Tochni ( el, Τόχνη; tr, Dohni or ) is a village located in the Larnaca District of

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ge ...

, about halfway between the cities of

Larnaca Larnaca ( el, Λάρνακα ; tr, Larnaka) is a city on the south east coast of Cyprus and the capital of the district of the same name. It is the third-largest city in the country, after Nicosia and Limassol, with a metro population of 1 ...

and

Limassol Limassol (; el, Λεμεσός, Lemesós ; tr, Limasol or ) is a city on the southern coast of Cyprus and capital of the district with the same name. Limassol is the second largest urban area in Cyprus after Nicosia, with an urban population ...

. Prior to 1974, Tochni had a mixed Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot population. In August 1974, 85

Turkish Cypriot Turkish Cypriots or Cypriot Turks ( tr, Kıbrıs Türkleri or ''Kıbrıslı Türkler''; el, Τουρκοκύπριοι, Tourkokýprioi) are ethnic Turks originating from Cyprus. Following the Ottoman conquest of the island in 1571, about 30,0 ...

inhabitants of this village and of neighboring villages were massacred by Greek Cypriot terrorists.Paul Sant Cassia, ''Bodies of Evidence: Burial, Memory, and the Recovery of Missing Persons in Cyprus'', Berghahn Books, 2007,
Massacre&f=false p. 61.
/ref>Gisela Welz,''European Products: Making and Unmaking Heritage in Cyprus'', Berghahn Books, 2015,
p. 53
/ref> Later that month, the remaining Turkish residents of Tochni were evacuated using coaches and UN military vehicles. The evacuation was carried out by 7 Sqn RCT then serving with the UN at camp UNFICYP Nicosia. There are the ruins of a Latin church in the centre of the village, overlooking the Orthodox church of St Constantine and Helena. The current church has been reconstructed on the site of the original, over a bridge, said to have been founded by St Helena on return from the Holy Land having brought with her a piece of the True Cross. There is also a mosque, madrasah and Muslim burial ground in the eastern part of the village, though these are in varying degrees of disrepair. Today the village has been designated a beautiful 'agrotourism' location which promotes the restoration of the original village house in order to preserve the traditional Cypriot stone houses. The majority of properties use 'Tochni Stone' which is quarried nearby.

References

{{Larnaca District Communities in Larnaca District