Suva Reka

Suva Reka (Сува Река) or Suharekë (Suhareka) or Therandë (Theranda) is a town and municipality located in the Prizren district of central-southern Kosovo. According to the 2011 census, the town has 10,422 inhabitants, while the municipality has 59,722 inhabitants.

Suva Reka is located 18 km from the city of Prizren, and 57 km from Kosovo's capital, Pristina.

Name
Suva Reka means "dry river" in the Serbian language. The Albanian spellings are Suharekë or Suhareka (derived from the Slavic form), while an alternative Therandë, adopted from an unlocated ancient site (possibly in Suhareka or Lubizhda in the Mirusha valley

Historical background
The municipality includes several medieval sites and old settlements, such as the villages of Banjë, Suharekë, Duhël, Mushtishtë, Popolan, Reçan, and churches of Virgin Hodegetria, St. George, Holy Trinity, St. Nicholas, among others. The settlement of Theranda itself was first mentioned in 1465.

Ottoman period
In 1651, the Albanian Catholic Gregor Mazrreku reported that all the men in Suharekë (Suva Reka), where there had been previously 160 Catholic households, had converted to Islam, but that about 36 or 37 of their wives remained Catholic.

Yugoslav period
From 1929 to 1941, Suva Reka was a town part of the Vardar Banovina of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.

Between 1918 and 1941, the demographic structure of the municipality of Suva Reka has been affected by settlements and colonization such as the Serbian colonization and population settlement, for the most part from the Toplica District.

On the night of 9–10 June 1984, ethnic Albanians desecrated 29 tombstones of the Church of the Holy Saviour.

Kosovo War and aftermath
During the Kosovo War (1998–99), the Yugoslav army operated in the region and it was reported that it had killed and wounded many Albanian civilians. According to the Suhareka office of the Council for the Defense of Human Rights and Freedoms, 430 people were killed in the municipality and 67 people were missing as of late August 1999.

On 26 March 1999, Serbian police officers massacred 48 ethnic Kosovo Albanians, fourteen of which were under 15 years old. 46 members of the victims were part of the Berisha family who were targeted because they had rented one of their homes to the OSCE observers in Suva Reka, who provided a sense of security to the local Albanians but withdrew from the area when NATO bombing began. After the slight withdrawal of the OSCE, incidences of abuse increased around late March, specifically with the beating and the harassment of ethnic Albanians residents by the Serbian police. Consequently, tensions soon increased after at least seven ethnic Albanians were killed by police or disappeared in unclear circumstances.

According to the OSCE, killings of smaller numbers of people also took place in the following villages: Bukos (Bukosh), Budakovo (Budakovë), Vranic (Vraniq), Geljance (Gelancë), Sopina (Sopinë), Mus-utiste (Mushtishtë), and Lesane (Lleshanë).

After the war, Serbian heritage was destroyed all over Kosovo. The churches (including cemeteries) of Virgin Hodegetria, St. George, Holy Trinity, St. Nicholas and others were completely destroyed in 1999 after the arrival of KFOR and the end of the war.

NATO set up a military base in the municipality, Camp Casablanca.

Churches

 * Church of the Virgin Hodegetria, Mušutište, built 1315, destroyed 1999
 * Church of St. George (Rečane), built in the 14th century, destroyed 1999
 * Church of the Holy Trinity, Mušutište, built before 1465, destroyed 1999
 * Church of the Holy Saviour, Mušutište, built in 1465, destroyed 1999
 * Church of St. Nicholas, Popovljane, built in 1626, destroyed 1999
 * Church of Archangel Michael, Dvorane, built in the 19th century, destroyed 1999
 * Church of the Holy Saviour, Dvorane, built in the 19th century, destroyed 1999
 * Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, Suva Reka, built 1938, destroyed 1999
 * Church of St. Parasčeva, Mušutište, built 1973, destroyed 1999

Mosques

 * Suhareka town Mosque
 * Peçan Mosque
 * Semetisht Mosque
 * Gjinoc Mosque
 * Sopinë Mosque

Demographics
According to the 2011 census done by the Government of Kosovo, the municipality of Suva Reka had 59,722 inhabitants of which 98.9% were Kosovo Albanians. According to OSCE, the whereabouts of the displaced Serb and Roma communities is unknown.

Twin towns – Sister cities
Suva Reka is twinned with:
 * 🇦🇱 Sarandë, Albania
 * 🇩🇪 Fellbach, Germany
 * 🇺🇸 Lilburn, United States