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Flamoudi/Mersinlik is a village located on the Karpasia/Karpaz peninsula six kilometers west of Kantara castle, on the eastern foothills of the Five Finger mountain range. Before 1974, this village was solely inhabited by Greek Cypriots. It has been claimed that the village’s name derives from “phlamouri,” the flower of the lime tree. Turkish Cypriots renamed the village Mersinlik in 1975, meaning “place of myrsine trees” in Turkish.

 

 

As can be seen from the chart above, Greek Cypriots constituted the only inhabitants of the village, apart from a small number of Turkish Cypriots who appear in the records at the beginning of the 20^th century. Although the population of the village showed a slight increase during the first quarter of the 20^th century (233 in 1901 to 366 in 1946), a significant drop was recorded in 1960, when the population fell to 299.

Displacement:

Most of Flamoudi’s inhabitants fled from the village in August 1974. Currently, like the rest of the displaced Greek Cypriots, the Greek Cypriots of Flamoudi are scattered throughout the island’s south, with small pockets in towns. The number of Greek Cypriots from Flamoudi who were displaced after the 1974 war was approximately 250 (247 in 1960 census).

Current Inhabitants:

After the forced departure of the Greek Cypriots of Flamoudi, the village was mainly used for the settlement of Turkish nationals from Turkey in 1976 and 1977, mostly from the Çaykara district of the Trabzon province in the northeast Black Sea region. The 2006 Turkish Cypriot census puts the total population of the village at 169.   

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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)