Upper Reka
Upper Reka is a geographic area and ethnographic subregion of the broader Reka region of western North Macedonia, including settlements within the upper left portion of the Municipality of Mavrovo and Rostuša and of Gostivar Municipality. The region historically is home to both a Muslim Albanian community and Christian Orthodox Albanian speaking population. In the modern period, Orthodox Upper Rekans self identify as Macedonians, and due to their migration from Upper Reka, the remaining population by 2010s are Muslim Albanian Upper Rekans. Upper Reka is a mountainous and rugged region with animal grazing and highland pastures. In contemporary times, the largest inhabited settlement is the village of Vrbjani. Upper Reka is an isolated and underdeveloped region with limited communication links, whereby access and travel becomes difficult during the snowy winter months.
Historically Upper Reka inhabitants mainly engaged with agricultural and farming activities of which some of the remaining population continues to do. The region has experienced much depopulation over time due to seasonal or permanent migration to nearby regions and abroad in search of employment and better living standards. In the 14th century Upper Reka was part of the Lordship of Prilep, of the Mrnjavčević family, until 1395, when its territory was subjugated to Bayezid I of the Ottoman Empire under which it remained until the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913. Thereafter it became part of Kingdom of Serbia, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and eventually part of North Macedonia.
Geography and Environment
Location
The broader Reka region is divided into Mala, Dolna and Golema or Gorna sub-regions. Upper Reka alongside the wider Reka region was also considered to belong to the larger region of Dibra that encompasses multiple sub-regions centered around the town of Debar on both sides of the Albanian-Macedonian border.The region of Upper Reka is bordered by Kosovo to the north and by Albania in the west. It is a mountainous area with highland alpine pastures, situated at the northern end of the Radika river basin that continues on into Lower Reka all the way to the southern Boškov Bridge, near the area of Small Reka. Upper Reka's northern and northeastern territorial borders consist of the Vraca Mountains which are part of the wider Šar Mountains that extend nearby as the Ničpur Mountains with Lera peak at 2194 m. The northwest and western borders of Upper Reka go along the Korab Mountains with Golem Korab peak at 2753 m. A narrow pass at 1920 m above sea level, between the Korab and Šar Mountains exists that allows for communication and interaction with the ethnographic/geographic Gora region. Through this opening, located between the three point border mountain peak of Ksulje e Priftit at 2092 m and the Vraca Mountains is the most suitable communication link between the former village of Štirovica at the extreme northern end of Upper Reka and Restelica village at the southern edge of the Gora region in Kosovo.
The southern border of Upper Reka is on the right side within the valley of the river Radika. It is between the villages of Vrbjani in Upper Reka and Žirovnica in Lower Reka that are represented by geographical and communicative limitations presented by the imposing Korab Mountains. A road links both villages and is the main outlet for transitory communication between within the area that goes all the way to Debar. The eastern part of the southern border from the left side of the Radika river valley fully belongs to the Bistra Mountains with Medenica peak at 2163 m. An eastern road that intersects with the others at Volkovija village heads toward near Vrben village at Upper Reka's eastern limits. Onward that road continues toward to Mavrovi Anovi town and Mavrovo Lake and further on to Gostivar. Apart from the main Radika river, a series of tributaries that feed it are found throughout Upper Reka such as Dlaboka Reka, Brodečka Reka, Ribnička Reka and so on. Highland mountain alpine pastures used for livestock grazing by the local populace are found throughout the mountainous region such as Rečka Planina, Nistrovski Korab and Ḱafa Kadis. In total, the confines of the Upper Reka region covers an area of about.
Settlements
Upper Reka settlements within Mavrovo and Rostuša Municipality include Tanuše, Nivište, Ribnica, Žužnje, Nistrovo, Ničpur, Volkovija, Kičinica, Krakornica, Beličica, Vrben, Bogdevo, Sence, Vrbjani, Bibaj and Grekaj. Upper Reka settlements within Gostivar Municipality are Brodec. Traditionally three other adjacent villages, Duf and Orḱuše in Mavrovo and Rostuša Municipality and Gorno Jelovce all within the neighboring Upper Polog region have at times also been considered belonging to Upper Reka, due to linguistic affiliations and cultural connections. Also due to uprisings in the Upper Reka region, former settlements such as: Trnica, Reč, Dubovo, Štirovica, Strezimir and Zavojsko were burned down by Serbian and Bulgarian forces between 1912–1916.Climate, fauna and wildlife
The Upper Reka region is the only area within North Macedonia to have a cold Alpine climate. Due to the high altitude, the region is exposed to winds from various directions. From the east, the strong gusts of what Upper Reka locals refer to as era bardh, literally the white wind, the rain-bringing warm southeast wind ladas and the northwest wind heralding weather change called era poshtr or low wind. The region is exposed to thunderstorms mainly during summer, while rain, frost, hail and rainbows occur according to seasonal weather patterns. The winter season is often long and snowy and so too is the summer season, while spring and autumn seasons are short. Snow mostly appears in the region from the middle of autumn lasting until mid-spring. It recent times snow fall continues late into spring and even at times into early summer. Due to snow fall, Upper Reka becomes an isolated region as communication for most of the year with neighbouring areas is severely limited and even impassable such as that with Albania through the Korab Mountains. In past times, the population was forced during the short summer season to supply food grains, salt, beans and other food stuffs as snow made communications difficult between nearby villages and the outside world. Most of Upper Reka along with Dolna Reka is located within Mavrovo National Park. In the area of Upper Reka, parts of the region still contain virgin forests of old and unique species of Beech trees especially around Dlaboka river and the northern part of the Radika river valley. Parts of Upper Reka forests were felled until the 1950s to create pastures for sheep grazing. Upper Reka is also home to the critically endangered subspecies of Eurasian lynx, the Balkan lynx.Demographics
Population and Identity
Upper Reka is inhabited by Muslim and Christian Albanian speaking people referred through demonyms in Macedonian as Gornorekanec and Rekali in Albanian. By outsiders they are referred to as Shkreti, from the Albanian word and expression shkretë/i shkret meaning the poor ones, due to their isolated mountainous homeland and difficult living circumstances. The term was used by people from Upper Polog, Mavrovo Pole, and Lower Reka, regardless of ethnicity or religion. In the modern period, the term is used by people from the Mavrovo area and Lower Reka, its use in Macedonian is as a pejorative and in all neighbouring areas the word is used as a way to identify people from Upper Reka. Upper Rekans do not use the word to describe themselves and only say it when describing the hardships of the past.Of the Albanian speaking populations who remained Christian Orthodox, they assimilated and identify as Macedonians, while those who embraced Islam consider themselves Albanians. Due to the migration of Orthodox Christians to urban centers a few decades ago, today the majority of inhabitants are Muslim Albanians, with a minority of Orthodox Albanian speakers, who self-identify as Macedonians. The 2002 Macedonian census listed Vrbjani as the largest Muslim Albanian settlement in Upper Reka with 625 inhabitants and the main Orthodox settlement was Vrben with 142 inhabitants. In Upper Reka, households are called shpi or literally house and traditionally consisted of patriarchal extended families. These families, some affluent ones, lived in large and at times fortified multi story stone dwellings called kulla or tower house while other families had smaller houses.
Economy and Seasonal/Permanent migration
Due to difficult living circumstances and at times sociopolitical disturbances, especially in the 19th century, Upper Reka has historically been a region with much outward temporary and permanent migration. Traditionally the population was mainly engaged with animal husbandry and agricultural activities which some of the small remaining population still carry out. As such during the late Ottoman era, Upper Reka males would seasonally go on kurbet or economic migration. Often they would find employment as pastry makers or as halva, salep and boza merchants and salesmen in the then Ottoman capital Istanbul or regional cities like Skopje and Edirne. In Romania and Bulgaria, some Upper Reka people were also employed in the housing construction industry as stonemasons or builders and likewise when the need arose in cities such as Shkodër or their local area too.Permanent migratory flows during the late Ottoman era were mainly to neighbouring villages and regions where today these populations often form few households within a settlement amongst their wider Albanian population. In the region of Upper Pollog, Upper Reka people relocated to the following villages: Čegrane, Forino, Korito, Balin Dol, Malo Turčane, Dolna Banjica, Sretkovo, Novo Selo, Rečane, Vrutok, Pečkovo, Zdunje, Vrapčište, Kalište and Gradec. In Lower Polog: Gorno Sedlarce, Rakovec, Žerovjane, Radiovce, Tenovo, Lukovica, Sedlarevo and Gurgurnica. In villages within the vicinity of Skopje city: Crn Vrv, Krušopek, Sveta Petka and Patiška Reka, while near Veles at: Gorno Jabolčište, Sogle, Klukovec and Buzalkovo. In some villages, the Upper Reka population migrated there as Christians like in Lukovica and only converted thereafter to Islam. While in Patiška Reka, they remained Orthodox and Albanian speaking until World War Two, before relocating to Skopje thereafter. The population in these new villages outside Upper Reka still identifies as Albanian, the Orthodox part of the settlers from Reka after their relocation to nearby villages and towns where Slavic was the language of the majority gradually were assimilated after the Second World War. The villages were inhabited by large populations of people whom in recent decades, have migrated to Skopje, Veles, Tetovo and Gostivar or the majority to Italy and Germany.
Some Upper Reka residents from Vrbjani have in recent decades migrated to the neighbouring Muslim Macedonian village of Žirovnica with municipal services in Lower Reka and number some 258 people. While Orthodox Christians migrated from the 1950s onwards to the then Yugoslav capital Belgrade, other cities like Skopje and to nearby Gostivar town where they form the main population of Durtlok neighbourhood. Due to the 2001 insurgency in northern Macedonia, the village of Tanuše was affected by the conflict which made some residents migrate thereafter to other places. Young Upper Reka people in recent times have also emigrated to Western countries, while some older inhabitants return to their homes in Upper Reka during the summer period.