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Elia, or Elye, is a Turkish Cypriot village situated in the Lefka/Lefke area, four kilometers east of Pendayia/Yeşilyurt and three kilometers north of Petra/Taşköy. Elia means “olive tree” in Greek. Until 1958, Turkish Cypriots used the name Elye for the village. In 1958, they changed the latter name to Doğancı, meaning “falconer.”

 

 

Elia was a mixed village until 1931. Although the village was predominantly inhabited by Muslims (Turkish Cypriots), there was a small Greek Cypriot community living there. In the 1831 Ottoman census, Christians (Greek Cypriots) constituted almost 12% of the village’s population. However, the Greek Cypriot population in the village declined gradually throughout the first quarter of the twentieth century, and by the time of the 1946 census there were no Greek Cypriots in the village. On the other hand, the village’s overall population increased steadily from 359 in 1901 to 851 in 1960.

Displacement:

No one was displaced from this village during the intercommunal strife of the 1960s. However, during the same period, the village served as an important reception center for displaced Turkish Cypriots who had fled from nearby villages such as Petra/Dereli(087) (Taşköy after 1975), Flasou(034) and Agios Giorgios(006) of Solea. According to Richard Patrick, in 1971 there were still 132 displaced Turkish Cypriots residing in the village.

Current Inhabitants:

It is currently inhabited only by its original villagers. The last Turkish Cypriot census of 2006 put the village’s population at 1,291.   

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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)