Agridaki is a Greek community in the occupied part of the Keryneia district. It lies 16 kilometres west of Keryneia, at an elevation of 430 metres, on the southern slopes of the Pentadaktylos. Above the village, on its land, rises Kyparissovouno, the highest peak of the range.¹ In the 1960 census it had 286 inhabitants, all of them Greeks.

Turkish rule

The oldest written record of the village that has been found is the property survey made by the Ottoman administration in 1832/33, which recorded only those who held property. In Agridaki 26 households holding property are recorded, and among the owners a priest, Papa-Ilias. The households had wheat fields, cotton fields, small gardens, threshing floors and 719 trees, most of them olives, but also mulberry, almond and carob trees. They also had an olive press, a hundred goats, six pairs of oxen, cows and beehives.²

Churches and monasteries

The Greek Orthodox church of the village, in its centre, is dedicated to Saint Charalambos and dates from the eighteenth or nineteenth century.³

On the land of the village there is also the ruined country chapel of Agios Gordianos. According to the Union of Communities of Keryneia District, the villagers called it “Ais Orkianos” and celebrated the saint on 3 January.⁴

Economy and society

According to the Great Cyprian Encyclopaedia, on the land of the village dry crops were grown, mainly wheat, often among carob trees, while to the north stretched the Pentadaktylos forest. The land did not favour much development, and nearby Lefkosia gave work to many of the inhabitants.⁵ The Union of Communities of Keryneia District also mentions stock-raising and olive growing, with three olive presses in the village, one motor-driven and two traditional.⁶

Population

According to the Great Cyprian Encyclopaedia, the village had 165 inhabitants in 1881, 185 in 1891, 225 in 1901, 260 in 1911 and 288 in 1921.⁷ In 1931 Agridaki had 239 inhabitants, all of them Christians, and in 1946 316, all of them Orthodox (the 1931 and 1946 censuses recorded only religion). In 1960 it had 286 inhabitants, all of them Greeks, and in 1973 261 Greeks. In the school year 1973–74 the village’s Greek elementary school had 30 pupils and one teacher.

National struggles

In the Enosis plebiscite of 1950, 185 inhabitants signed, practically all the adult Greek inhabitants. The Register of EOKA Fighters lists 10 Greek inhabitants of the village who took part in or supported the Struggle.

The EOKA fighter Prodromos Xenofontos came from Agridaki.⁸

The Turkish invasion of 1974

During the Turkish invasion of 1974 Agridaki was captured by the Turkish army and its Greek population was subjected to ethnic cleansing. Since then the Turkish occupation forces and the illegal occupation authority prevent their return.

One inhabitant of Agridaki, a soldier, was recorded as missing; he went missing in the area of Klepini, Mia Milia and Neo Chorio Kythreas, and his remains have been located and identified. In the area of the village itself seven soldiers were killed in the fighting of 1974.

The church of Agios Charalambos was desecrated and looted. By 2018 its bell had been removed, all objects except the altar had been taken from its interior, and it was being used as a hay barn and storeroom. The village’s Greek Orthodox cemetery had almost fallen into ruin.⁹