GOUFES

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Goufes village lies thirty kilometers northwest of the town of Famagusta, on the southern foothills of the Five Finger mountain range. The origin of the name is obscure, Turkish Cypriots adopted an alternative Turkish name, Çamlıca in 1958, which means “place of pine trees.”
 
 
Historical Population:

As can be seen from the chart above, Goufes was always a mixed village, with a Turkish Cypriot majority until 1974. Over the course of the twentieth century, the Turkish Cypriot proportion of the population fluctuated between 71% and 85%. In 1960 Turkish Cypriots constituted almost 74% of the population.

Displacement:

Due to certain disturbances and tension caused by the general intercommunal strife in 1963-4, many of the Greek Cypriots of the village fled. The village came under the control of the Turkish Cypriot “Provisional Administration” between 1964 and 1974, being made part of the Chatos(135) subdivision. Goufes also temporarily hosted some displaced Turkish Cypriots who fled from nearby villages in 1964. The geographer Richard Patrick recorded six displaced Turkish Cypriots still living in the village in 1971. According to the same author, there were only sixteen Greek Cypriots left in the village by 1971.These persons also had to leave the village (two of them were killed) in August 1974, fleeing from the advancing Turkish army to the southern part of the island. Currently, like the rest of the displaced Greek Cypriots, the Greek Cypriots of Goufes are scattered throughout the island’s south. The displaced population of Goufes could be estimated to be around 100 since its Greek Cypriot population was 87 in 1960.

Current Inhabitants:

Currently the village is mainly occupied by its original Turkish Cypriot inhabitants.The 2006 Turkish Cypriot census put the village’s population at 95. Due to the migration of youth to find jobs in the cities and abroad, the village’s population has declined considerably, from 178 in 1978 to 95 in 2006.   


 
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