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Al-Hamidiyah

Al Hamidiyah
الحميدية
Town
Al Hamidiyah[1] is located in Syria
Al Hamidiyah[1]
Al Hamidiyah
Location in Syria
Coordinates: 34°43′N 35°56′E / 34.717°N 35.933°E / 34.717; 35.933Coordinates: 34°43′N 35°56′E / 34.717°N 35.933°E / 34.717; 35.933
Country  Syria
Governorate Tartus
District Tartus
Subdistrict Al-Hamidiyah
Population (2004)
 • Total 7,404
Time zone EET (UTC+2)
 • Summer (DST) +3 (UTC)

Al Hamidiyah (Arabic: الحميدية‎, translit. al-Hamidiyya‎) is a town on the Syrian coast, about 3 km from the Lebanese border. The town was founded in a very short time on the direct orders of the Ottoman Sultan ‘Abdu’l-Hamid II around 1897, to serve as a refuge for the Greek speaking Muslim Cretans. They had been forced to leave Crete during the 1897-98 Greco-Turkish War and were resettled by Sultan 'Abdu'l-Hamid II in Hamidiyah and other coastal areas of the Levant and as far as Libya. The majority still speak Cretan Greek in their daily lives. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics, al-Hamidiyah had a population of 7,404 in the 2004 census. Today, Grecophone Hamidiyah residents identify themselves as Cretan Muslims, and not as Cretan Turks as is the case with some in Tripoli.

The town remains under Syrian Government control.


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