Bokelji

Bokelji ( Serbian: Cyrillic: Бокељи ) is the regional name for the inhabitants of the historical region of Kotor Bay ( Boka kotorska ) in Montenegro. Today the region is divided into three municipalities Herceg Novi, Tivat and Kotor. The name derives from Bokelj Boka, serbokroat. for bay from.

Composition of the population

The three municipalities in the region have Boka Kotorska 2003 71.443 inhabitants according to the census. The population was predominantly made Serbs with 30 026 inhabitants ( 41.89 %), Montenegrins with 24 779 inhabitants ( 34.68 %) and Croats with 5,433 inhabitants ( 7.61 %) together. However, the census did not provide information on their nationality 2003 11.205 inhabitants, or about 16%. 3,807 inhabitants (about 5 %) known to a different nationality.

Religion

The Bokelji are predominantly Christian or atheist. Serbs and Montenegrins are committed predominantly as Serbian Orthodox, Croats mainly as a Roman Catholic. A large part of Bokelji, mainly Montenegrins is atheistic.

Historical

As Bokelji call today mainly the Serbian and Montenegrin inhabitants of the Bay of Kotor, while the Croatian inhabitants prefer to call Bokeljski Hrvati for themselves. The Bay of Kotor was part of Yugoslavia in 1918, before that it belonged to Ccb Dalmatia under the Habsburgs. Until 1922 it was a separate administrative unit within the Ccb Yugoslavia, then part of the Oblast of Zeta, the parts of Montenegro and Metochiens included, and in 1929 part of the Banovina Zeta. Officially Montenegro came to the Bay of Kotor to the reorganization of the Yugoslav state in 1945 under the Yugoslav Communists, however, since as part of the Republic " Socialist Republic of Montenegro and Bay ( Kotor ) ," serbokroat. Republika Crna Gora Socijalistička i Boka, see Bosnian adequacy Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 1948, the middle name Boka finally only the name " Socialist Republic of Montenegro " was abandoned and used. At the time of Yugoslavia, the term Bokelji was widely used by the inhabitants of the bay, who wanted to express that they thought of themselves as a special breed of people.