AGIOS GEORGIOS

Click Here for Map

Agios Georgios is situated in the Kyrenia district, three miles west of the town of Kyrenia on the northern coast line. The name Agios Georgios means “Saint George” in Greek. Before 1974, this village was exclusively inhabited by Greek Cypriots. In 1975 Turkish Cypriots changed its name to Karaoğlanoğlu, after a Turkish officer who was killed during the Turkish army’s landing in 1974 in an adjacent beach called “Five Mile.” It is relatively a new village, founded just before the British arrived in Cyprus. 
 
Historical Population

As can be seen from the chart above, in the British census of 1891, Christians constituted the sole inhabitants of this settlement. During the first half of the 20th century there were no Muslims living in the village. The probable reason for the sudden appearance of 203 Turkish Cypriots in the 1960 census was the shift in the village’s boundary to include some of the Turkish Cypriots of Templos/Zeytinlik village who were living in the vicinity of Agios Georgios. The Greek Cypriot population shows an impressive increase during the British period, rising from 17 in 1891 to 821 in 1960. During the 1960s, the village was also very popular amongst British retirees who bought property and settled there.

Displacement:

All of Agios Georgios’s inhabitants were displaced in 1974, fleeing in July from the advancing Turkish army to the southern part of the island. Currently, like the rest of the Greek Cypriot refugees, the Greek Cypriots of Agios Georgios are scattered throughout the island’s south, with some pockets in Nicosia(074) and Limassol(269). The displaced population of Agios Georgios can be estimated to be around 940 since its Greek Cypriot population was 931 in 1973. Many of the British retirees living in the village before 1974 kept their houses in the village. Goodwin claims that there were still 24 of these British households in the village in 1979.

Current Inhabitants:

In 1975, the village was used for the settlement of displaced Turkish Cypriot from the southern part of the divide. They came mainly from the town of Limassol(269), and primarily from the Arnavut and Agios Andonis neighborhoods of the town. A small number of displaced Turkish Cypriots from villages in Paphos also settled in the village after 1975 (e.g., Agios Georgios(284), Kourtaka/Kurtağa(313), Geroskipou/Yeroşibu(306) and Galataria/Yoğurtçular(305). Over the last twenty years, many European citizens and wealthy Turkish Cypriots from elsewhere in the island’s north (including returnees from abroad) have bought property, built houses, and settled here. The 2006 census put the population of this new suburb of Kyrenia at 2,610.  


 
REFERENCES
 
Books and Reports:


Websites:



Print