COEXISTENCE IN THE DISAPPEARED MIXED NEIGHBOURHOODS OF NICOSIA

Ahmet AN
During the mediaeval period, the Pedios river used to run in the middle of Nicosia.
When the Venetians decided to build the walls surrounding the town in 1567, the rivers bed
was diverted for strategic reasons outside the walls, following its present course through the
Greater Nicosia. The old river-bed within the present city walls from Paphos Gate to
Famagusta Gate was covered in 1882 by the British in order to serve as the citys principal
drainage system. This line follows todays Paphos Street and the Ermu Street, which were
both lively centres for trade. There were four bridges on this river-bed: First one was near the
Paphos Gate, the second was at the place, where we call now Lokmadji Gate, the third was at
the junction, where the Goldsmithstreet near the Municipality Bazaar crosses the Tricoupis
Street and this was called Kprba (Head of the Gate) and the fourth one was at Tahtagala
Neighbourhood.
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 Paa, brahim Paa
and Mahmut Paa.
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
hodjas call for the prayers could get mixed with the sound of the church bells. For example
behind the Dkkanlarn 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 nonMoslems, 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
1. Abdi avu
74
2. Akkavuk
107
3. Arab Ahmet
576
4. Aya Sofya
632
5. Ayii Omoloyitadhes
1678
6. Ayios Andreas
(Tophane)
2224
7. Ay.Antonios
2045
8. Ay.Ioannis
1375
9. Ay.Kassianos

Moslem
799
1094
846
1239
9

Others Total
29
1
1195
65
123

902
1202
2617
1936
1810

152
7
57

636
38
4

3012
2090
1436

(Kafesli)
10. Ay.Loucas
11. Ay.Savas
12. Haydar Paa
13. brahim Paa
14. Karamanzade
15. Chrysaliniotissa
16. Korkut Efendi &
plik Pazar
17. Mahmut Paa
18. Nbethane
19. merge
20. Phaneromeni
21. Tahtakale
22. Tabakhane
23. Tripiotis
24. Yeni Cami
Total:

1061
263
1211
45
650
124
865

115
536
39
334
1539
61
29

1
7
16
6
145
412
7

1177
806
1266
385
2334
597
901

116
61
438
917
1065
902
701
2982
656
20,768

232
713
19
249
10
518
20
27
1686
10,330

208
101
63
27
13
13
36
238
3
3,387

556
875
520
1193
1088
1433
757
3247
2345
34,485

Within the walls:

24,967
Outside the walls:
9,518 in quarters like Kkliftlik (part of Arab Ahmet
Neighb.), Yeni Kap (New Gate-part of Yeni Djami N.) and Yeni ehir (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 Mandralar,
Byk Kaymakl, Kk Kaymakl (Omorphita), Ortaky, Pallouriotissa, Strovolos and
Trakhonas (Kzlba).
(Source: Report by D.A.Percival, Cyprus: Census of Population and Agriculture, 1946,
Report and Tables, London 1949)
ARAP AHMET NEIGHBOURHOOD
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 highranking 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 cannons 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 1950s.
In September 1945, the Ottoman name of the Tophane neighbourhood was changed
into Ayios Andreas. The nearby small neighbourhoods of Tabakhane and Nbethane 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 Yank 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. Yank 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 Halkn 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 Halkn 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 Yank 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.
Nbethane was the headquarters of the Ottoman soldiers, patrolling the town. Until he
died in 1956, Hodja Salih Efendi used to open the Nbethane Mesdjit at the corner of the
Pygmalion (previously izmeci) Street and the Paleon Patron Germanou (previously Usta
Kadi) Streets. Artemis Street was previously called Nbethane 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 Kalkanc
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 evket 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 Masters Voice, Singer and Hilmann. Musa Efendis other
son, Reit Nomer was a judge in Istanbul. His daughter Nezire Hanm 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 Hac Salih
Aa, Tabak Hac Mehmet Bekta Efendi, Debba Fellah Efendi, Tabak Emin Efendi
(Grandfather of Kemal Rustem) and Tabak Mulla smail Aa. Pharmacist Hasan Hilmi Bey,
who was the father of Mrs. efika 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 Manizades home, whose family were living also in the same Vasilis
Vulgaroktonou (Behet 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 (MLLET BAHASI)
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 1890s to move the tannery away from the town, to Kkliftlik (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 Hrsz 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 1950s. 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 Hrsz 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 ar (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 Aa, 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 1950s. 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 Aa 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 signboardmaker 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 Hseyin 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 Hanm 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 Dayan, the manifacturer; Ali Riza Efendi, the tradesman; Osman
Msrlzade and others.
WOMENS BAZAAR (KADINLAR PAZARI, YENEKOPAZARO)
The Womens 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 Womens 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 Womens Market. This area was known as the Garden
of Orta Odas 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.
AYIOS LOUCAS NEIGHBOURHOOD
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 intercommunal violence intensified. On 27th April 1956, the Turkish Cypriot newspaper Halkn
Sesi wrote in its main title the following:
Curfew was declared and applied in Nicosia yesterday afternoon from 5 oclock until
4 oclock 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.
Halkn 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.Gzmen 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
Gnyeli 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 MasonNixon 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.
Resources:
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. Grkan, Hamet M., Nicosia of Yesterday and Today, Nicosia 1989 (Turkish)
4. Hikmetaalar, Hizber, Eski Lefkoada Semtler ve Anlar, stanbul 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
(This paper was read at the conference, Nicosia: The Last Divided Capital in Europe,
organized by the London Metropolitan University on 20th June 2011)