Veles, North Macedonia

Throughout the history Veles had many names, out of which three are most important. Vilazora was initially the Paeonian city Bylazora from the period of early Classical Antiquity. The city's name was Βελισσός Velissos in Ancient Greek. Later in the history, as part of the Ottoman Empire it became a township (kaza) called Köprülü in the Üsküp sanjak (one of the administrative divisions of the Ottoman Empire). After the Ottoman rule, from 1929 to 1941, Veles was part of the Vardar Banovina of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. After World War II, the city was known as Titov Veles after Yugoslavian president Josip Broz Tito, but the 'Titov' was removed in 1996.[2]

In Albanian it is known as Qyprill, for the same reason as the Turkish variant. In Aromanian, the city is known as Velis.[3]

Veles in the 19th century

The area of present-day Veles has been inhabited for over a millennium. In antiquity, it was a Paionian city called Bylazora, and contained a substantial population of Thracians and possibly Illyrians. It was then part of the Byzantine Empire, and at times the First and Second Bulgarian Empire. It became part of the Kingdom of Serbia at the end of the 13th century, while during the Serbian Empire (1345–71) it was an estate of Jovan Oliver and subsequently the Mrnjavčević family until Ottoman annexation after the Battle of Rovine (1395). Before the Balkan Wars, it was a township (kaza) with the name Köprülü, part of the Sanjak of Üsküp.[4]

During the Great Eastern Crisis, the local Bulgarian movement of the day was defeated when armed Bulgarian groups were repelled by the League of Prizren, an Albanian organisation opposing Bulgarian geopolitical aims in areas like Köprülü that contained an Albanian population.[5] According to the statistics of Bulgarian ethnographer Vasil Kanchov from 1900, 19,700 inhabitants lived in Veles, 12,000 Bulgarian Exarchists, 6,600 Turks, 600 Romani and 500 Aromanians.[6]

In 1905 Dimitar Mishev Brancoff gathered statistics about the Christian population of Macedonia, in which the Christian population of Veles appears as consisting of 13,816 Bulgarian Exarchists, 56 Bulgarian Patriarchal Serbomans , 35 Greeks , 402 Vlachs , 12 Albanians and 444 Gypsies. In the city there were 2 lower secondary and 2 primary Bulgarian schools, one lower secondary and one primary Greek, Wallachian and Serbian schools.[7]

The Annuario Pontificio identifies Veles instead with the Diocese of Bela, a suffragan of the Metropolitan Latin Archdiocese of Achrida (Ohrid) in Bulgaria, and lists it, as no longer a residential diocese, among the Latin titular bishoprics.[8] It is probably in Bosnia and Hercegovina[9] (modern Velika?).

Veles made international news in 2016 when it was revealed that a group of teenagers in the city were controlling over 100 websites producing fake news articles in support of U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump, which were heavily publicised on the social media site Facebook.[1][10][11][12]

St. Pantelejmon Church in Veles

Throughout North Macedonia Veles is known as an industrial center and recently, as a leader in the implementing of IT in the local administration in North Macedonia.

Veles is a municipality of 55,000 residents.[13] The geographic location of the city of Veles makes it suitable for hiking and camping, especially at the west side of the city. One such location is the tranquil village Bogomila. Nearby there is the man made lake Mladost, which is known as the city's recreational centre.

Two TV stations operate in Veles - Channel 21 & Zdravkin - and many radio stations.

Veles has many sports teams, the most popular of which are :

• FK Borec, football
• FK Gemidžii, football
• FK Prevalec, football
• RK Borec, handball
• BK Borec, wrestling
• KK Unibasket, basketball

History, royalty and politics

• Metodi Aleksiev, revolutionary
• Jovan Babunski, Chetnik vojvoda
• Panko Brashnarov, revolutionary
• Ilija Dimovski, former member of the Assembly of North Macedonia
• Gheorghe Ghica, Prince of Moldavia
• Vasil Glavinov, revolutionary
• Igor Janusev, general secretary of VMRO-DPMNE, member of the Assembly of North Macedonia
• Alekso Martulkov, revolutionary
• Dimče Mirčev, WWII partisan
• Ivan Naumov, revolutionary
• Kole Nedelkovski, revolutionary
• Kazım Özalp, Turkish military office
• Faik Pasha, general of the Ottoman Army
• Lazar Petrović, Serbian general and adjutant of King Aleksandar Obrenović
• Jordan Popjordanov, revolutionary
• Rizo Rizov, revolutionary
• Mile Pop Yordanov, revolutionary

Culture

• Yordan Hadzhikonstantinov-Dzhinot, teacher and publicist
• Zivko Prendzov, art graphic
• Kočo Racin, writer
• Svetozar Ristovski, film director
• Bobby Stojanov Varga, painter
• Rayko Zhinzifov, poet

Sports

• Ezgjan Alioski, footballer
• Panče Kumbev, footballer
• Safer Sali, Olympic wrestler

• Official website of Veles