Orga is a small Greek community in the occupied district of Keryneia. It lies 27 kilometres west of Keryneia, at an elevation of 100 metres, near the north coast, about three kilometres north-east of Kormakitis. In the 1960 census it had 139 inhabitants, all of them Greeks.
The origin of the name is not known. The Great Cyprian Encyclopaedia gives various explanations, from words of the Cypriot dialect or from personal names, but notes that none is documented.1 The official place-name index of Cyprus (the Gazetteer) writes the name “Όργα” (Orga),2 as did the British architect and curator of ancient monuments George Jeffery in 1918 (“Orga”). The form “Όρκα” (Orka) is also very common: the village’s co-operative society is written this way in the register of co-operatives, and the Encyclopaedia also writes the name this way.
Orga is not mentioned in the 15th-century lists of fiefs and royal villages preserved by the 16th-century Cypriot chronicler Florios Voustronios and the 19th-century French historian Louis de Mas Latrie, nor in the property survey carried out by the Ottoman administration in 1832/33, which recorded only those who owned property. According to the Great Cyprian Encyclopaedia, the village took shape during the years of Turkish rule: farmers from the surrounding villages, mainly from Karavas, came seasonally to work the fields they had there, gradually built farmsteads, and from these the village grew.3
This seasonal character lasted until the beginning of the 20th century: in 1918 Jeffery describes Orga as a small settlement inhabited mainly at harvest time.4
On the land of Orga lies a pre-Greek settlement, already recorded in a list of the pre-Greek settlements of Cyprus published in 1979. After the invasion the site was included in a surface survey of the pre-Greek settlements of the Keryneia district, carried out in 1995–1997 by the occupation regime, without the permission of the Republic of Cyprus.5
The Greek Orthodox church of the village is dedicated to Saint George and dates from the 19th century. It stands in the southern part of the old centre of the village, and the cemetery lies about 300 metres east of it.6 In 1918 Jeffery notes, besides the small village church, a small vaulted chapel on the hill above the village, already in ruins at that time.7
According to the Great Cyprian Encyclopaedia, before 1974 the inhabitants grew carobs, olives and cereals, while stock-breeding was limited: in 1973 twenty-six stock-breeders had 168 sheep. In the last years before the invasion the landscape and the coast of the village had begun to attract interest for tourist development; holiday homes were built, which were bought by foreign pensioners, and there were plans for hotels.8 In 1945 the Orka Co-operative Credit Society was founded.
According to the Great Cyprian Encyclopaedia, the village had 54 inhabitants in 1881, 78 in 1891, 100 in 1901, 126 in 1911 and 174 in 1921.9 In 1931 Orga had 163 inhabitants, of whom 162 were Christians and one a Muslim, and in 1946 182, all Orthodox (the censuses of 1931 and 1946 recorded only religion). In 1960 it had 139 inhabitants, all of them Greeks, and in 1973 115 Greeks.
In the Enosis plebiscite of 1950, 117 inhabitants of Orga signed, practically all the adult Greek inhabitants. The Register of EOKA Fighters lists 6 Greek inhabitants of the village who took part in or supported the Struggle.
During the Turkish invasion of 1974 Orga was captured by the Turkish army and its Greek population suffered ethnic cleansing. Since then the Turkish occupation forces and the illegal occupation authority prevent the return of the inhabitants.
Two inhabitants of Orga, both civilians, were killed elsewhere, in the area of Lapithos. On the land of Orga two dead of 1974 are recorded, both civilians: one was killed in the village itself and the other between Orga and Livera.
The occupation authorities illegally converted the church of Saint George into a mosque, which was used until 2010–11.10 A chapel of the village was demolished.
Great Cyprian Encyclopaedia (Polignosi), «Ορκα ή Όργα».↩︎
Great Cyprian Encyclopaedia (Polignosi), «Ορκα ή Όργα».↩︎
G. Jeffery, A Description of the Historic Monuments of Cyprus (1918), p. 279.↩︎
Ancient Cyprus (ancientcyprus.com), register of excavations and surveys, «Kyrenia district: Şevketoğlu’s survey of Neolithic and Chalcolithic sites» (accessed 1.11.2026).↩︎
Cyprus Religious Heritage, «Orga».↩︎
G. Jeffery, A Description of the Historic Monuments of Cyprus (1918), p. 279.↩︎
Great Cyprian Encyclopaedia (Polignosi), «Ορκα ή Όργα».↩︎
Great Cyprian Encyclopaedia (Polignosi), «Ορκα ή Όργα».↩︎
Cyprus Religious Heritage, «Orga».↩︎
Orga had one church, one chapel and one cemetery. After the Turkish invasion of 1974, one was illegally converted into a mosque. Each is shown below, with photographs and, where known, its condition.
Photo: 7 September 2018, cyreligiousheritage.org/Dr Thorsten Kruse
According to the Church of Cyprus list of churches in the occupied areas (2009), the church dates from the 19th century. Its condition in 2009 is given as “Currently used as Mosque”.
According to the Church of Cyprus list of churches in the occupied areas (2009), the chapel was ruined. Its condition in 2009 is given as “Demolished”.
In the Enosis plebiscite organised by the Ethnarchy in January 1950, 117 people in Orga signed for union with Greece, practically the entire adult population.
The Register of EOKA Fighters lists 6 Greeks from Orga who took part in or assisted the Struggle. The names follow in Greek, as printed in the Register.
6 / 6 names
In the Turkish invasion of 1974, two people from Orga were killed or are missing, both civilians. In Orga itself, two people were killed or last seen, both civilians. Below, the tab "From this community" lists those who came from Orga, and the tab "At this community" those killed or last seen there.
The following cooperative society of this community was on the register of cooperative societies:
The Cyprus Post postal code for this community was and is 9636.
