Tuzla is a city in Bosnia and Herzegovina. At the time of the 1991 census, it had 131,000 inhabitants. Taking the influx of refugees into accuont, the city is currently estimated to have 160,000 inhabitants. After Sarajevo and Banja Luka, Tuzla is the third largest city in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the seat of the Tuzla Canton and Tuzla Municipality.

Geography

Tuzla is located in the northeastern part of Bosnia, settled just underneath the Majevica mountain, on the Jala river. The central zone lies in an east-west oriented plain, with residential areas in the north and south of the city located on the Ilinčica, Kicelj and Gradina hills. The climate is moderate continental.

History

First mentioned in 950 as a county under Hungarian rule, the town was later referred to by historians as Soli. Soli means "salts" in the Bosnian language, and the city's present name means "place of salt" in Turkish. However, there is enough archaeologic evidence to suggest that Tuzla was a rich neolithic settlement, and hence inhabited continuously for more than 6,000 years which makes Tuzla one of the oldest European cities with sustained living. An open-air museum at Solni Trg, opened in 2004, tells the story of salt production in Tuzla.

On October 2, 1943, Tuzla became the largest liberated town in Europe to the time. It developed into a major industrial and cultural centre during the communist period in former Yugoslavia. In the 1990 elections the Reformists won control of the municipality being the only municipality in Bosnia where non-nationalists won. During the Bosnian war, 1992-1995 the town was the only municipality not governed by nationalist auhtorities, and was besieged by Serb nationalist forces. The town was not spared the atrocities of war. On May 25, 1995, a mortar killed 72 youngsters in the single most deadly incident of the war.

Contemporary Tuzla

The city has Europe's only salt lake as part of its central park; more than 100,000 people visit its shores every year. From Tuzla hails one of the most influential writers in the Balkans, Meša Selimović. In addition, Tuzla hosts the annual Meša Selimović book festival (in July), where an award for the best novel written in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Serbia and Montenegro is presented. The first professional theatre in Tuzla, Narodno Pozorište u Tuzli, was founded by the brothers Mihajlo and Živko Crnogorčević in 1944.

Tuzla is the seat of the Tuzla Canton, which is a canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as of Tuzla Municipality, which is one of the 13 municipalities that together constitute the Tuzla Canton. Administratively, Tuzla is divided into 39 mjesne zajednice (local districts).

Apart from Tuzla, the municipality incorporates several other adjacent settlements, including the town of Gornja Tuzla (Upper Tuzla), as well as the villages of Husino, Par Selo, Simin Han, Obodnica, Šići, and others.

The Mayor of Tuzla Municipality is Jasmin Imamović, a writer and lawyer born in 1957, of the Social Democratic Party of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He was reelected to a second term in 2004.

The City council of Tuzla has 30 members, of the following parties:

• Social Democratic Party of Bosnia and Herzegovina (SDP) - 14 members
• Party of Democratic Action (SDA) - 6 members
• BOSS (Bosnian Party) - 4 members
• Party for Bosnia and Herzegovina (za BiH) - 2 members
• People's party (Radom za boljitak) - 2 members
• Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina (HDZ) - 2 members.

The Chairwoman of the City Council, Nada Mladina, is a member of the SDP.

Tuzla is twinned with Bologna in Italy, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat in Spain, Pécs in Hungary and Osijek in Croatia, as well as with Ravenna province in Italy.

Tuzla has an international airport located at Dubrave (IATA code: TZL), and an effective and well developed public bus network. There are plans to introduce a trolleybus network in the city soon.

Several sports teams from Tuzla have participated in international competitions. Almost all of Tuzla's sports teams are named Sloboda, meaning freedom. The most popular sports in Tuzla include football (FK Sloboda, founded in 1919, plays in Bosnia's premier league); basketball (KK Sloboda-Dita) and karate (KBS Tuzla-Sinalco being the biggest club).

Tuzla is home to the University of Tuzla, with around 9,000 students.

External links

• Official city hall webpage
• Radio Slon, with a website on Tuzla (in Bosnian)
• A Tuzla newspaper (in Bosnian)