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Ayios Seryios or Aysergi is a village in the Famagusta district, located only two miles northwest of the Salamis ruins. Agios Sergios means “Saint Sergio” in Greek. It was renamed Yeni Boğaziçi in 1975, after the home village of those displaced Turkish Cypriots from Agios Theodoros who were resettled there. In 1958, Turkish Cypriots adopted the alternative name Boğaziçi for Agios Theodoros (346) village in the Larnaca district. The name means “Bosphorus,” and so Yeni Boğaziçi means “new Bosphorus.” 

 

As can be seen from the chart above, Agios Sergios was always a mixed village with a Greek Cypriot majority. In the Ottoman census of 1831, Christians constituted almost 76% of the population. This percentage increased in the first decades of the British period. During the first half of the twentieth century, while the Greek Cypriot population increased steadily, the Turkish Cypriot population stagnated. In the 1946 census, Turkish Cypriots constituted only 5% of the population. This percentage was almost 8% in 1891. There was only one Turkish Cypriot left in the village in 1960.

Displacement:

In 1958, due to the intercommunal conflict, all the Agios Sergios Turkish Cypriots fled and took refuge in nearby villages and in the town of Famagusta, staying in these locations until 1974. In 1974, the Greek Cypriots of Agios Sergios fled from the advancing Turkish army. Currently, like the rest of the displaced Greek Cypriots, the Greek Cypriots of Ayios Sergios are scattered throughout the island’s south, with large pockets in towns. The number of the Agios Sergios Greek Cypriots who were displaced in 1974 was around 2,050 (2040 in the 1973 census).

Current Inhabitants:

Apart from a handful of original Agios Sergios/Yeni Boğaziçi Turkish Cypriots who returned in 1974, displaced Turkish Cypriots from Agios Theodoros/Boğaziçi(346) (primarily), Anafotidia/Akkor (349), Klavdia/Alaniçi,(359) Dali(024), Maroni(364) were settled in the village. Alongside those displaced persons, some Turkish Cypriots from other disadvantageous places in the north were also resettled in Agios Sergios (such as Louroujina/Akıncılar(063), Galinoporni/Kaleburnu(145), Platanissos/Balalan(185). Some Turkish nationals mainly from Trabzon province and Istanbul also settled in the village. Over the last twenty years, many European citizens, Turkish nationals and wealthy Turkish Cypriots from elsewhere in the island’s north (including returnees from abroad) have bought property, built houses, and settled here. The 2006 census puts the village’s population at 2,802.  

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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)