Dyo Potamoi is a small Turkish community in the occupied part of the Lefkosia district. It lies 10 kilometres north-east of Morfou, at an elevation of 150 metres, south of the bed of the Alypos river and close to the boundary with the Keryneia district.¹ According to the Great Cyprian Encyclopaedia, it was the smallest village of the geographical region of Morfou.² In the 1960 census it had 40 inhabitants, all of them Turks.

Name

On the land of the village the official gazetteer of Cyprus records, among others, the place-names Merras ton Dyo Potamon, Chorafia tou Papa, Sykamnia and Vrysi tou Atou.³

Founding and first records

According to the Great Cyprian Encyclopaedia, a manuscript of the Venetian period, known as the Leimonidas manuscript, records the village in the form “Dipotami” among the villages of the administrative district of Pentageia. The village therefore existed before Turkish rule.⁴

Economy and society

According to the Great Cyprian Encyclopaedia, before 1974 mainly cereals and a few olives and carobs were grown on the land of the village, given the low rainfall of the area, while a large area to the south was left uncultivated.⁵

Population

According to the Great Cyprian Encyclopaedia, the village had 5 inhabitants in 1881, 45 in 1891, 28 in 1901, 38 in 1911 and 28 in 1921.⁶ In 1931 Dyo Potamoi had 50 inhabitants, 10 Christians and 40 Muslims, and in 1946 28, of whom 16 were Muslims and 12 others (the 1931 and 1946 censuses recorded only religion). In 1960 it had 40 inhabitants, all of them Turks, and in 1973 around 50 Turks (estimate).