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Dilapidated corridors, walls stripped of life.
Abandoned rooms occupied only by time,
which stakes no claim to ownership.
Houses are built on land,
homes on trust and sharing.
While division has become a reality embedded in Cyprus,
one organization is quietly working on building a ‘Home for Cooperation’
on the ceasefire line.
- We came up with an idea of looking for a house in the buffer zone
Somewhere neutral.
That would be the first inter-communal building
that promotes research and dialogue
and issues regarding history education.
Do we have a space in the north, do we have a space in the south?
It’s the common problem that everybody has, actually,
that’s trying to work across the divide.
But it will always be in the middle, though, and that’s the point.
That it’s the meeting point.
The Association for Historical Dialogue and Research was set up in 2003
with the aim of bringing historians and educators together from both sides of the dividing line
to work on issues regarding history and history teaching,
research and methodology,
In the hope that this will strengthen peace, stability,
democracy and critical thinking on the island.
In a bold attempt to create a common space,
the Association raised enough funds to buy and renovate
a derelict building sitting in the buffer zone.
The place was built in the early to mid 1950s.
It was flats upstairs, shops downstairs.
After 1974 it was a Danish field hospital upstairs
and my sister and brother-in-law started the business next door.
They made T-shirts and sold T-shirts to the UN, basically.
All the UN had their families out for the summer.
It was considered to be a treat to be out in Cyprus, so they were all fighting to come out.
- And we were all fighting each other…
- Yes, and we were all fighting each other, so they stayed…
I remember as a child when we lived here,
we used to stand on the edge and watch
the Queen’s birthday parade.
The British used to have a military parade here
and they used to march up and down in the centre of the moat there
- And this street here was called…
-The street was Edward the 7th Avenue as I remember it when I was a kid.
And I think it became Markos Drakos.
- And now the street continues and it’s called…
- Ikinci Salem Gezinti or Sultan Salem the Second Street.
One street, many names.
Cyprus has seen countless pretenders to its throne.
The multiple narratives Make the subject of history
one of the island’s most controversial.
History teaching is not something static.
It is something that continuously needs revision,
based on new research findings,
on new studies.
So this is what we are trying to follow up.
And create a basis where Cypriots, researchers and academics,
teachers and civil society activists
can work together.
To be able to take the perspective of the other is a development.
This skill to question your current perspective
by incorporating other perspectives and reaching a higher level of understanding,
through disciplined argument.
In 2011 these walls will shake off their past and take on a new colour.
Perhaps those who come to share this space will have a new tale to tell.