned by the first meeting of ZAVNOBiH on November 25, 1943, when Bosnia and Herzegovina was proclaimed as a common republic of Bosnian Serbs, Bosnian Croats and Bosnian Muslims/Bosniaks.

For the most of Bosnian war the city was in Bosnian Serbs hands, but OSRH (English: Armed Forces of the Republic of Croatia) and HVO (English: Croat Defence Council) units occupied it in 1995 by brutal force of aggression which resulted in civilian casualties on the Serbian side. As a result, a high majority of Serbian population was forced to leave the municipality. The joint Croatian Forces destroyed most of Mrkonjic Grad's infrastructure in an attempt to prevent a return of Serbian population after the war.

After the Dayton peace agreement the city was assigned to the entity of Republika Srpska (English: Republic of Srpska).

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