Kioneli / Gönyeli

Gönyeli Κιόνελι -
Basic data
State :	Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (de facto)
District :	Nicosia
Geographic coordinates :	35 ° 13 ′  N , 33 ° 18 ′  E Coordinates: 35 ° 13 ′  N , 33 ° 18 ′  E
Residents :	17,277 (2011)
Mayor :	Ahmet Yalçın Benli
Website:	Municipality of Gönyeli

Gönyeli , Greek Κιόνελι Kioneli , is a small town in the north of the Mediterranean island of Cyprus in the Lefkoşa district of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus . Formally, the place belongs to the Nicosia District of the Republic of Cyprus .

Surname

The origin of the name is unclear, but it is assumed that the name is derived from the Turkish Konyalı . Konyalı means something like person from Konya . The Cypriot Turks claim that they emigrated from the Anatolian city of Konya to today's Kioneli after the Ottomans conquered Cyprus in 1570/71 . While before the Turkish rule in the north of the island from 1974 almost all place names were of Greek origin, a series of renaming began, with Kioneli being an exception, as it had been called that since Ottoman times, as Sarah Ladbury and Russell King stated in 1988.

geography

Kioneli is close to the capital Nicosia . Over the years, Kioneli and North Nicosia merged , but Gönyeli forms its own municipality.

population

The small town was already inhabited by Cypriot Turks in 1831 . In 1831 there were 82 Cypriot Turks, in 1960 in 1377 and in 1973 in 1745. After the invasion of Turkish armed forces in 1974, the population increased as many Turks emigrated from mainland Turkey to the Turkish federal state of Cyprus . In 1978 there were 2495 Cypriot Turks in Kioneli, 6617 in 1996 and 12,186 in 2006. In 2011, Kioneli was one of the largest towns in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus with 17,277 inhabitants.

Web links

• Municipality of Gönyeli
• Information about Gönyeli in English

Remarks

1. ^ Sarah Ladbury, Russell King: Settlement renaming in Turkish Cyprus , in: Geography 73,4 (1988) 363-367, here: p. 363 f.