Remembering the Past: The Collective Memory and Historigraphies of Cyprus

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7596/taksad.v7i3.1627

Keywords:

Memory politics, Cypriot memory landscape, Cyprus Conflict, Collective memory, Historiographies.

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the politics of memory and the transformations of memories of historiographies in the Cyprus Conflict. I focus on the collective memory conceptualization that invades Cyprus Conflict, and I investigate Cyprus history textbooks from Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot education system. In this regard, the Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot memories are mostly based on the historiographies, negative memories of between 1958s and 1963s and the heroic partisan struggle strongly clash with negative counter-memories of 1974. The forced remembering of 1974, the Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, which is promoted also by politically institutionalized top-down politics of memory, is created also in the popular, bottom-up memories of the today's negotiations. Such memory politics foster past narratives mostly based on historiographies, creates us and them dichotomy narratives. Moreover, it blurs the negotiation and forgiveness paradigm, when it suddenly becomes the certain point of collective memory of past and present.

Author Biography

Dilan Çiftçi, Near East University Communication Faculty Department of Journalism

Dr. Dilan CIFTCIwas graduated from Middle East Technical University Political Science and International Relations Department with high honor degree in 2010.

In 2011she was awarded an EU Scholarships for the Turkish Cypriot Community and spent a year at the Graduate School of Communication at the University of Amsterdam. She completed her MSc degree on Communication Sciences: Political Communication. Her thesis on Peace Journalism and News Coverage on the Annan Plan Referendum: The Role of Framing the Conflict Issues and Negotiation Process was earned with honor degree. In 2013 she was awarded a PhD scholarship from Dr. Suat Gunsel Foundation and completed her PhD on Media and Communication Studies at the Near East University in 2017. Her PhD thesis was on the Collective Memory and Media: The Case of Missing Persons Issues in Cyprus.

As a full-time lecturer since 2013, she taught different core courses such as Introduction to Communication, Political Communication and Public Opinion Research and elective courses such as Peace Journalism, Discourse in Media and Popular Culture at the Faculty of Communication at the Near East University.

Ciftci has delivered presentations at various conferences in Cyprus and Turkey. She has published articles in international journals. She prefers to work within the framework of war and peace studies on a variety of topics such as collective memory, reconciliation, negotiations and forgiveness and peace journalism.

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Published

2018-09-30

How to Cite

Çiftçi, D. (2018). Remembering the Past: The Collective Memory and Historigraphies of Cyprus. Journal of History Culture and Art Research, 7(3), 152-162. https://doi.org/10.7596/taksad.v7i3.1627