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Limnia is a village located in the Famagusta district, northwest of the city of Famagusta. The village is situated in the Mesaoria/Mesarya plain, five kilometers west of Salamis. The name Limnia derives from the word limni, meaning “lake” in Greek. In 1975, Turkish Cypriots renamed the village Mormenekşe, after the village in south Cyprus from which many of the village’s current inhabitants derived. Mormenekşe was the alternative Turkish name of the village of Dromolaxia(353) in the Larnaca district.

 

 

As can be seen from the chart above, in the Ottoman census of 1831, Christians (Greek Cypriots) constituted the only inhabitants of the village. Throughout the British period the village was solely inhabited by Greek Cypriots. Its population steadly increased from 668 in 1901 to 1,201 in 1960. The last recorded census (1973) before the 1974 war put the population at 1,330.

Displacement:

All of the village’s inhabitants were displaced in 1974. They fled in August 1974 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 Limnia are scattered throughout the island’s south, with small pockets in towns. The number of the Limnia Greek Cypriots who were displaced in 1974 was around 1,350 (1,330 in the 1973 census).

Current Inhabitants:

Today the village is mainly inhabited by displaced Turkish Cypriots from Dromolaxia(353), Aplanda(344), Anafotida(349), Softades(373) and Klavdia(359) villages in the Larnaca district. There are also some Turkish nationals, mainly from the Feke district of Adana province in Turkey, who settled here in 1976 and 1977. The 1996 Turkish Cypriot census recorded that almost 13 % of the villagers showed Turkey as their birthplace. The 2006 census puts the village’s population at 923.  

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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)