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Last modified: 2017-10-01 by ivan sache
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Flag of Tatlısu - Image by Ivan Sache, 11 August 2017
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The municipality of Tatlısu (Greek, Ακανθού; 1,459 inhabitants in 2011; website) is located on the northern coast of Cyprus.
By the 2016-2018 administrative reform, the municipality of Tatlısu should be incorporated in 2018 into the municipality of Kuzey Mesarya (Northern Mesaoria).
The municipality of Akanthou was established on 10 July 1908. Following the proclamation of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and the exile of the Greek population, the new municipality of Tatlısu (lit. "sweet water") was formed in 1975, while the administration of the municipality of Akanthou in exile (website) was relocated to Larnaca.
An archaeological survey conducted in 1996 showed that Tatlısu is the first and only known settlement in North Cyprus with evidence of Cypriot-Anatolian connections that existed from the 9th millennium BC. Among the artifacts discovered are 4,000 obsidian tools originating from Anatolia. The artifacts reflect early Neolithic agricultural society, its economy and environment.
Seven houses are excavated at Tatlısu and have stone foundations supporting mud-brick walls, rendered in plaster painted red. One of these houses, 10,000 years old (from 8,200 BC) was reconstructed next to the excavations. The house is used to explain all the prehistoric, environment, animals and daily life of the people who may have lived at that time. The reconstruction is easier to interpret, in contrast to the excavation where a few stones and eroded mud brick is not an attraction and it is hard to explain to the public.
[Müge Sevketoglu, EXARC website]
The village of Akanthou is mentioned for the first time by its present name in 1383 AD and we are informed that the contemporary Lusignan King James I allocated the village and its lands to the Armenian patrician Sir John Corab, an Armenian citizen. It was customary in those days for the Lusignan Kings, as well as for Crusader chiefs to enter into such alliances with Armenian aristocrats. Mas Latrie mentions that he saw a tombstone in the Armenian cemetery in Nicosia, bearing the name Maria Corab and the date 1363. He believed that the tomb belonged to the wife of the Feudal Master of Akanthou.
The legend of Akanthou tells of some marauding pirates who were offered hospitality at a wedding reception at Akanthou, but in spite of that, they decided to kidnap the bride whose name was Anthousa. Her father however, managed to hide her in a remote thorny terrain, so the pirates kidnapped the bridegroom instead and carried him off to their ship. Many years passed by. Anthousa obstinately refused to go through a second marriage, but in the long run she was persuaded to do so. While the wedding ceremony was taking place, Anthousa's first husband turned up outside the church, riding a horse. The horse neighed and the girl knew it. She looks out, sees her husband and calls out to the priest: "Stop the ceremony, Father, and you, deacon, leave the book, as my husband has arrived, and he is the one for me". And she rushes out of the church to fall into the arms of her tormented husband.
[Pantelis Pantelides. Akanthou. A village where Beauty, History and Legend meet]
Ivan Sache, 11 August 2017
The flag of Tatlısu (photo) is white with the municipal emblem in the center. "Belediyesi" means "Municipality".
Ivan Sache, 11 August 2017
