CYPRUS will soon have its first home-grown, permanent think tank, the Spyros Kyprianou Foundation.
Founded this month it hopes open its doors to the public by May.
“The purpose of the foundation is to make historical studies, formulate political policy, give awards to students, engage in discussions and operate as a think tank,” said Achilleas Kyprianou, son of the late former President Spyros Kyprianou after whom the foundation is named.
“The establishment of the foundation honours the memory of my late father and former President of Cyprus. It will help the study of the recent history of Cyprus, especially during his presidency which can be said was the golden era of progress and development of our country,” commented Foreign Minister Markos Kyprianou.
Akis Cleanthous, Education Minister under the recent Papadopoulos government and one of the founding members of the foundation, said operating as a research and advocacy think tank is one of its main aims. The foundation is currently in ongoing negotiations with the University of Cyprus and has sent out invitations to foreign academics, political analysts and researchers to participate in the think tank “so that it can be more effective” he said.
The other founding members of the foundation are Chrysses Demetriades and Christos Mavrellis, both lawyers, Giorgos Georgis, an academic working within the history department of the University of Cyprus and Haris Vovides, the Director of the Office of the President under Makarios, Kyprianou and Vassiliou.
The foundation will also operate as a publishing house, with the first publication being the first volume of a book which Spyros Kyprianou was working on during his lifetime and which should, according to Cleanthous, be completed very soon. A second and third volume are to follow, as well as works by other authors.
According to Achilleas Kyprianou, the foundation has a very rich and varied archive.
“It is one thing to read history books, another to see the original source material,” he said. Included in the collection are letters from a large number of the significant personalities of the era, including Jimmy Carter, Muammar al-Qaddafi and James Callaghan.
The purpose of such an archive, in the context of the activities of the foundation, according to Achilleas Kyprianou, is to encourage creative thinking.
“The purpose of discussion is not for us all to sit around saying how good we are, how we don’t make mistakes and have nothing left to learn. We do make mistakes and we want to learn from history, and encourage creative thought”.
Along with ‘creative thought’ on the politically relevant topics of today and the future, the Foundation will also serve as a historical research centre. This side of its work is likely to be more academic and self-contained, however. In terms of its think tank operations, the Foundation seeks to be active on the global scene and to interact with other think tanks and policy formulation organisations.
The foundation will also digitise the entirety of its archive of source material. The likelihood is that it will be based on one of the floors of the present DIKO building, in a space currently rented out to a third-party tenant whose contract is soon to expire.
