A GROUP of historians and educators from across the divide yesterday celebrated the start of renovation work on the first civil society home to straddle the buffer zone.
The inter-communal Association for Historical Dialogue and Research (AHDR) has spent three years fund-raising and lobbying to get all the permits, contracts of sale and general support needed to turn the run down house sitting opposite the Ledra Palace hotel in Nicosia into a Home for Cooperation.
With work due to start this week, the association yesterday held a street festival to mark the occasion in the traditional Cyprus style using grilled meat, music and games, green veg and zivania as handy aides.
AHDR President Chara Makriyianni noted there were things other than education to bring people together: “We are here to celebrate the start of the renovation of the Home for Cooperation using the one thing that unites all people, especially Cypriots, food.
“We’ve been working on this for three years and are absolutely delighted to see so many supporters and well-wishers. It’s a good omen for the future,” she added.
DISY deputy and head of the House Education Committee Nicos Tornaritis was also present to give a helping hand, or mouth, with the sizzling kebabs. “I came to have fun with the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot youth, because together we can eat and only together can we build the Cyprus of our common future.”
Created in 2003, AHDR is an organisation that focuses on bringing new perspectives to history and history education. The Home for Cooperation represents the first time civil society has led the effort to restore and bring back to life a structure in the buffer zone.
History is a controversial subject on the island with fierce resistance to any attempts to update history books and bring them more in line with European practices of teaching multiperspectivity. The government set out to update the history books once it took power in 2008 but faced vocal opposition to the move, which is still pending. In the Turkish Cypriot community, history books were changed in 2004 to reflect more the shared history of Greek and Turkish Cypriots. These books were modified once again when hardliner Dervis Eroglu was elected as ‘prime minister’ in the north.
The Home for Cooperation, due early 2011, will be a shared centre for inter-communal interaction concentrating on education and intercultural dialogue, while offering a library and archive, conference and exhibition spaces and offices.
The Home for Cooperation project is supported by the EEA (European Economic Area) Financial Mechanisms by the donors Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein, by individuals, organisations, local authorities in Cyprus and abroad, the embassies of Sweden, Switzerland and the Netherlands.
This event is part of AHDR’s project on Multiperspectivity and Intercultural Dialogue in Education (MIDE), which is a two-year research and education initiative sponsored by major partner UNDP-ACT.
The AHDR enlists members from various ethnic, linguistic, and professional backgrounds working at different educational levels in Cyprus. Its board, comprising of Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot educators and historians, prides itself on being a model for “productive cooperation, creative ideas and mutual respect which can blossom across the divide towards shared goals”.
