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Omorfita, or Küçük Kaymaklı, is a suburb of Nicosia, located east of the capital city and immediately north of Büyük Kaimakli. Kaimakli derives from “kaymak” in Turkish, meaning “clotted cream.” Beuyuk or Büyük means “large” in Turkish and Küçük means “small.” These qualifiers were used to differentiate Omorfita/Küçük Kaymaklı from a nearby village which was also known as Kaimakli. Küçük Kaimakli was always called Omorfita by Greek Cypriots, meaning “beautiful.” Goodwin, however, claims that the settlers who founded the village came from Morphou and that this is the reason why the village was called Omorfita.

 

 

Omorfita was always a mixed village. According to the Ottoman census of 1831, Christians constituted almost 55% of the population of Omorfita/Küçük Kaymaklı. However, this proportion declined to 47.5% by 1931. Fifteen years later, the 1946 census shows that the Greek Cypriot proportion had again increased to 55%. During the late 1950s, Omorfita/Küçük Kaymaklı was the scene of intensive fighting between Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot irregulars. During this time many Greek Cypriots left Omorfita/Kücük Kaymaklı and the Turkish Cypriots left Beuyuk Kaimakli. In 1960, the population of Omorfita/Küçük Kaimaklı was 6,259 (1,123 Greek Cypriots and 5,126 Turkish Cypriots).

Displacement:

As explained above, the first conflict-related displacement took place during the intercommunal disturbances of the 1950s. As a result, several hundred Greek Cypriots fled Omorfita/Küçük Kaymaklı. However, during the intercommunal strife four years later, when Greek Cypriot paramilitaries attacked the village in December 1963, all the Turkish Cypriot inhabitants of Omorfita/Küçük Kaymaklı fled their homes. Most of these displaced persons moved to the Turkish Cypriot quarter of the walled city Nicosia(074) or to Ortakeuy(080), Guenyeli/Gönyeli(038), and Hamid Mandres/Hamitköy(039). The last-named was the site of a large refugee camp and as such was the primary destination for these displaced families. Approximately 5,500 (5,126 in the 1960 census) Turkish Cypriots were displaced from Omorfita/Küçük Kaymaklı. After the 1974 division, those whose houses were not located within the new buffer zone or had not been destroyed in the 1960s were able to return to them. The rest were given empty Greek Cypriot houses in other north Nicosia neighborhoods such as Trakhonas/Kızılay(100) and Neapolis/Yenişehir.

The third conflict-related displacement took place in the summer of 1974, when all the Greek Cypriots from the village fled from the advancing Turkish army and Turkish Cypriot Fighters in July and August 1974. Currently, like the rest of the displaced Greek Cypriots, the Greek Cypriots of Omorfita/Küçük Kaymaklı( are scattered throughout the island’s south, with large pockets in towns. The number of the Omorfita/Küçük Kaymaklı Greek Cypriots who were displaced in 1974 is approximately 2,200 (2,160 in the 1960 census)

Current Inhabitants:

Almost half of the village is still situated in the buffer zone or militarized areas. However, the other non-affected parts of the village are mainly occupied by its original Turkish Cypriot inhabitants and displaced Turkish Cypriots who moved there sometime after 1974. In addition, there are many other non-displaced Turkish Cypriots from elsewhere who have moved to this neighborhood over the past two decades, buying flats or houses in new developments. During that same period, Omorfita became a center of trade and small business, attracting many working class and middle class persons. In addition, many Turkish nationals who work in Cyprus live in this neighborhood. The population of Omorfita/Küçük Kaymaklı increased from 3,132 in 1978 to 8,054 in 2006.  

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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)