Mikro Dereio () is a village and a community in the central part of the
Evros regional unit in Greece. It is situated on the left bank of the river
Erythropotamos, in the Eastern
Rhodope Mountains
The Rhodopes (; , ; , ''Rodopi''; ) are a mountain range in Southeastern Europe, and the largest by area in Bulgaria, with over 83% of its area in the southern part of the country and the remainder in Greece. Golyam Perelik is its highest peak ...
. The border with
Bulgaria
Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...
is 5 km to the north. Mikro Dereio is on the
Greek National Road 53. In 2021 its population was 1,836 for the community, which consists of the villages Mikro Dereio, Geriko, Goniko,
Mega Dereio, Petrolofos, Roussa and Sidirochori. It is the most populous community of the municipal unit of
Orfeas
Orfeas (), named after the mythical musician Orpheus, is a former municipality in the Evros regional unit, East Macedonia and Thrace, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Soufli, of which it is a munici ...
.
Population
History
The village was founded by the
Ottoman Turks in the 14th century, it was known as ''Malak Dervent'' (Малък Дервент) in Bulgarian. According to Anastas Razbojnikov, its 1830 population was 210 Bulgarian families/houses, 256 in 1878, 220 in 1912 of which 200 were Bulgarian exarchists. According to professor
Lyubomir Miletich, the 1912 population was around 200 Bulgarian families. After a brief period of Bulgarian rule between 1913 and 1919, it became part of Greece.
Person
*
Angel Popkirov (Ангел Попкиров, 1881-1968), Bulgarian revolutionary leader, member of
VMORO
The Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO; ; ), was a secret revolutionary society founded in the Ottoman territories in Europe, that operated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Founded in 1893 in Salonica, it initia ...
See also
*
List of settlements in the Evros regional unit
References
{{Orfeas
Populated places in Evros (regional unit)
Soufli