Gerani / Turnalar

Gerani / Turnalar Γεράνι Turnalar
Basic data
State :	Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (de facto)
District :	İskele
Geographic coordinates :	35 ° 22 ′  N , 33 ° 55 ′  E Coordinates: 35 ° 22 ′  N , 33 ° 55 ′  E
Residents :	142 (2011)

Gerani or Yerani or Turnalar (Greek: Γεράνι) is a village on the Karpas peninsula in the northeast of the Mediterranean island of Cyprus , 8 km northeast of Trikomo / İskele , on the southern slope of the Kyrenia Mountains . Gerani goes back to the Greek word for 'cranes'. The Turkish translation turnalar became the place name in 1975 after the Greek Cypriots had fled the village the previous year.

history

In 1831, while the island was still part of the Ottoman Empire , the place had 18 male heads of household (only these were counted). In 1891, under British colonial rule, there were 171 "Greeks", which was equated with Christians in the British censuses, and two "Turks", which was equated analogously with Muslims. Apart from the 1891 census, only Greeks lived in the village until the 1974 expulsion. The population of Gerani grew from 217 in 1901 to 252 in 1911, ten years later to 301 and by 1931 to 366. 358 Greeks inhabited the village in 1946, but the population fell to 211 by 1960, and to 170 by 1973.

In July and August 1974, like almost everywhere in northern Cyprus, most of the non-Turks fled from the advancing Turkish troops.

In 1976 Turks who came from the provinces of Konya and Denizli were settled in the place . In 1978 the town, now called Turnalar, had 90 inhabitants, a number that rose to 138 by 1996. It remained largely stable (2006: 134; 2011: 142).

While the church of Agia Aikaterini was converted into a mosque, the chapel of Panagia Evangelistria served as a barn. Agios Georgios was completely destroyed and is now a ruin.

Web links

• Table on population growth since 1831 and the recent history (Engl.)

Remarks

1. ↑ Agia Aikaterini
2. ^ Panagia Evangelistria
3. ^ Agios Georgios
4. ↑ Samuel Andrew Hardy: Interrogating Archaeological Ethics in Conflict Zones: Cultural Heritage Work in Cyprus , Diss., University of Sussex, 2010, p. 97 ( online , PDF) seems to have made a mistake here. He states: "the Church of Agios Georgios has been 'converted into a mosque' and the Chapel of Panagia Evangelistria has been 'desecrated' ..., while the Church of Agia Katerina and its cemetery have been first 'desecrated' ... 'then' completely destroyed '".