BoC-Tepak agreement links past with the future

The largest private archive in Cyprus, the historical archive of the Bank of Cyprus, is to be digitised by the Cyprus University of Technology (Tepak) Digital Heritage Lab, the bank and the university announced on Tuesday.

The relevant agreement was signed by Tepak rector Andreas Anayiotis and director of corporate affairs at the Bank of Cyprus Michalis Persianis.

The huge archive reflects the history of the island and the bank has decided to “bring it alive” through the university, Anayiotis said.

It will be updated and digitised and then presented via the Europeana database using the know-how and state-of-art technologies of Tepak.

“Thus the valuable archive will become a common property of Cypriot and European citizens,” Anayiotis said.

“For us, this signing is the beginning of a strategic partnership in which we invest a lot,” Persianis noted.

“The Bank of Cyprus has in its archives 120 years of all phases of modern Cypriot history, while Tepak is one of the biggest investments of our society in the future. So we are linking this past to the future.”

By learning about our history we will be able to draw conclusions about the future, Persianis concluded.

Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Bank of Cyprus Cultural Foundation Symeon Matsis explained the foundation preserves valuable items such as ancient coins, engravings and old photographs and watercolours depicting the culture of Cyprus.

In addition, the foundation owns the largest privately owned collection of Cypriot art, numbering over 850 works by well-known Cypriot artists, including works originating from the former Laiki Bank’s cultural centre.

Head of the Digital Heritage Lab Marinos Ioannides compared the archive to a “safe containing diamonds, unique and of great value”.

“Opening this archive to the Cypriot public, the academic community, but also to the whole of Europe, is the biggest challenge for an organisation such as the Bank of Cyprus,” he added.

According to Ioannides, the digitisation has already started and it is not yet clear when the process will be completed.

 

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.