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Argates or Ergates is a village located in the Nicosia district, twenty kilometers southwest of the capital city of Nicosia. Ergates means “workers” or “laborers” in Greek. The villagers of Ergates argue that “the village was one of the communities of the ancient kingdom of Tamassos and its name is probably related to the laborers that worked in the copper mines of Tamassos” (www.ergates.org).

 

 

Ergates was always inhabited solely by Greek Cypriots. As can be seen from the chart above, in the Ottoman census of 1831, Christians (Greek Cypriots) constituted the only inhabitants of the village. During the British period, the population growth of the village showed an upward trend, increasing steadily from 234 in 1891 to 637 in 1960.

Displacement:

No one was displaced from this village during the intercommunal strife of the 1960s or in 1974. However, the village received many displaced Greek Cypriots in 1974, most of whom had fled from their homes in the Kyrenia district.

Current Inhabitants:

Currently the village is inhabited by its original villagers and many displaced Greek Cypriots originally from the Kyrenia district. With the settlement of displaced persons, the population of Ergates increased to 1,044 in 1976 from its 1973 figure of 812. In 1982 the village had grown to 1,121 inhabitants, and the last census of 2001 put the village’s population at 1,857.

  

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• Hatay, Mete, (2005). “Beyond Numbers: An Inquiery into the Political Integration of the Turkish ‘Settlers’ in Northern Cyprus,” PRIO/Cyprus Centre Report  4/2005, Nicosia/Oslo, PRIO.
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• Republic of Cyprus, 1961. “Census of Population and Agriculture, 1960: Volume I: Population by Location, Race, and Sex,” Nicosia
• TRNC 2006 census preliminary results can be found at:  www.devplan.org
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• Standing Cypriot Commission for the Standardization of Geographical Names (2007), “Οδηγος Τυποποιησης Ονοματων (Guide to Standardized Names),” Nicosia: Ministry of Education and Culture.
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• Republic of Cyprus (1962), “Census of population and agriculture, 1960,” Nicosia: Government Printing Office.
• Republic of Cyprus (1984), “Census of population 1982,” Nicosia: Department of Statistics and Research, Ministry of Finance.
• Republic of Cyprus (2003), “Census of population 2001,” Nicosia: Department of Statistics and Research, Ministry of Finance.
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• Yorgancıoğlu,  Oğuz: Kıbrıs’ta Türkçe Yer Adları ve Veriliş Yöntemleri Üzerine Bir Araştırma Kıbrıs Araştırmaları Dergisi, Cilt : 2, Sayı : 3, Yıl : 96

Websites:

• http://www.cyprus-village.com/ (for the villages)
• http://news.karpasha.com/
• http://human-rights-archaeology.blogspot.com/
• http://kypros.org/Occupied_Cyprus/ (for the villages in the north)