Artemi is a small Turkish community in the occupied part of the Ammochostos district. It lies 31 kilometres north-west of Ammochostos, at an elevation of 180 metres, on the southern slopes of the Pentadaktylos, near Lefkoniko.¹ In the 1960 census it had 168 inhabitants, all of them Turks.

Name

The official gazetteer of Cyprus writes “Artemi”, and on the village’s land it records the “Merras tis Artemis”, that is, the village pasture. It also records, among others, the place-names Vathypotamos, Kkianakka and Mersinnikki, and part of the Kantara forest.²

Turkish rule

In the property survey made by the Ottoman administration in 1832/33, which recorded only those who held property, Artemi is described as a mixed village of the district of the Mesaoria, with 6 households holding property. The survey records threshing floors, barren fields and 95 olive trees. The animals, about 310 sheep, a few cows and oxen, and horses, were the largest part of the village’s property.³

Economy and society

According to the Great Cyprian Encyclopaedia, before 1974 the villagers grew mainly cereals, olives and carobs, and in 1973 they kept 588 sheep, 66 goats and 14 cows.⁴

Population

According to the Great Cyprian Encyclopaedia, the village had 90 inhabitants in 1881, 98 in 1891, 124 in 1901, 133 in 1911 and 122 in 1921.⁵ In 1931 Artemi had 109 inhabitants, one Christian and 108 Muslims, and in 1946 211, all of them Muslims (the 1931 and 1946 censuses recorded only religion). In 1960 it had 168 inhabitants, all of them Turks, and in 1973 about 180 Turks (estimate).