Turka, Ukraine


Turka, Turka, Turka nad Stryjem is a city located at the confluence of the Stryi River and the Yablunka River in Lviv Oblast of western Ukraine. It is the administrative center of Turka Raion. Population:.

Name

The name Turka originates from Ukrainian word, тур, meaning aurochs or urus, the ancestor of domestic cattle — a type of huge wild cattle which inhabited in the surrounding forests. In another version the city's name derives from the Ukrainian name of the gate-towers, "Turia", "Turja", "Turnia", which stood at the entrance to an ancient settlement.
Origin of name may also be linked to the Turks since the area was under Hun Empire and they are considered as ancestors of Turks. Also, Turkic tribes were nomadic, who settled in various places and assimilated.

Location

The city is located in the south Lviv Oblast, in the Carpathian Mountains, on the left bank of the Stryi River, with its tributaries, the Yablunka River and Litmyr River, and between the mountains Shymenka, Kychera, Vinets' and Osovnya.

City is located 137 km from Lviv, 107 km from Uzhhorod, 75 km from Drohobych, at an altitude of 557 meters above sea level.

The location of initial settlement outpost, from which arose Turka, was determined by the so-called "Path of Rus" - Neolithic trade route that connected through the Turka Western Europe to Hungary, Moldova and the Balkan countries.

History

On June 27, 1431, King Władysław II Jagiełło presented Turka to a man named Vancza Valachus. This was confirmed in 1444 by King Władysław III of Poland, and by Sigismund I the Old in 1517. In 1730 Turka received Magdeburg rights, and three years laters, a Roman Catholic parish was opened here. Until the Partitions of Poland, Turka remained in Kingdom of Poland’s Przemyśl Land, Ruthenian Voivodeship. From 1772 to 1918 the town belonged to Austrian Galicia.
In the Second Polish Republic, Turka was the seat of a county in Lwów Voivodeship. It was home to a county court, private high school and tax office. In 1921, Turka had the population of 10 030, including 4 201 Jews. At that time, its starosta was Tadeusz Zawistowski, and the mayor was Michał Grudziński.
Following the September 1939 Invasion of Poland, Turka was occupied by the Soviet Union. In June 1941, the town was captured by the Wehrmacht, and its Jewish population perished in the Holocaust. The area of Turka also witnessed mass murders of Poles, carried out by Ukrainian nationalists. After World War II, the town was reattached to the Soviet Ukraine, and its Polish community was expelled to the so-called Recovered Territories.

Administrative status

Turka is the administrative center of the Turkivskyi Raion and the unofficial capital of Boykos country.

Demography

The population is 7306 people in 1114 homes 99% of the population are Ukrainian.


Dynamics of population in the past: