Angolemi is a small Turkish community in the occupied part of the Lefkosia district. It lies 10 kilometres south-west of Morfou, at an elevation of 130 metres, in the Morfou plain, between the Elia river and its tributary, the Gadouropniktis.¹ In the 1960 census it had 222 inhabitants, all of them Turks.

Name

The official gazetteer of Cyprus writes the name “Angolemi”, while the Great Cyprian Encyclopaedia also gives the forms “Agkolemi” and “o Angolemis”.² On the land of the village the Gazetteer records, among others, the place-names Aletropetra, Efta Elies (“Seven Olives”), Sotirides and Kampos tou Kkiflikiou.³

Turkish rule

In the land survey carried out by the Ottoman administration in 1832/33, which recorded only those who held property, Angolemi belonged to the district of Morfou and is listed as a Muslim village, with 11 households holding property. The owners had grain fields, a few cotton fields and vineyards, gardens and eight threshing floors, and only ten trees, olives, figs and one carob. Most of their property was livestock: 555 sheep and goats, and oxen and cows.⁴

Economy and society

According to the Great Cyprian Encyclopaedia, before 1974 mainly cereals were grown on the land of the village, and only about 70 skales, mostly along the Elia valley, were irrigated. Stock-breeding remained important, as already in the 1832/33 survey: in 1973 the village had 2,263 sheep and goats. The proximity of the Skouriotissa mine and of the mining installations at Xeros helped the population to grow steadily.⁵

Population

According to the Great Cyprian Encyclopaedia, the village had 93 inhabitants in 1881, 126 in 1891, 139 in 1901, 154 in 1911 and 189 in 1921.⁶ In 1931 Angolemi had 198 inhabitants, 12 Christians and 186 Muslims, and in 1946 210, of whom 2 were Orthodox and 208 Muslims (the 1931 and 1946 censuses recorded only religion). In 1960 it had 222 inhabitants, all of them Turks, and in 1973 around 300 Turks (estimate).

The Turkish invasion of 1974

During the Turkish invasion of 1974 Angolemi was occupied by the Turkish army. According to the Great Cyprian Encyclopaedia, part of its land lies in the buffer zone.⁷ One person killed in 1974 is recorded on the land of the village, a soldier, who was killed in the village itself.