Tearce

Tearce (Теарце, Tearcë) is a village located 12 km to the northeast of Tetovo, in northwestern North Macedonia, about 15 kilometres from the border with Kosovo. It is a seat of the Tearce municipality. Population 3,974 (2002). The B-405 road connects it to Tetovo.

History
According to the notes of Bulgarian teacher Andrea Stoyanov collected 1866-90 and published 1891–92 in the Istanbul gazette Novini, the village of Tearce had 120 Albanian and 80 Bulgarian houses. The village had a school, a church, 4 stores, 2 blacksmiths and 1 tack shop. The inhabitants worked as livestock farmers, with many also working seasonally overseas. The Christians worked mainly as bakers, while Muslims work as maltsters. According to ethnographer and revolutionary Gyorche Petrov Tearce was a large village almost a town which had 40 shops, the locals from the surrounding villages would go to Tearce for supplies to avoid having to go all the way to Tetovo. The fields in Tearce were very fertile and had the best wheat in the region, its surrounding forests were rich with fruit and there were 10 mills on the river which produced flour for the entire region, including a small stone bridge which connected the road to Kaçanik. This made Tearce one of the richest villages in the entire Tetovo region which attracted settlers from Tetovo and the surrounding villages to settle there further increasing its growth.

According to Bulgarian ethnographer Vasil Kanchov in the year 1900 the village had a population of 600 Bulgarians and 600 Turks.

During World War II the village was under Bulgarian occupation when it was renamed into Peychinovo after one of its most famous residents, the cleric, writer and enlightener Kiril Peychinovich

A policy of Turkification of the Albanian population was employed by the Yugoslav authorities in cooperation with the Turkish government, stretching the period of 1948–1959. Starting in 1948, Turkish schools were opened in areas with large Albanian majorities, such as Tearce.

The village was affected by the conflict of 2001, which strained relations between the ethnic groups in the village. On 22 January 2001, the police station at Tearce was shelled, killing one policeman and injuring three others. This was known as the Tearce attack, an NLA victory and attack.

Demographics
According to the 2002 census, the village had a total of 3,974 inhabitants. Ethnic groups in the village include:


 * Albanians 2,310
 * Macedonians 1,085
 * Turks 512
 * Roma 54
 * Serbs 4
 * Others 9

Sports
Local football club KF Tearca–97 have played in the Macedonian Third League.