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Kourou Monastir is a Turkish Cypriot village situated in the Mesaoria plain, within the Nicosia district. It is located eight kilometers southeast of Kythrea/Değirmenlik and three kilometers northeast of Exometochi/Düzova. Kourou Monastir means “dry monastery” in Turkish (kuru manastır). Interestingly, in 1958, Turkish Cypriots decided to change Kourou Monastir to another Turkish name, Çukurova. Çukurova is the name of a plain and a region in the Adana province of Turkey.

 

 

Since the Ottoman period, Kourou Monastır/Çukurova has been inhabited exclusively by Turkish Cypriots. Although the population growth of the village fluctuated in the last decades of the British period, it steadily increased from 71 in 1891 to 166 in 1960.

Displacement:

No one was displaced from this village during the intercommunal strife of the 1960s or during the 1974 war. However, during the latter period, the village served as a reception center for some displaced Turkish Cypriots who had fled from nearby villages.

Current Inhabitants:

It is currently inhabited only by its original villagers. The last Turkish Cypriot census of 2006 put the village’s population at 187.  

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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)