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Milia, or Milea, is a village located in the Famagusta district. The village is situated in the Mesaoria/Mesarya plain, three kilometers northeast of Peristerona Pigi and six kilometers southeast of Lefkonoiko/Geçitkale. Milia means “apple tree” in Greek. In 1975, Turkish Cypriots renamed the village Yıldırım, after the village in south Cyprus from which many of the village’s current inhabitants derived. Yıldırım was the alternative Turkish name of the village of Kellia(357) in the Larnaca district. The name means “thunderbolt.”

 

 

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 steadily increased from 410 in 1901 to 1,141 in 1960.

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 Milia are scattered throughout the island’s south, with small pockets in towns. The number of the Milia Greek Cypriots who were displaced in 1974 was around 1,140 (1,134 in the 1973 census).

Current Inhabitants:

Today the village is mainly inhabited by displaced Turkish Cypriots from Kellia(357) village in the Larnaca district. The 2006 census puts the village’s population at 542.   

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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)