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Ghaziveran, or Kazivera, is a Turkish Cypriot village, situated near Morphou/Güzelyurt bay, nine kilometers southwest of Morphou/Güzelyurt and four kilometers northeast of Pendageia/Yeşilyurt. The origin of the village’s name is obscure. Both Goodwin and Menardos agree that it has a Turkish origin, though they disagree about its meaning. After 1974, Turkish Cypriots slightly changed the name from Gaziveran to Gaziveren, meaning “a village that produces warriors.”

 

 

From Ottoman times to the present day, Ghaziveran has been inhabited predominantly by Turkish Cypriots. Although the population growth of the village fluctuated in the first half of the 20^th century, it steadily increased from 121 in 1891 to 469 in 1960.

Displacement:

No one was displaced from this village during the intercommunal strife of the 1960s. However, during this period, the village served as an important reception center for many displaced Turkish Cypriots who had fled from nearby villages. According to Richard Patrick, the first evacuation in the Lefka/Lefke region took place in the villages of Xeros and Karavostasi/Gemikonağı(045) at the end of December 1963, when Greek Cypriot irregulars forced a number of Turkish Cypriots to leave at gunpoint. Patrick claims that this harassment was probably in retribution for the evacuation of hundreds of Greek Cypriots from Lefka/Lefke(060) and Ampelikou/Bağlıköy(016) in 1958 during the EOKA campaign. About a month later, a second, larger wave of displaced persons followed the January 1964 freedom of movement agreement. These displaced persons fled from various villages of in the Lefka/Lefke region and took refuge in the town of Lefka/Lefke(060), as well as in nearby Turkish Cypriot villages such as Ghaziveran. Patrick recorded 125 displaced Turkish Cypriots still residing in Ghaziveran in 1971. The displaced Turkish Cypriots mainly came from villages such as Morphou/Güzelyurt(072), Karavostasi/Gemikonağı(045), Flasou(034), Peristerona(085) and Koutrafas/Kurtboğan(054).

Current Inhabitants:

Gaziveren is currently largely inhabited by its original villagers. In addition, there are some Turkish Cypriots who were displaced in 1964 or 1974, deriving mainly from villages such as Akaki(013), Alevga(014), Mansoura(066), Amadies(015) and Peristerona(085) in the Nicosia district. Some families from various locations in the Paphos district also settled there. For the last twenty years, many other Turkish Cypriots from elsewhere in the north have chosen to settle in the village, as citrus cultivation thrives in the soil of the area. The last Turkish Cypriot census of 2006 put the village’s population at 1,002.  

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• Standing Cypriot Commission for the Standardization of Geographical Names (2007), “Οδηγος Τυποποιησης Ονοματων (Guide to Standardized Names),” Nicosia: Ministry of Education and Culture.
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• Yorgancıoğlu,  Oğuz: Kıbrıs’ta Türkçe Yer Adları ve Veriliş Yöntemleri Üzerine Bir Araştırma Kıbrıs Araştırmaları Dergisi, Cilt : 2, Sayı : 3, Yıl : 96

Websites:

• http://www.cyprus-village.com/ (for the villages)
• http://news.karpasha.com/
• http://human-rights-archaeology.blogspot.com/
• http://kypros.org/Occupied_Cyprus/ (for the villages in the north)