Paphos municipal council voted by a majority on Monday evening to rename Kemal Ataturk Street, in the old Turkish Cypriot quarter of Moutallos, as ‘Memory and Hope’ Street.
All council groups voted in favour except the Democratic Party (DIKO) and AKEL, which abstained. Acting mayor Angelos Onisiforou also voted for the change.
Speaking after the vote, Onisiforou said the new name was not simply a change of name but a choice that carried symbolism and responsibility. He said it was meant to show respect for history and to preserve the memory of past wounds and of the people who lived before today’s generations.
The aim was not to reopen wounds, stir up new political and social disputes or replace one division with another, he stressed. But the municipality wants to keep memory alive and hope open, he added.
The street was named after Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the soldier and statesman who founded the Republic of Turkey and served as its first president from 1923 until his death in 1938.
Moutallos was the Turkish Cypriot quarter of Paphos before 1974. Turkish Cypriots made up 31 per cent of the town’s population in the 1960 census, which counted 2,851 of them, according to data from the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO). About 3,000 Turkish Cypriots from Paphos had been displaced to the north by 1975. Greek Cypriots displaced from the north were later resettled in the town, many in former Turkish Cypriot homes.
