Travel Guide Kofinou

Kofinou is above all a transport hub, with a major bus station linking several nearby villages and a motorway interchange between Nicosia, Limassol and Larnaka. However, apart from its renowned Skoutaris pottery workshop, Kofinou is of little interest. For its recent history has been turbulent. Before the 1960s, it was the largest village in the region to be entirely populated by Turkish Cypriots. But on November 15, 1967, "parachutists" from the Greek Cypriot nationalist organization EOKA-B carried out a raid here, killing 24 Turkish Cypriots and one of their own. The village was gradually emptied of its inhabitants. It was this incident that prompted Turkey to plan an invasion of the island to protect the Turkish Cypriots. After 1974, Kofinou was repopulated by Greek Cypriot refugees from the occupied zone. A derelict mosque and a monument overlooking the village commemorate Sergeant Evmenios Panagiotos of the EOKA-B "paratroopers" who died in the attack on November 15, 1967.