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Prastio, or Prastion-Kelokethara, is a village located in Dhiarizos valley on the foothills of the Troodos mountain range, three kilometers northwest of Mousere and twenty-eight kilometers east of Paphos (Ktima).Some Cypriots claim that the name Prastio is a corruption of “prastij,” meaning “hamlet” in Greek. Turkish Cypriots adopted the alternative Turkish name Yuvalı in 1958. Yuva means “nest” or “home” in Turkish and Yuvalı means “place with a nest” or “place with a home.” 

 

As may be seen from the chart above, the village was solely inhabited by Muslims (Turkish Cypriots) in 1831. According to the British census reports, Prastio was a mixed village until 1946, although Turkish Cypriots always constituted a clear majority. The reason for the departure of the village’s Greek Cypriots in 1946 is unclear. The population of the village fluctuated until 1946, when an upward trend began.

Displacement:

No one was displaced during the emergency years of the late 1950s. Prastio’s first displacement took place during the intercommunal strife that began in late 1963. The village was abandoned on 16 January 1964, following the killing of a Turkish Cypriot shepherd from the village. They all first fled to Kidasi(310) village, and then with the villagers from Kidasi(310) they fled again to Malia(270), where they stayed until 10 March 1964. On that date they were again uprooted when the fighting reached Malia(270) village. Eventually, they found refuge in the villages of Avdimou(260) and Episkopi(262) near the British Base Area. In July 1974, as soon as the Turkish military offensive began, they sought protection within the British Base Area and remained there until January 1975, when they were taken via Turkey to the island’s north. The Prastio/Yuvalı Turkish Cypriots were mainly resettled in north Nicosia and the villages of Kontea/Türkmenköy(156), Agios Epiktikos/Çatalköy(208) and Zodeia/Bostancı(047). The total number of the Prastio Turkish Cypriots who were displaced after 1974 is approximately 100 (83 in the 1960 census).

Current Inhabitants:

This village was offered as a temporary settlement to some displaced Greek Cypriots who had fled from the north, but only a handful of them showed an interest in staying there. Even those few who chose to settle in Prastio moved away from the village after 1978. Currently, the village is empty and in ruins.   

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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)