At the time of the Ottoman conquest of Nicosia in 1570, the town was originally divided into 12 neighbourhoods and the 12 generals in command of the divisions of the Ottoman Army, which conquered the island, were posted to these neighbourhoods, so that the names were said to be derived from these 12 generals, like Arab Ahmet Paşa, İbrahim Paşa and Mahmut Paşa.
Later the old city Nicosia was divided into 24 neighbourhoods. Each neighbourhood was organized around a mosque or a church, where mainly the respective Moslem and Christian communities lived. It was natural to have a church near a mosque or mesdjit and the hodja’s call for the prayers could get mixed with the sound of the church bells. For example behind the Dükkanlarönü Djami on the Paphos Street, there were the Armenian and the Catholic Churches or the Ayios Loucas Church was near the Akkavuk Mesdjit. Near the Phaneromeni Church was the Araplar Mosque, which was used until 1951.
In some neighbourhoods, the majority population were Turkish Cypriots and in the others the Greek Cypriots. In the Arab Ahmet and Karamanzade neighbourhoods, the Armenian Cypriots were the majority. Almost all of the Nicosians were living mixed, in other words the Mohammedans or the Turkish Cypriots and the Christians or the Greek Cypriots and the other ethnicities used to live as neighbours side by side.
In the census of 1946, the population of Nicosia was 34,485 and in this census report, the distribution of the population was given for the first time not as “Moslems” and “non-Moslems”, but according to their ethnic origins, such as Turks, Greeks, Armenians, Maronites etc.
In 1946, there were 10,330 Turkish Cypriots, 20,768 Greek Cypriots and 3,387 persons of ethnic origin living in Nicosia.
Population in Nicosia in
1946
Neighbourhood Christian Moslem Others Total
1. Abdi
Çavuş 74 799 29 902
2. Akkavuk 107 1094 1 1202
3. Arab
Ahmet 576 846 1195 2617
4. Aya Sofya 632 1239 65 1936
5. Ayii Omoloyitadhes 1678 9 123 1810
6. Ayios Andreas
(Tophane) 2224 152 636 3012
7. Ay.Antonios 2045 7 38 2090
8. Ay.Ioannis 1375 57 4 1436
9. Ay.Kassianos
(Kafesli) 1061 115 1 1177
10. Ay.Loucas 263 536 7 806
11. Ay.Savas 1211 39 16 1266
12. Haydar
Paşa 45 334 6 385
13. İbrahim
Paşa 650 1539 145 2334
14. Karamanzade 124 61 412 597
15. Chrysaliniotissa 865 29 7 901
16. Korkut
Efendi &
İplik Pazarı 116 232 208 556
17. Mahmut
Paşa 61 713 101 875
18. Nöbethane 438 19 63 520
19. Ömerge 917 249 27 1193
20. Phaneromeni 1065 10 13 1088
21. Tahtakale 902 518 13 1433
22. Tabakhane 701 20 36 757
23. Tripiotis 2982 27 238 3247
24. Yeni Cami 656 1686 3 2345
Total: 20,768 10,330 3,387 34,485
Within the walls: 24,967
Outside the walls: 9,518 in quarters like Köşklüçiftlik (part of
Arab Ahmet Neighb.), Yeni Kapı (New Gate-part of Yeni Djami N.) and Yeni Şehir
(Neapolis-part of Ibrahim Pasha N.).
In the outskirts of the old city Nicosia, there were 9 villages, where a total of 18,839 persons were living. These
villages were Ayios Dhometios (Incirli), Eylenje, Hamit Mandraları, Büyük
Kaymaklı, Küçük Kaymaklı (Omorphita), Ortaköy, Pallouriotissa, Strovolos and
Trakhonas (Kızılbaş).
(Source: Report by
D.A.Percival, Cyprus: Census of Population and Agriculture, 1946, Report and
Tables, London 1949)
Arab Ahmet neighbourhood was the most prestigious
residential area of Nicosia, where the Turkish high-ranking officials and the Kadis and the
Pashas had their homes. First of all it
was near the old Ottoman Saray (previously Lusignan palace) and easy for the
high-ranking officials to go to their work on foot. Secondly it was the coolest
place in the evening during the summer. Because it could get the best of the
evening breeze, coming from the west, from the direction of the Morphou Bay into
the Mesoira plane.
When the Turks arrived, they confiscated the houses, the churches and the other properties of the Latins and settled mainly in the towns and in the empty Latin villages. The Greek Cypriots, the Armenians and the Maronites continued their living in their traditional quarters of the towns and the villages.
The Armenian Cypriots did not like the Latins and it was recorded that they opened the Paphos Gate and helped the Ottoman soldiers to enter into Nicosia during the siege of the town on 9th September 1570. Later the control of the Paphos Gate was given to the Armenians as a gift, together with the Benedictine Monastry, which was used by the Latins. With a special firman of the Ottoman Sultan, the Armenians could use for their religious services both the Monastry and the Church near the Paphos Gate.
Many other Armenians, who escaped from the massacre in Anatolia, settled in the Arab Ahmet neighbourhood and lived there until the inter-communal troubles of 1963, when they were forced by the TMT, the Turkish Cypriot fascist organization, to leave to the south of the Green Line.
Since most of the Armenians, who came from Anatolia could speak the Turkish language, they preferred to live side by side with the Turkish Cypriots, using the same language. The Armenians were known as tradesmen and they were famous especially in the fields of jewelry, tailory, photography and carpet-selling.
During the Ottoman period, the Lusignan Palace in Sarayonu Square was taken over by the Turkish governor of the island and until the British demolished it in 1905, one could see its last remains. The British built there in 1901 the present Law Courts. The only remains of this Lusignan Palace is a unique carved window in Gothic style, common to cathedrals in the 15th century, which is kept now in the Lapidary Museum near Ayia Sophia Mosque.
Until the inter-communal troubles started in 1956, there were a lot of law offices around the Nicosia Sarayonu Law Courts, belonging to the famous Greek Cypriot lawyers like John Clerides, the father of Glafkos Clerides. The Nicosia main police station was also near Sarayonu Square during the British rule.
TOPHANE NEIGHBOURHOOD
Tophane was another prestigious neighbourhood, where Turkish, Greek and Armenian Cypriots used to coexist together with the Latins. Tophane means literally in Turkish the cannon’s house or the store for artillery ammunition. The mediaeval building near the Paphos Gate, Casteliotissa, was originally a part of the second Royal Palace of the Lusignans and it was used as a munitions-store by the Ottomans. Tophane gave the name of the nearby neighbourhood.
The Turkish Cypriot writer Hizber Hikmetagalar describes in his book “Heighbourhoods and Memories from old Nicosia” some Turkish and Armenian families from the Tophane neighbourhood, where Turkish Cypriots, Greek Cypriots, Armenians and Latins were living side by side until 1950’s.
In September 1945, the Ottoman name of the Tophane
neighbourhood was changed into Ayios Andreas. The nearby small neighbourhoods
of Tabakhane and Nöbethane were abolished and attached to the Ayios Andreas
neighbourhood, which after this had two muhtars, a Turkish Cypriot and a Greek
Cypriot.
The Turkish Cypriot daily newspaper Yankı wrote that a new church was to be built further to that neighbourhood near the Pedios river and Ayios Andreas would be the name of this church. Yankı was complaining on 17 September 1945 that there were Turkish Cypriot villages in Paphos district with the names of the Christian saints, like Ayios Nicholas, Ayios Yannis and that these names were never tried to be changed by the Turkish Cypriots. The daily Halkın Sesi reported on 16 October 1945 that all the three Turkish Cypriot members of the Nicosia Municipality Council gave a protest letter about this alteration to the Nicosia Commissioner on 15 October 1945, to be handed over to the British Governor.
The columnist Yavuz wrote in Halkın Sesi on 19 Ekim 1945 that the name of the Alemdar (Bairaktar) Street, used for 370 years, had been changed previously into Tricoupis Street. Hasan Fahri Uzman wrote on the same issue in Yankı newspaper on 29 October 1945 that the name of a historical Turkish neighbourhood was changed with the stroke of a pencil and that the British still use the Tophane as a store for armaments, which gave the name to the neighbourhood.
Ouzunian was the only Armenian street name in the Tophane neighbourhood. When Dikran Ouzunian bought the garden of a Turkish Cypriot, named Hadji Sofu, he parcelled the garden. The new street passing through the plot was given after his name. Nearby was the Tophane Mesdjidi.
No Turkish Cypriot was living in this neighbourhood after 1960 and the last Turkish name of the Tophane Mesdjidi Street, which was mainly resided by the Turkish Cypriots, was changed into Granikou Street after 1963.
Nöbethane was the headquarters of the Ottoman soldiers, patrolling the town. Until he died in 1956, Hodja Salih Efendi used to open the Nöbethane Mesdjit at the corner of the Pygmalion (previously Çizmeci) Street and the Paleon Patron Germanou (previously Usta Kadi) Streets. Artemis Street was previously called Nöbethane Street. Several shops were built in the garden of the mesdjit, hiding the main building behind them.
Tabakhane (the tannery) Mesdjit was on the Pericleus Street (previously Kalkancı Street), where Musa Nami Efendi used to live. He was a Turkish Cypriot village judge and one of the founders of the Nicosia Turkish Bank. His son Şevket Nami was also a village judge, later a tradesman on the Ledra Street as the general distributor of many trademarks for Cyprus like Quink, Parker, His Master’s Voice, Singer and Hilmann. Musa Efendi’s other son, Reşit Nomer was a judge in Istanbul. His daughter Nezire Hanım lived in their family house in the Pericleous Street until she died in 1960, as the last Turkish Cypriot, living in this neighbourhood.
Famous Turkish Cypriot tanners, who used to work at the tannery and live nearby within the walled city at the Tabakhane Neighbourhood, were Hallumazade Tabak Hacı Salih Ağa, Tabak Hacı Mehmet Bektaş Efendi, Debbağ Fellah Efendi, Tabak Emin Efendi (Grandfather of Kemal Rustem) and Tabak Mulla İsmail Ağa. Pharmacist Hasan Hilmi Bey, who was the father of Mrs. Şefika Durduran, used to live in the Megalu Aleksandru (Ahmet Efendi) Street. Old police chief Ali Raci Bey had to move to Izzet Efendi Street near Ayia Sophia, because his children were being harassed by the Greek Cypriot boys. He was the next door to Prof. Dervish Manizade’s home, whose family were living also in the same Vasilis Vulgaroktonou (Behçet Efendi) Street.
The famous bar of Antonaki was also on this street, serving all the ethnic communities of Nicosia like the other well-known bar, which belonged to the Armenian Cypriot Gamavor.
MUNICIPAL OR PUBLIC GARDEN
(MİLLET BAHÇASI)
Tannery was a traditional Turkish artisanship and the working place was just outside the Paphos Gate. After the British took over the administration of the island in 1878, they decided in 1890’s to move the tannery away from the town, to Köşklüçiftlik (old name was Tabana=Tabakhane), near the Pedios river. Later, when Koskluciftlik was populated with Turkish and Armenian houses, starting from 1930 onwards, the tannery was moved to another place near Piroyi village in 1953.
The site of the original tannery near Paphos Gate, which was Evkaf property, was turned into a public garden by the Nicosia Municipality, according to a proposal of the then British Delegate of Evkaf. Later this garden became the most popular and respected place for strolling Nicosians. When the Nicosia General Hospital was built in 1925 on a nearby plot, the importance of the Public Garden grew. There was a wooden pergola in the middle of the garden. Every Sunday the police band would give an open air concert under this pergola and the people used to go and listen to them as a weekend entertainment.
According to an article published in Hürsöz of 19 July 1953 under the title “Ahirevan Dede?”, the grave of the master of the old tanners was kept in the Public Gardens until the beginning of the 1950’s. This grave, which was supposed to belong to a certain “Vah Veli” (like the Grandfather Ahirevan-Shieh of the Tannery Guild), used to be visited by the newcomers to the profession as a respect. The Hürsöz writer was complaining that some Greek Cypriots hanged a picture there and started to call this grave as “Ayios Dimitrios”. He called the Evkaf Administration to take action against the decision of the Municipality Council, headed by the Greek Cypriot nationalist Dr. Dervis that changed the name.
TAHTAKALE
Tahtakale is the neighbourhood, near the Famagusta Gate. The Ottomans named it as “Taht-el-kale”, meaning the lower part of the fortress, i.e. Famagusta Gate. But the word was corrupted as “Tahtakale or Tahtagala”, meaning wooden fortress. The street going from the gate to the west was called Çarşı (Market) Street, now the Ammohosto Street.
Tahtakale
was one of the biggest mixed neighbourhoods of Nicosia with a population of 518
Turkish Cypriots and 902 Greek Cypriots. Now the only sign of this coexistence
is the Tahtakale Mosque and the Koran School, which were built in 1826 by the
Ottoman Governor Es-Seyyid Mehmet Ağa, at the same place of the old mosque.
There were also a small graveyard and a koran school for the minors, which had
its first teacher appointed in 1594. The Evkaf Administration built shops on
the site of the graveyard in the 1950’s. In 1881, there was a fountain near the
mosque, which Salvatore draw a picture of it, but it did not survive today. The
original minaret was cracked in 1936 and it was rebuilt in 1948.
Hasan Karabardak Ağa was one of the most popular personalities of Tahtagala neighbourhood, where several Turkish Cypriot butchers and cattle-dealers used to live. Karabardak was one of the rich Turkish Cypriots, who were imprisoned during the First World War in the Kyrenia Castle, because they were accused of helping the Germans.
The imam of the Tahtagala Mosque was Ratip Efendi until 1935. He was the father of Ahmet Ziyaeddin Bey, the owner of first Turkish Cypriot macaroni factory. The signboard-maker Cahit Usta was the son of Ahmet Efendi, the muezzin of the Tahtagala Mosque. In front of the mosque was a Greek Cypriot businessman, making gyps-powder out of the baked gyps masses. Behind his shop was the mosaic factory of Pittarilli, that had its entrance from the Ermu Street. The first Turkish Cypriot cheese producers, Ahmet and Hüseyin Efendi brothers, were also among the well-known inhabitants, that had later their workshop in Kaimakli.
The Turkish Cypriots living in the Tahtagala neighbourhood were forced to leave their home twice, in 1958 and in 1963. That is why the younger generations do not remember Tahtagala as a Turkish Cypriot settlement.
OMERIYE
In the southern part of Nicosia and again near the Archbishopric there is another neighbourhood, called Omeriye with a population of 249 Turkish Cypriots and 917 Greek Cypriots in 1946. The Omeriye Mosque was the second biggest Christian place of worship after Ayia Sophia Cathedral in Nicosia, which was turned into a mosque by the Ottomans after the conquest of Nicosia. It was believed that Chalif Omer prayed in the sofa of this Chapel of St.Marie des Augustin. After the conquest, Lala Mustafa Pasha turned it into a mosque.
The last muhtari and muezzin of Omeriye Mosque was Ahmet Seyfi Efendi, who was addicted to snuffing. His daughter, Peyker Hanım was killed by the EOKA fighters, who asked from her a glass of water and as she went to bring it, she was shot from behind.
The Omeriye Mosque, which has two balconies like the one in Peristerona, is used today by Moslems other than the Turkish Cypriots and the Turkish Bath Omeriye is renovated and is used as a tourist attraction that won a Europa Nostra Prize. The street near the hamam was called Soutsos Street,which was out of bounds as there were borthels, where Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot women were serving the men from both communities. Karannaki was famous helping the youngsters with his syringe after their visits to the borthels.
Among the Turkish Cypriot big landowners in this neighbourhood, we can name Galip Bey, the shopkeeper; Ata Dayanç, the manifacturer; Ali Riza Efendi, the tradesman; Osman Mısırlızade and others.
WOMEN’S BAZAAR (KADINLAR
PAZARI, YENEKOPAZARO)
The Women’s Bazaar was on the east side of the Makri Dromo (Uzun Yol) which is called today Ledra Street and it used to convene on every Friday. It was established in 1850 by the Ottoman governor of Cyprus, Mehmet Ali Pasha, whose aim was to promote the trade within the island. He also established the weekly “Animal Bazaar” outside the Kyrenia Gate. It was originally convened every September for fifteen days and the villagers from far villages used to bring their animals to be sold there. There were also people coming from the neighbouring countries to buy animals and to shop in the Women’s Bazaar. (Ses, 26 February 1937, No.:82)
According to Kevork K.Keshishian, the courtyard of the extensive square block of shops and offices within Ledra, Liperti, Phaneromeni and Nicocles Streets, which belonged to the Phaneromeni Church, was used as Women’s Market. This area was known as the Garden of Orta Odası with a Persian well in the middle (alakadi in Greek and dolap kuyusu in Turkish). The owner lived in Istanbul and in 1893 the Phaneromeni Church Committee bought the place for 1100 Ottoman pounds through the intermediary of Michali Papadopoulos of Istanbul.
Many Greek Cypriots used to live in this neighbourhood around the Ayios Loucas Church in the northern part of Nicosia until the first inter-communal clashes in Nicosia in 1956. Ayios Loucas Church was dedicated to St.Luke and was built in 1758 in dressed limestone during the Ottoman period.
18th October was the day of festivities in the name of Ayios Loucas, which was the most famous fair (panayiri) within the walls of Nicosia. A four-day- and- four- night-fair was organised annually in honour of Ayios Loucas, during which local products and seasonal fresh fruits and dried fruits, almonds and walnuts were sold, together with delicious shamishi and lokmades. The sweets, called pastellis, were brought in wooden boxes from Kazafani and the sudjuko, paluze and koefteri from the villages of Paphos.
However, by 1956, when the EOKA and later the TMT intensified their terror activities, the Greek Cypriot inhabitants of the Ayios Loucas neighbourhood were forced to leave their homes and also the church was evacuated. The Ayios Loucas Church remained in ruins until it was restored in 1986 and it was allocated to the Turkish Cypriot Folklore Association (HASDER).
PARTITION POLICY DIVIDED
NICOSIA FIRST IN 1956
After the attack of the
EOKA on the Turkish Cypriot villagers in Vasilia and the killing of a Turkish
Cypriot policeman, who was chasing two EOKA fighters, the inter-communal
violence intensified. On 27th April 1956, the Turkish Cypriot newspaper Halkın
Sesi wrote in its main title the following:
“Curfew was declared
and applied in Nicosia yesterday afternoon from 5 o’clock until 4 o’clock this
morning... During the 11 hours of curfew, the town was divided into North and South
Nicosia, like East and West Berlin. The street from Paphos Gate until the
Famagusta Gate remained closed at all.”
Halkın Sesi wrote in
its edition on 28th April 1956:
“The Greek Cypriots,
who had their homes, offices or shops in the Turkish neighbourhoods, have
started to look for places in the Greek Cypriot neighbourhoods, so that they
could abandon their previous dwellings.”
Bozkurt daily newspaper
wrote on 3rd June 1957 about the first step of the partition policy of the Turkish
Cypriot leadership: “Yesterday, after a meeting of the Cyprus is Turkish Party,
the Turkish Cypriot councillors in the Municipalities of Nicosia and other
districts gave up their resignations all together.”
Bozkurt reported on
24th June 1958 that Dr.Tahsin S.Gözmen was named by the T/C leadership as the Turkish
Cypriot mayor of the Turkish Cypriot Municipality of Nicosia. The others were
named later.
Then came the TMT
provocations, when the Turkish Information Centre of the Turkish Consulate in
Nicosia was bombed by the TMT on 7th June 1958, after which the Greek Cypriot
properties and houses were attacked and put on fire in the mixed neighbourhoods
by the Turkish Cypriot terrorists. This was followed on 12th June by the Gönyeli
provocation of the British police, where 8 Greek Cypriots were killed.
In June 1958, 600 Greek Cypriot families were forced to leave their traditional neighbourhoods, where they used to live side by side with the Turkish Cypriots. The grocery shops of the Greek Cypriots in the municipality market near the Ayia Sophia Mosque were looted by the Turkish Cypriot terrorists and on 26th June 1958 the municipal market was left to the Turkish Cypriot sector of the divided municipality by the British colonial government.
The partition line of Nicosia, drawn two years ago in 1956, was running through the Paphos, Ermu and Famagusta Streets and the same line was used in summer 1958 in order to divide the Turkish Cypriot and the Greek Cypriot sector of Nicosia with the barbed wires, which left the people from either community to the mercy of the other. This so-called Mason-Dixon line was used originally in 1767, because of the border disagreement between the States of Maryland and Pennsylvania in the USA.
It was the same line used again as the basis for the Green-line drawn by a green pencil in December 1963 during the inter-communal clashes. As you know the line dividing Nicosia, which was about 4 miles long (6.4 km) was extended through the whole island along the 180 km. in the summer of 1974, completing the imperialist partition plan of the Anglo-Americans.
1. An, Ahmet, The Values Cyprus Cultivated, Volume: 1 (1782-1899), Ankara 2002
(Turkish)
2. An, Ahmet, The
Political History of the Turkish Cypriots (1930-1960): The Forgotten Political
History of the Turkish Cypriots and the
Struggles for the Leadership in the Mirror of the Press,
Nicosia 2006 (Turkish)
3. Gürkan, Haşmet M., Nicosia of Yesterday and Today, Nicosia 1989
(Turkish)
4. Hikmetağalar, Hizber, Eski Lefkoşa’da Semtler ve Anılar, İstanbul
1996 (Turkish)
5. Keshishian, Kevork K., Nicosia, Capital of Cyprus, Then and Now,
Nicosia 1978
6. Kyrris, Costas P., Peaceful Co-existence in Cyprus under British Rule
(1878-1959) and
after Independence: An
Outline, Nicosia 1977
