Kremma tou Kamilou is an occupied settlement of Panagra, in the Keryneia district. It lies 23 kilometres west of Keryneia, at an elevation of 60 metres, within the administrative boundaries of the community of Panagra, about one kilometre north of the village.¹ In the 1960 census it had 4 inhabitants, all of them Greeks.

Name

The origin of the name is not known from an authoritative source. In the censuses of British rule the name is written in Latin characters as “Kremama Kamilou”. The official place-name index of Cyprus (the Gazetteer) records it as “Kremma tou Kamilou”, while the Great Cyprian Encyclopaedia writes it “Kremmima tou Kamilou”.²

Founding and first records

The Gazetteer records Kremma tou Kamilou as a settlement on the land of Panagra, a little north of the village.³ It appears as a separate settlement in the censuses of 1931, 1946 and 1960.

Population

Kremma tou Kamilou always remained very small. In 1931 it had 33 inhabitants, all of them Christians, and in 1946 23, all of them Orthodox (the censuses of 1931 and 1946 recorded only religion). By 1960 only 4 inhabitants remained, all of them Greeks. In the 1973 census the settlement is not recorded separately.

The Turkish invasion of 1974

During the Turkish invasion of 1974 Kremma tou Kamilou was captured by the Turkish army, together with neighbouring Panagra, and the Greek inhabitants of the area were subjected to ethnic cleansing. Since then the Turkish occupation forces and the illegal occupation authority prevent their return.