Tărcaia

Tărcaia Köröstárkány
Commune
Tărcaia
Coordinates:
Country	Romania
County	Bihor County
Population (2002)	2,154
Time zone	EET (UTC+2)
• Summer (DST)	EEST (UTC+3)

Tărcaia (Hungarian: Köröstárkány) is a commune in Bihor County, northwestern Romania with a population of 2,076 people. It is composed of four villages: Mierag (Mérág), Tărcaia, Tărcăiţa (Tárkányka) and Totoreni (Tatárfalva).

Geography

Tărcaia lies along the river bank of Crişul Negru River in the southeastern part of Bihor County, around 65 km south-east of Oradea and 4 km south of Beiuş.

History

It has a complex political history with periods of Ottoman rule, periods of Habsburg Monarchy, Principality of Transylvania, and Kingdom of Hungary. After the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, it became part of the Kingdom of Hungary within Austria-Hungary up until the Romanian army arrived in the village between regrettable circumstances.

On April 19, 1919, the invading Romanian army and Romanian paramilitary groups murdered and robbed 91 Hungarian villagers in Tărcaia. The Romanians summoned the locals to the center of the village, where they fired on them with machine-guns. Since then the village has been part of Romania, which was acknowledged internationally by the Treaty of Trianon in 1920.

Ethnic groups

According to the 2002 census, the ethnic structure is 53.89% Hungarians with a population of 1161, 45.91% Romanians with a population of 989. There is also a small community of Ukrainians and Germans, respectively 0.13% and 0.04%.