Strumica

Strumica (Macedonian: Струмица, Turkish: Usturumca, Bulgarian: Струмица) is a city of about 55,000 people in southeastern Republic of Macedonia. There are about 150,000 people living in the region surrounding the city. The city is named after the Strumica river which runs through it.

The region was a part of the Byzantine, medieval Bulgarian, and the Ottoman empires. During the First Balkan War the city was liberated from the Turks and for some six years became an integral part of Bulgaria. Following Bulgaria's defeat in World War I, under the 1919 Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine Bulgaria was forced to give Strumica to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, later to be called Yugoslavia. Following the World War II, Strumica remained in Yugoslavia and in 1945 became a part of the newly established Federative Republic of Macedonia. This federal republic remained in Yugoslavia until 1991, when it declared its independence as "The Republic of Macedonia".