TRIMITHI

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Trimithi is a small village in the Kyrenia district, located six kilometres west of Kyrenia town. It is situated on the northern slopes of the Kyrenia range, immediately below Karmi village. Before 1974, this village was exclusively inhabited by Greek Cypriots. Trimithi means “terebinth bush” in Greek. In 1975 Turkish Cypriots changed its name to Edremit, also the name of a city in western Turkey, and with a name similar in sound to the original Greek Trimithi. Rita Catsellis reports that the village was developed out of an old farm owned by a Muslim judge, Hadji Hafız Efendi, in the late nineteenth century. She also asserts that many of its inhabitants were the descendants of the laborers that the judge brought from the Paphos district. 
 
 
Historical Population

As can be seen from the chart above, the village was almost always inhabited exclusively by Greek Cypriots. At the end of the nineteenth century there were only six Muslims (Turkish Cypriots) living in the village. Its population grew steadily from 120 in 1891 to 301 in 1960.

Displacement:

Most of the village’s inhabitants were displaced in 1974, as in July they fled 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 Trimithi are scattered throughout the island’s south. The number of the Greek Cypriots who were displaced in 1974 was around 330 (301 in the1960 census).

Current Inhabitants:

Today the village is mainly inhabited by displaced Turkish Cypriots from different parts of Cyprus (mainly from Paphos and Limassol districts). There are also some Turkish nationals and third-country nationals living in the village. Over the last twenty years, many European citizens and wealthy Turkish Cypriots from elsewhere in the island’s north have bought property, built houses, and settled here. The 2006 Turkish Cypriot census put the village’s population at 651.  

 
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