Butel Municipality
Butel Municipality (Macedonian: Бутел ; Albanian: Butel) is one of the ten municipalities that make up the City of Skopje, the capital of North Macedonia.[1] The municipality administration consists of a council and mayor.[1]
Butel Municipality
Општина Бутел Komuna e Butelit | |
---|---|
City municipality (Rural) | |
Flag Coat of arms | |
Country | North Macedonia |
Region | Skopje |
Municipal seat | Skopje |
Government | |
• Mayor | Velimir Smilevski (SDSM) |
Population | |
• Total | 36,154 |
Time zone | UTC+1 (CET) |
Website | http://www.opstinabutel.gov.mk |
A cemetery in Butel is where the grave of George Zorbas, the character upon whom Nikos Kazantzakis based the fictional Alexis Zorbas of his novel Zorba the Greek, is located.
Geography
Butel is located along the north-central and north-eastern areas of Skopje not far the modern city center and most of the municipality extends eastward in a panhandle shape toward the Skopska Crna Gora mountain range. It borders Gazi Baba Municipality to the southeast, Čair Municipality to the south, Karpoš Municipality to the southwest, Šuto Orizari Municipality and Čučer-Sandevo Municipality to the northwest, and Lipkovo Municipality to the northeast.
History
Prior to 2004 Butel municipality was within the boundaries of a larger Čair municipality that had a majority Macedonian population (48.60%), followed by Albanians (38.89%), Turks (4.12%), Bosniaks (3.40%), Romani (1.46%) and Serbs (2.11%).[2] The new territorial-administrative reform of 2004 divided the municipal unit into a smaller Čair municipality with an Albanian majority and a separate Butel municipality with a Macedonian majority.[2] The new boundaries of Čair municipality resulted in the loss of its industrial zone to Butel municipality which previously provided most of the revenue for the Čair municipal budget.[3]
Demographics
According to the last national census from 2002 Butel has 36,154 inhabitants.[4]
Ethnic groups in the municipality include:
- Macedonians = 22,506 (62.3%)
- Albanians = 9,107 (25.2%)
- Turks = 1,304 (3.6%)
- Serbs = 1,033 (2.6%)
- Bosniaks = 970 (2.7%)
- others.
References
- Ragaru 2008, pp. 542–543. "Skopje encompasses ten municipalities (Aerodrom, Butel, Čair, Centar, Gazi Baba, Gjorče Petrov, Karpoš, Kisela Voda, Saraj, Šuto Orizari), which all have a mayor, a municipal council and the same prerogatives as other municipalities in the country."
- Ragaru 2008, pp. 536–537.
- Ragaru, Nadege (2008). "The Political Uses and Social Lives of "National Heroes": Controversies over Skanderbeg's Statue in Skopje". Südosteuropa. 56 (4): 537. Archived from the original on 2019-02-22. Retrieved 2019-03-01.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- 2002 census results in English and Macedonian (PDF)