At the beginning of 1474 the whole region around Shkodra, including the abandoned Baleč, came under Ottoman rule.[citation needed] According to some sources the Ottoman sultan had intentions to rebuild Podgorica and Baleč in 1474 and to settle them with 5,000 Turkish families in order to establish an additional obstacle for cooperation of Crnojević's Zeta and besieged Venetian Shkodra.[6][7]