POLEMIDIA PANO

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Pano (Upper) Polemidia is one of the twin villages of Polemidia. It is situated in the Limassol district, immediately northwest of the town of Limassol. Pano and Kato (Lower) Polemidia took their name from the deciduous polemidkia tree(German medlar-tree). The fruits of this tree are called polemidkia or polemidia and are edible. Turkish Cypriots adopted the alternative name Yukarı (Upper) Binatlı in 1958. Binatlı literally means “thousand horsemen.” Binatlı is also a place name in use in Turkey.

 
Historical Population

During the Ottoman period, the village was solely inhabited by Muslims. In the population censuses of 1881 and 1891, the inhabitants of Pano Polemidia were counted with the inhabitants of Kato Polemidia. Until the second quarter of the century, the population of the village was mixed, with Turkish Cypriots constituting the majority. Most of the Greek Cypriot inhabitants left the village by 1911. During the British period, the population of the village increased from 121 persons in 1901 to 216 in 1960.

Displacement:

No one was displaced from this village during the 1950s emergency years, nor during the intercommunal strife of 1963-64. Richard Patrick claims that both Kato Polemidia and Pano Polemidia present an anomaly. He notes that during the 1960s, when many of the Turkish Cypriot villages were not accessible to the Greek Cypriot authorities of the Republic of Cyprus, the Greek Cypriot police were freely patrolling the Turkish Cypriot village centers. Many Greek Cypriots were also mixing freely with the Turkish Cypriots in these villages. Though there was a Greek National Guard stationed in the vicinity of the village, uniformed Turkish Cypriot Fighters were openly walking the streets of these villages. Apparently, the Greek Cypriot police of the Republic of Cyprus tolerated their presence as long as they did not carry any weapons (Patrick 1976, 308).

The first conflict-related displacement from Pano Polemidia/Binatlı took place in July 1974, when the village’s Turkish Cypriot population fled to the Akrotiri British Base Area. While some fled clandestinely to the north, most stayed in the Base Area until January 1975, when they were all transferred via Turkey to the island’s north. They were mainly resettled in Morphou. The total number of the displaced Turkish Cypriots from Pano Polemidia/Yukarı Binatlı can be estimated to be 250 (218 in the 1960 census).

Current Inhabitants:

Currently the village is mainly inhabited by displaced Greek Cypriots from the north. According to Goodwin many of the first displaced persons who settled in the village came from Argaki(020) and Kato Zodeia(047) villages in the Morphou area of north Cyprus. After the restoration of the Turkish Cypriot houses in the village, displaced Greek Cypriots were resettled there. Later on, self-housing schemes for displaced people were created in five areas of the village. The last Cypriot census of 2001 put the total population at 3,741 (www.panopolemidia.org).  


 
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