Galateia

Galateia (Greek: Γαλάτεια, Turkish: Mehmetçik) is village located on the Karpass peninsula in Northern Cyprus.

Village has a football team, which currently participates to North Cyprus 2nd Division. Supporters cheers their team as Ne F-16lar, ne de fuzeler, Mehmetcigi yenmek, BOYLE got ister!. This slogan is known in all Cyprus. However fans are cheering this slogan while their team wins. Otherwise they cheer Burasi Galatya, burdan cikis yok. Which means Here is Galatia, you cant get out from here. Certainly they mean it. If team loses, fans are getting out of control and attacks to opponent players, if fans don't, then players take the responsibility.

Also village is famous with its well-known grape festival during the summer times. From all around Cyprus, people travels to spend time in this festival.

Village and its habitats are also well-known Zivania and Sucuk producers. Village has wine-yards and grapes are one of the most product which villagers exports to other areas of Cyprus.

This was a Turkish-Cypriot enclave pre-1974 with no Greek-Cypriot inhabitants, unlike the vast majority of the surrounding villages in the Karpas peninsula. It is also believed to have been a hot-bed of Turkish-Cypriot militancy (through membership of paramilitary groups like Volkan and TMT) during the troubled times of the struggle for Independence (1955-1959) and post Independence (1963-74 period). Turkish-Cypriots from all over the island were believed to visit Galateia to be indoctrinated in nationalist fanaticism and strong anti-Hellenic tendencies.

It is believed that military personnel and other government officials from mainland Turkey would visit Turkish-Cypriot communities in Cyprus (including Galateia) to have clandestine meetings with Turkish-Cypriot elders and leaders, as part of the greater Turkish desire for "taksim" or partition of the island along ethnic lines. Similarly, it is believed that British agents also visited the village's leaders to provided them with arms and intelligence, both during the late 1950s and post Independence in the 1960s whilst being part of the United Nations presence on the island as so-called peacekeepers.

During the dark days of the period 1963-74, Greek-Cypriot civilians were too frightened to enter the village to visit Turkish-Cypriot friends or to do trade there. Many were too frightened to even pass through or use the road network to get to other villages via Galateia. Harassment of Greek-Cypriots by Galateians was frequent.

It is also believed to be a village where some of the inhabitants took part in the mass murder of Greek-Cypriots civilians after the Army of Turkey invaded the island in the summer of 1974. Some armed Turkish-Cypriot Galateians who were members of the terrorist TMT paramilitary group, accompanied Turkish soldiers to nearby villages with Greek-Cypriot populations in mid-August 1974. They provided local knowledge, often through rumour, conjecture and forced confessions (by intimidation and torture) to round up civilian males between the ages of 16 and 60. Any "suspects" amongst these men were taken to Galateia where some were executed and others are still missing. Some bodies have since been unearthed on the outskirts of local villages and returned to their families, under the auspices of United Nations Missing Persons teams, for burial in accordance to Greek-Orthodox traditions.