Paramali (, or ''Çayönü'') is a village on the south coast of the island of

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

, in the

Limassol District The Limassol District, or simply Limassol or Lemesos, is one of the six districts of Cyprus. , it had a population of 262,238, 75,7% of which was urban The district's capital city is Limassol. Part of the British Overseas Territory of Akrotiri an ...

east of

Avdimou Avdimou (, or ''Düzkaya'') is a small village on the south coast of Cyprus, lying partly within the British Overseas Territory of Akrotiri and Dhekelia. Up to 1974 it was inhabited by a majority of Turkish-Cypriots, but following the Turkish inva ...

. Its district covers an area stretching north from the south coast of Cyprus, with roughly equal parts falling in the

British Overseas Territory The British Overseas Territories (BOTs) or alternatively referred to as the United Kingdom Overseas Territories (UKOTs) are the fourteen dependent territory, territories with a constitutional and historical link with the United Kingdom that, ...

Akrotiri and Dhekelia Akrotiri and Dhekelia (), officially the Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia (SBA), is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory made of two non-contiguous areas on the island of Geography of Cyprus, Cyprus. The area ...

to the south, and in the

Republic of Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the third lar ...

to the north. The original village settlement (towards the north of the district) was majority

Turkish-Cypriot Turkish Cypriots or Cypriot Turks ( or ; ) are so called ethnic Turks originating from Cyprus. Turkish Cypriots are mainly Sunni Muslims. Following the Ottoman conquest of the island in 1571, about 30,000 Turkish settlers were given land once ...

, with the

Greek-Cypriot Greek Cypriots (, ) are the ethnic Greeks, Greek population of Cyprus, forming the island's largest Ethnolinguistic group, ethnolinguistic community. According to the 2023 census, 719,252 respondents recorded their ethnicity as Greek, forming al ...

minority leaving in the disturbances of the early 1960s. Turkish-Cypriots from other villages then came in

1974 Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War determined politics; ...

, after which the whole population left for the temporary camps at "Happy Valley" inside the

British territory British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

, from where they were evacuated out of

RAF Akrotiri Royal Air Force Akrotiri, commonly abbreviated RAF Akrotiri (; ) is a large Royal Air Force (RAF) military airbase on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. It is located in the Western Sovereign Base Area, one of two areas which comprise Akroti ...

, and ended up mostly in the abandoned Greek-Cypriot village of

Kalopsida Kalopsida (; ) is a village in the Famagusta District of Cyprus, east of Lysi. It is under the '' de facto'' control of Northern Cyprus. Before 1974, Kalopsida was an exclusively Greek Cypriot village; its residents were displaced during the ...

, in the Turkish-controlled area. The original village was not settled by Greek-Cypriots from the north, but was abandoned (the collapsed roofs can be seen on satellite maps on the web). Now it is mainly used by the

British military The British Armed Forces are the unified military forces responsible for the defence of the United Kingdom, its Overseas Territories and the Crown Dependencies. They also promote the UK's wider interests, support international peacekeeping e ...

for exercises, particularly to ready them for

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

, and famously for a much-photographed exercise in 2006 in which

Prince William William, Prince of Wales (William Arthur Philip Louis; born 21 June 1982), is the heir apparent to the British throne. He is the elder son of King Charles III and Diana, Princess of Wales. William was born during the reign of his p ...

took part. There is now a

village settlement in what was formerly called "Paramali Station" in roughly the centre of the district, intersected by both the main east-west road and the Republic-SBA boundary. It is mainly populated by Greek-Cypriots who left the north in

. There is an abandoned mosque, and a new Greek Orthodox church. The

population grew inside the

to the extent that in 1989 the British administration had to make legal arrangements for election of a village council, as there was still nobody living in the northerly, republican part of the village district. It is the only village with such arrangements in the

SBAs Augmentation of a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) is a method of improving the navigation system's attributes, such as precision, reliability, and availability, through the integration of external information into the calculation process. ...

except for Akrotiri, which was wholly inside the

from the creation of the Republic and SBAs in 1960. Subsequently housing has been developed on the republican side of the boundary, close to the main road and the motorway. The

have 2 fenced residential compounds in the east of the district, serving the

Episkopi Cantonment Episkopi Cantonment (, ) is the capital of Akrotiri and Dhekelia, a British overseas territory on the island of Cyprus, administered as a military base. It is located in the northwestern part of the Western Sovereign Base Area (Akrotiri), one of ...

and called "North Paramali" and "South Paramali" (on the respective sides of the main east-west road). Flagstaff House, the official residence of the Administrator of the

, who is always also Commander

British Forces Cyprus British Forces Cyprus (BFC) is the name given to the British Armed Forces stationed in the UK Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia on the island of Cyprus and at a number of related 'retained sites' in the Republic of Cyprus. The United ...

, is in South Paramali. There are turtle-nesting areas on the main beach on the coast, protected by the fact that the roads down to them are not obviously marked. But the beaches are also used by kite-surfersCyprus Wind - Paramali Beach
/ref> and others.

References

{{Limassol District Communities in Limassol District