Kyrenia, Cyprus. Kyrenia has retained a powerful hold over the imagination of many displaced residents, including one family whose father remembers the town as the setting of an idyllic childhood abruptly interrupted.
Raised with the understanding that the family lived in exile, his child grew up aware of the distance from the northern town, described as an Eden beyond reach.
Family history and the land
The father was born into an established family whose comfortable existence had been built through generations of farming and enterprise. As the latest in a long line of men whose fortunes were connected to the land, he was particularly drawn to the land itself.
Family stories included accounts of Peloponnesian rebels who fled to Cyprus and merchants from Crete who came ashore and found refuge in Karmi.
Memories of Kyrenia
“I loved the nature in Kyrenia, above anything else. We had everything we needed right there, it was paradise,” he says.
For him, that sense of paradise extended beyond the lemon orchards and hills to the close relationships formed there.
Childhood friendships
A rebel and truant during his time at gymnasium, he formed lifelong friendships with Soteris Charalambides and Petros Hadjichristodoulou.
