Skopje

Skopje (formerly known as Shkup or by the Turkish name Üsküb or Uskup during the half-millennium of Ottoman rule until 1912) is the capital city of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. It has 600,000 inhabitants (2000 est.) and is located on the upper Vardar river. The capital of the Macedonian republic of Yugoslavia from 1946 until national independence in 1991, Skopje was struck by a major earthquake in 1963.