The Symbols of Lefkosa the Pigeons

There are squares in Roma , Venice, Prague, Budapest, Istanbul, London and many other historical cities that are dedicated to pigeons. Pigeons are authentic figures in authentic city scenes.

The Ataturk Square (Sarayonu) area is home to the largest population of pigeons in Cyprus…. In any case this square is as old as the historical capital and intertwined the capitals history itself. In my opinion the colonies of pigeons, whose generations have survived for centuries to date, are the oldest original inhabitants of Lefkosa…. Can you imagine the number of race and civilizations that have passed through the centuries… The pigeons, which are the sworn eternal inhabitants of the city and have always been in Lefkosa and never allowed any other breed to take their place, have witnessed the never ending series of historical changes for centuries…

In recent years a project supported by the Municipality to relocate the pigeon populace, which is continually rising, from the capital to another area proved to be fiasco. It’s not such an easy task to relocate the pigeons to other areas which are not acceptable or familiar to them… They are not like flocks of sheep which simply obey their shepherd… The aim of the project was to relocate the thousands of pigeons which have the undisputed sovereignty of the square, to green areas at the Girne Gate(Girne Kapisi) Besides, currently there are flocks of pigeons inhabiting the Kugulu Park (Swan Park) and the Mucahitler Park. If the project had been realized, they would have been acquainted with their fellow creatures of Ataturk Square…

But efforts yielded no results… Because this project, was resisted by the lovers of Lefkosa and environmentalists, as much as the pigeons of the Square. It was especially the Lottery ticket seller Vehbi, a local of the area, who stopped working in those days, and started a campaign against the pigeon project highlighting public opinion on the subject. Lottery ticket seller Vehbi, who attracts interest with his golden locks of hair that fall upon his shoulders and philosophical beard that hangs down to his chest, fed the birds that were left to starve personally by hand and carried buckets of water to the square to satisfy their thirst.

Lowers of Lefkosa also volunteered and supported the struggle to allow the pigeons to live in the area they have occupied for centuries, because of the noble stance Vehbi held… What was the reason behind the complaints against the pigeons of the square?.... They make the area dirty, they provide a ripe environment for fleas to breed in… But there is a price to pay for living within nature… Nature will sometimes litter the surroundings and man will clean it up… It’s the same as the cleaning practices applied to the leaves shed by the tress… It remains to be said; don’t people litter the city much more than the pigeons? In those days the Environmentalists of Lefkosa defended rhis theory and were successful in making it believable… Of course it was the crux of the environmentalists was not a total loss once they showed a devotion and stubborn resistance to being removed from the traditional home in which they have lived at for centuries…

There was as special place on the dinning tables of Cypriots of the past for the frech and not quite matured pigeon known as the ‘palaz’. The palaz of the pigeon was somewhat in competition with the spring chicken of chickens…

The palaz were boiled and served with macaroni or rice, it could be grilled and sometimes it was placed in a baking tin with potatoes and baked. There were pigeon coops in every house that had a garden in old Lefkosa.

In some of Cyprus’s villages today, the habit of consuming the palaz can still be observed at the dinning tables… But this habit no longer extends to the cities and especially to the capital Lefkosa…

North Cyprus. That is why these lovable pigeons have become the symbol of the capital Lefkosa, and are free from the risk of being hunted and consumed at dinner tables and live unreservedly enjoying the historical capital… They are breeding at such a fast rate that it would be apt to say that Lefkosa, ‘Is a city under the wings of pigeons’…