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Larnakas tis Lapithou is situated on the southern foothills of the western part of the Five Finger mountain range, only five miles east of Myrtou/Çamlıbel and one and a half miles west of Agridaki/Alemdağ village. Larnakas tis Lapithou was always a Greek Cypriot dominated village. Larnakas tis Lapithou means “Larnaca of Lapithos” in Greek. This was done to distinguish the village’s name from the coastal town of Larnaca, and because it is located immediately south of Lapithos, on the southern side of the Five Finger mountain range. After 1974, the name of the village was changed to Kozan köy by Turkish Cypriots. Kozan is the name of a town in the Adana district of south Turkey. It is still obscure why Turkish Cypriots adopted this name.

 

As can be seen from the chart above, for most of the period of recorded censuses, the village was inhabited almost exclusively by Greek Cypriots. However, according to the Ottoman census of 1831, Muslims constituted almost 22% of the village’s population, and there were Muslims living in the village until 1911. From the above chart, we can also observe that the Christian population grew considerably during the latter part of the nineteenth century, and consequently the Muslim proportion of the population dropped to around 5%. The local villagers from Kampyli claim that the remaining Turks of Larnaca tis Lapithou moved to their village as a result of some disturbances that took place between 1911 and 1921. During the first half of the twentieth century, Larnaca tis Lapithou’s Greek Cypriot population grew substantially, increasing from 455 in 1901 to 719 in 1946. The village’s population was estimated to be 873 in 1973, prior to the 1974 war and the subsequent displacement of its inhabitants.

Displacement:

All of the village’s inhabitants were displaced between 20^th July and 15^th August 1974. Currently, like the rest of the displaced Greek Cypriots, the Greek Cypriots of Larnakas tis Lapithou are scattered throughout the island’s south with some pockets in towns. The displaced population of the village could be estimated to be around 900, since its Greek Cypriot population was 873 in 1973.

Current Inhabitants:

Currently the village is mainly inhabited by displaced Turkish Cypriots from eight different Paphos villages, including Akoursos/Akarsu(288), Melandra/Beşiktepe(325), Lapithiou/Bozalan(316), Tera/Çakırlar(339), Evretou/Dereboyu(300), Trimithousa of Chrysochou/Uzunmeşe(341), Kritou terra/Girittera(315), Loukronou/Olukönü(318), among others. The 2006 census puts the population of the village at 464.   

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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)