Gostivar

Gostivar (Гостивар ˈɡɔstivar, Albanian and Turkish: Gostivar), is a city in North Macedonia, located in the upper Polog valley region. It is the seat of one of the larger municipalities in the country with a population of 59,770, and the town also covers . Gostivar has road and railway connections with the other cities in the region, such as Tetovo, Skopje, Kičevo, Ohrid, and Debar. A freeway was built in 1995, from Gostivar to Tetovo, long. Gostivar is the seat of Gostivar Municipality. The name Gostivar comes from the Slavic word gosti meaning "guests" and the Turkish word "dvar" meaning castle or fort. Gostivar, at an elevation of 535 meters, is situated on the foothills of one of the Šar Mountains. Near to Gostivar is the village of Vrutok, where the Vardar river begins at an altitude of from the base of the Šar Mountains. Vardar River extends through Gostivar, cutting it in half, passes through the capital Skopje, goes through the country, enters Greece and finally reaches the Aegean Sea. In statistics gathered by Bulgarian researcher Vasil Kanchov in 1900, the city of Gostivar was inhabited by 3735 people, of whom 3100 were Turks, 310 Christian Bulgarians, 200 Romani, 150 Muslim Albanians and 25 Vlachs. Kanchov wrote in 1900 that many Albanians declared themselves as Turks. In Gostivar, the population that declared itself Turkish "was of Albanian blood", but it "had been Turkified after the Ottoman invasion, including Skanderbeg", referring to Islamization. The researcher Dimitar Gađanov wrote in 1916 that Gostivar was populated by 4,000 Albanians "who were Turkified", 100 Orthodox Albanians and 3,500 Bulgarians, while the surrounding area was predominantly Albanian. According to the 2002 census, the city of Gostivar had a population of 35,847 inhabitants and the ethnic composition is the following: Albanians, 16,890 (47.1%) Macedonians, 11,885 (33.2%) Turks, 4,559 (12.7%) Romas, 1,899 (5.3%) others, 614 (1.7%) The most common mother tongues in the city were the following: Albanian, 16,877 (47.1%) Macedonian, 13,843 (38.