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Mora is a Turkish Cypriot village situated in the Mesaoria Plain, within the Nicosia district. It is located six kilometers southwest of Assia/Paşaköy, between the old and new Nicosia-Famagusta roads. The origin of the name is obscure. Kleridis claims that the village was named after someone called “Moravit” who founded the village, sometime, during the Lusignan period (1961: 170). Turkish Cypriots adopted a new Turkish name, Meriç, in 1958. Meriç is the Turkish name of the Maritza River in Turkey. 

 

Since the Ottoman period, Mora/Meriç has been inhabited exclusively by Turkish Cypriots. Although the population of the village fluctuated in the last decades of the British period, it steadily increased from 283 in 1891 to 501 in 1960.

Displacement:

No one was displaced from this village during the intercommunal strife of the 1960s or as a result of the 1974 war. However, during the latter period, the village served as a reception center for displaced Turkish Cypriots who fled from mixed villages such as Agia Marina/Gürpınar(002), Arediou(019), Palaikythro/Balıkesir(081), Orounta(079), Neo Chorio/Minareliköy(073) and Çömlekçi farm. In 1971, Richard Patrick recorded 250 displaced Turkish Cypriots still living in Mora.

Current Inhabitants:

It is currently inhabited only by its original villagers. The last Turkish Cypriot census of 2006 put the village’s population at 522.  

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• Hart-Davis, C. H (1922), “Report and general abstracts of the census of 1921, taken on the 24th April, 1921,” London: Waterlow & Sons.
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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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• Özad, Murat Hüsnü (2002), “Baf ve Mücadele Yılları,” Lefkoşa (Nicosia): Akdeniz Haber Ajansı Yayınları.
• Patrick, Richard (1976), “Political Geography and the Cyprus Conflict: 1963-1971,” Department of Geography, Faculty of Environmental Studies, University of Waterloo.
• Percival, D.A. (1949), “Census of population and agriculture 1946 report,” Nicosia: Cyprus Government Printing Office.
• 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)