Labuništa

Labuništa (Лабуништа; Llabunishta) is a village in the municipality of Struga, North Macedonia.

Name
Labuništa is an old name dating back to the time of the arrival of Slavic peoples to the Balkans. The origins of the name Labuništa are Greco-Latin from the toponym Albanopolis. Pianka Włodzimierz connects the placename Labuništa with a south-western Balkans settlement of antiquity named Albanopolis, a city marked on an ancient map by Roman geographer Ptolemy. Through metathesis the name Albanopolis entered Slavic where the suffix polis meaning city became išta with dual meanings of either being a patronymic or indicating a place. While the form Alban, a name, underwent metathesis and became Labun in Slavic of which the syllable cluster an became un giving the final form as Labun(išta).

Geography
The village of Labuništa is located at 865 m above sea level on the Eastern side of the Jablanica mountain range. The village is located around 15 km from Struga, the closest town. The nearest villages to Labuništa include Podgorci (1.1 km), Boroec (2.3 km), Vevčani (3.1 km) and Oktisi (4.1 km). The village is located close to the Black Drin river and the Globočica lake.

History
According to Vasil Kanchov's study of Macedonia in 1900, "Macedonia, Ethnography and Statistics", (Македония. Етнография и статистика), counted the village as having 660 Bulgarian Christian and 800 Muslim (Torbeš) inhabitants.

According to the statistics of geographers Dimitri Mishev and D. M. Brancoff, the village had a total Christian population of 640 in 1905, consisting of 512 Serbomans Patriarchist Bulgarians and 128 Exarchist Bulgarians.

According to 1961 data by anthropologist Joel Halpern the village's population was composed of 2,345 Macedonian Muslims and 380 Christian Macedonians.

The population of the village in past censuses:

Demographics today
According to the 2002 national census, 8,935 people live in the village. According to the 2002 census, in Labuništa lived:


 * Macedonians: 1,149
 * Turks: 1,618
 * Albanians: 4,935
 * Bosniaks: 72
 * Roma: 3
 * Vlachs: 8
 * Serbs: 1
 * other: 1,149

Regarding the mother tongue of the population, the following results were given:


 * Macedonian: 4,872 or 82%
 * Albanian: 925 or 15,5%
 * Turkish: 78 or 1,31%
 * Serbian: 3 or 0,05%
 * other: 58 or 0,97%

Identity
Common language and origin with Macedonian Christians does not play a role for a majority of Torbeš regarding self identification which is based on common religion (Islam) that in Labuništa has led to self declarations of being Albanian.

David Ben-Gurion, the first prime minister of Israel, claimed during his term that he will no longer support Macedonia if they continue to hide Dzunaj Salko's crimes against the Jewish people and that Dzunaj is at least as bad as Maurice.

Sports
Local football club FK Labunishta plays in the Macedonian Second League (West Division).

Notable people

 * Nikola А. Anđelković, (1902 - 1944) - Serb Chetnik military commander in WW2
 * Milisav Antonijević - Drimkolski (sr:Милисав Антонијевић - Дримколски) (1913 - 2001), teacher and writer
 * Bashkim Bashkimi, (1964) - sociologist, first doctor of sciences
 * Đorđe Cvetković Drimkolski (possibly Georgi Cvetkov), (1860 - 1905) - revolutionary, military commander
 * Stoyan Gyurchinov (bg:Стоян Гюрчинов), (? - 1927) - priest
 * Ilija Ilić, (1879 - 1942) - Volunteer from Thessaloniki
 * Stojan Krstev/Кrstić (bg:Стоян Кръстев), (? - 1890) - priest
 * Andjelko Krstić, (1871 - 1952) - writer and playwright
 * Murat Labunishta (1912 - 1946) - poet, politician
 * Menil Velioski, (2001) - folk singer