AGIOS ERMOLAOS

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Agios Ermolaos is a village in the Kyrenia district, located 13 miles northwest of the capital city of Nicosia and 1.5 miles south of Sisklipos/Akçiçek. Agios Ermolaos is situated on the southern slopes of the Kyrenia mountain range. The village was named after a Saint who was the Bishop of Karpasia at the time of the Council of Chalcedon in 471 AD. Ermolaos also means “hermit of the desert.” Turkish Cypriots called the village Ayirmola until 1975 when they changed its name to Şirinevler, meaning “cute houses.”

 
 
Historical Population:

As can be seen from the chart above, in the Ottoman census of 1831 Muslims constituted almost the sole inhabitants of the village. Goodwin claims that the village was Muslim between 1600 and 1830. However, thirteen years after the start of the British administration in the island, the Muslim percentage of the population was recorded as only 28%. This percentage gradually decreased further during the first half of the 20th century. In 1960, when the island gained its independence, Greek Cypriots constituted almost 96% of the village’s population.

Displacement:

Due to intercommunal strife, in March 1964 all the Turkish Cypriots fled the village and took refuge in Agirda/Ağırdağ(211) and Fota/Dağyolu(221), and stayed in those villages until 1974 when they were relocated back to their village.

The displacement of all the Greek Cypriots from this village took place in 1974, when all of the Agios Ermolaos Greek Cypriots fled from the advancing Turkish army in July and sought refuge in the south. Currently the Greek Cypriots of Agios Ermolaos are scattered throughout the island’s south. The number of the Greek Cypriots from this village who were displaced in 1974 was around 520 (508 in1973).

Current Inhabitants:

Apart from the original Turkish Cypriots of Ayios Ermolaos who returned in 1974, there are displaced Turkish Cypriots from Deneia(027), the town of Paphos(329) and various Paphos villages such as Amargeti/Amarget(289), Souskiou/Susuz(337), Vretsia/Dağaşan(342) and Faleia/Gökçebel(301). There are also four or five families from Turkey who settled in the village in the late 1970s. The 2006 census puts the village’s population at 427.

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