Epicho is a Turkish community in the occupied part of the Lefkosia district. It lies 14 kilometres north-east of Lefkosia, at an elevation of 100 metres, in the geographical region of Mesaoria, near Voni. In the 1960 census it had 555 inhabitants, all of them Turks.

Name

The official gazetteer of Cyprus writes the name “Epicho”. In the medieval sources the village is written “Epicho”, “Epico” and “Opiho”.¹ According to the Great Cyprian Encyclopaedia, the Greeks formerly also called it Apochorin.² On the land of the village the Gazetteer records, among others, the place-names Agia Marina, Toumba, Kaminia and Syka.³

Founding and first records

The oldest written record of Epicho found dates from 1468. On 9 August of that year King James II exempted from the salt tax a group of francomati, that is, free peasants, who served in the royal hunt. Among them was Petros of Epicho, together with villagers of Kythrea, Voni and Lefkomiati. The document was published by the 19th-century French historian Louis de Mas Latrie, who identifies “Opiho” with Epicho, near Voni.⁴

The 16th-century Cypriot chronicler Florio Bustron lists Epicho among the villages watered by the Kephalovryso springs of Kythrea, whose waters turned more than fifty mills.⁵

Archaeological sites

The British architect George Jeffery, who recorded the historic monuments of Cyprus at the beginning of the 20th century, notes near the village some large tombs which had been rifled long ago.⁶

Frankish rule, Venetian rule

In 1474, after the death of King James II, Antonio Peres, a companion of the constable Pietro Davila, was made a knight and received Epicho as a fief.⁷ In a Venetian statistical memorandum of the late 15th century, published by Mas Latrie, “Casal Epico” is listed among the villages of the Count of Tripoli. According to Mas Latrie, this count is Jean Tafures, one of the most devoted followers of James II, who rewarded him with many fiefs, made him Count of Tripoli and captain of Famagusta.⁸

Turkish rule

According to the Great Cyprian Encyclopaedia, which cites Nearchos Kliridis, in the first years of Turkish rule the village belonged to Ramadan Pasha, a general of Lala Mustafa, and its Greek inhabitants were gradually driven out.⁹

In the land survey carried out by the Ottoman administration in 1832/33, which recorded only those who held property, Epicho belonged to the district of Kythrea and is listed as a Muslim village, with 33 households holding property. The owners had mainly fields and gardens, threshing floors and running water, only ten trees, olives and carobs, and about 200 sheep, 140 goats and 26 oxen.¹⁰

Economy and society

According to the Great Cyprian Encyclopaedia, before 1974 mainly cereals and olives were grown on the land of the village, and stock-breeding was well developed. Many inhabitants worked in Lefkosia. Most houses were built of mud brick, and some kept the traditional architecture of the plain, with arches and large courtyards.¹¹

Population

According to the Great Cyprian Encyclopaedia, the village had 319 inhabitants in 1881, 402 in 1901, 434 in 1911 and 462 in 1921.¹² In 1931 Epicho had 411 inhabitants, 16 Christians and 395 Muslims, and in 1946 462, of whom one was Orthodox and 461 Muslims (the 1931 and 1946 censuses recorded only religion). In 1960 it had 555 inhabitants, all of them Turks, and in 1973 around 700 Turks (estimate).

The Turkish invasion of 1974

During the Turkish invasion of 1974 Epicho was occupied by the Turkish army. Two soldiers were killed in the area of the village.