Al-Hamidiyah

Al Hamidiyah[1]
الحميدية
Town
Al Hamidiyah[1]

Location in Syria

Coordinates: 34°43′N 35°56′E / 34.717°N 35.933°E / 34.717; 35.933Coordinates: 34°43′N 35°56′E / 34.717°N 35.933°E / 34.717; 35.933
Country  Syria
Governorate Tartus
District Tartus
Subdistrict Al-Hamidiyah
Population (2004)
 • Total 7,404
Time zone EET (UTC+2)
 • Summer (DST) +3 (UTC)

Al Hamidiyah[1] (Arabic: الحميدية‎, translit. al-Hamidiyya‎) is a town on the Syrian coast, about 3 km from the Lebanese border. The town was founded in a very short time on the direct orders of the Ottoman Sultan ‘Abdu’l-Hamid II around 1897, to serve as a refuge for the Greek speaking Muslim Cretans.[2] They had been forced to leave Crete during the 1897-98 Greco-Turkish War and were resettled by Sultan 'Abdu'l-Hamid II in Hamidiyah and other coastal areas of the Levant and as far as Libya. The majority still speak Cretan Greek in their daily lives. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics, al-Hamidiyah had a population of 7,404 in the 2004 census.[3] Today, Grecophone Hamidiyah residents identify themselves as Cretan Muslims, and not as Cretan Turks as is the case with some in Tripoli.[4]

Syrian Civil War

The town remains under Syrian Government control.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Günümüzde Suriye Türkmenleri. — Suriye’de Değişimin Ortaya Çıkardığı Toplum: Suriye Türkmenleri. ORSAM Rapor № 83. ORSAM – Ortadoğu Türkmenleri Programı Rapor № 14. Ankara — Kasım 2011, 33 sayfa.
  2. ↑ Werner, Arnold (2000). “The Arabic dialects in the Turkish province of Hatay and the Aramaic dialects in the Syrian mountains of Qalamun: two minority languages compared”. In Owens, Jonathan, (ed.). Arabic as a minority language. Walter de Gruyter. p. 358. “Greek speaking Cretan Muslims”.
  3. ↑ General Census of Population and Housing 2004. Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). Tartus Governorate. (in Arabic)
  4. ↑ The forgotten Turks: Turkmens of Lebanon Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine. (report). Center for Middle Eastern Strategic Studies. February 2010. Retrieved 8-5-2015. p. 14. "The locals of Hamidiye do not describe themselves as Cretan Turks, but as Cretan Muslims or Ottomans (Kiritlar = Cretans in turkish). Some locals in Tripoli define themselves as Cretan Turks."
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