Al-Hamidiyah
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Al Hamidiyah
الحميدية | |
|---|---|
Town | |
| Country |  Syria |
| Governorate | Tartus |
| District | Tartus |
| Subdistrict | Al-Hamidiyah |
| Population (2004) | |
• Total | 7,404 |
| Time zone | UTC+2 (EET) |
| • Summer (DST) | +3 |
Al Hamidiyah (or al-Hamidiyya) (Template:Lang-ar) is a Cretan Greek town on the Syrian coast, about 3 km from the Lebanese border. It is the only settlement in Syria that is wholly Greek. 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 Muslim Cretans, often referred to as Cretan Turks are Greek speaking Muslims[1] of Ottoman Greek convert origin. They had been forced to leave Crete when the island was captured by the Kingdom of Greece from the Ottoman Empire during the 1897-98 Greco-Turkish War, and resettled by Sultan 'Abdu'l-Hamid II here 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.[2] Today, Grecophone Hamidiyah residents identify themselves as Cretan Muslims, while some others as Cretan Turks. [3]
Syrian Civil War
The town is under the Syrian Government control as of 2014.
See also
References
- ^ Werner, Arnold (2000). “The Arabic dialects in the Turkish province of Hatay and the Aramaic dialects in the Syrian mountians of Qalamun: two minority languages compared”. In Owens, Jonathan, (ed.). Arabic as a minority language. Walter de Gruyter. p. 358. “Greek speaking Cretan Muslims”.
- ^ General Census of Population and Housing 2004. Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). Tartus Governorate. Template:Ar icon
- ^ The forgotten Turks: Turkmens of Lebanon (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. Some of the better educated locals in Tripoli have researched their roots and define themselves as Cretan Turks."
