Kyriaki, Evros
Encyclopedia
Kyriaki is a village in the northcentral part of the Evros Prefecture
Evros Prefecture
Evros is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of East Macedonia and Thrace. Its name is derived from the river Evros, which appears to have been a Thracian hydronym. Evros is the northernmost regional unit. It borders Turkey to the east, across the river Evros, and it...

 in Greece, in the municipal unit of Orfeas
Orfeas
Orfeas , named after the mythical musician Orpheus, is a former municipality in the Evros peripheral unit, East Macedonia and Thrace, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Soufli, of which it is a municipal unit. Its land area is 643.266 km² and its...

. It is the least populated district in the municipal unit. The location is in the westcentral portion of the prefectural mainland. Kyriaki is linked with the road connecting GR-51
National Road 51 (Greece)
The Greek National Road 51 is a highway in northeastern Greece. It connects the Greek National Road 2 near Feres with the Bulgarian border near Ormenio. The main towns on the GR-51 are Didymoteicho and Orestiada. The entire GR-51 is part of the European route E85. Its length is about 128 km...

/E85
European route E85
European route E 85 is part of the International E-road network, which is a series of main roads in Europe.The E 85 starts from Klaipėda runs south through Belarus, Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria to Greece, ending at Alexandroupolis....

 (Alexandroupoli - Soufli - Orestiada - Ormenio) and Mega Dereio
Mega Dereio
Mega Dereio is a village in the northcentral part of the Evros Prefecture in Greece. It is part of the municipal unit of Orfeas. The location is near the heart of the prefectural mainland and is centrally located between the Bulgarian and the Turkish borders as well as the Evros River. Its 2001...

 with no road connecting Bulgaria or any trails, the trails are fenced. Its 2001 population was 162 for the settlement. The area are hilly and forested while the mountains dominate the west, most of the area are forested, farmlands are within the village.

Location

It is in the Eastern Rhodope
Rhodope
Rhodope may mean:* Queen Rhodope, a figure of Greek mythology* Rhodope Mountains, in Bulgaria and Greece* Rhodope Prefecture, of Greece* Rhodope * 166 Rhodope, an asteroid...

 mountains and is 15 km southeast by the Bulgarian-Greek border. Mega Dereio is located about 90 km southwest of Orestiada
Orestiada
Orestiada is the northeasternmost and northernmost city of Greece and the second largest city of the Evros peripheral unit of Thrace. The population is around 25,000. Orestiada is only 2 km west of the banks of the Evros, which forms a natural border between Greece and Turkey...

, 65 km west-southwest of Didymoteicho
Didymoteicho
Didymóteicho is a town located in the eastern part of the Evros peripheral unit of Thrace, Greece. It is the seat of the municipality of the same name. The town sits on a plain and located south east of Svilengrad, south of Edirne, Turkey and Orestiada, west of Uzunköprü, about 20 km north...

, west-northwest of the Evros River and the Turkish
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

 border, 70 km north of Alexandroupoli
Alexandroupoli
Alexandroupoli , is a city of Greece and the capital of the Evros peripheral unit in Thrace. Named after King Alexander, it is an important port and commercial center of northeastern Greece.-Name:...

, northeast of the Greek capital city of Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...

 and east-southeast of the Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...

n border.

Population

Year Population
1878 350
1912 230
1920 150
1981 258
1991 219
2001 163

History

The village was founded by the Ottoman
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

 Turks in the 14th century, its name was known as Kayadjik(Turkish: Kayajik). Its 1830 population was 310 Bulgarian families, 236 families (houses) in 1878, 230 families in 1912, of which 150 were Bulgarian exarchists, revoltions occurred during the pre-Bulgarian rule. According to professor Lyubomir Miletich
Lyubomir Miletich
Lyubomir Miletich was a leading Bulgarian linguist, ethnographer, dialectologist and historian, as well as the chairman of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences from 1926 to his death....

, the 1912 population had around 200 Bulgarian families. On August 8, 1913, the village battled with the Turks and handed to the Bulgarians. At the end of the Bulgarian rule, 150 Bulgarians moved northward into the remainder of Bulgaria which is now north, the remainder of the Turks were pushed to the western portion of today's Turkey. During the Greco Turkish War (1919-1922), refugees east of the Evros river and from Asia Minor arrived into the village. It became entirely Mikro Dereio after the annexation. After World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 and the Greek Civil War
Greek Civil War
The Greek Civil War was fought from 1946 to 1949 between the Greek governmental army, backed by the United Kingdom and United States, and the Democratic Army of Greece , the military branch of the Greek Communist Party , backed by Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and Albania...

, many of its buildings were rebuilt. Electricity and automobiles arrived in the 1960s, it was linked with pavement in the late-20th century, television arrived in the 1980s. Internet and computers arrived in the late-1990s. The village's lost three fourths of its population between 1981 and 1991 and two thirds between 1991 and 2001 totaling to nearly half between 1981 and 2001, its inhabitants left for the larger cities and outside Greece.

Person

  • Nikola Atanasov Spirov (Никола Атанасов Спиров, 1908-?), Bulgarian leader of the Thracian Organization (1944–1961)
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