About the CCHA
Cyprus Critical History Archive:
A unique digital resource on the troubled history of Cyprus.
The Cyprus Critical History Archive (CCHA) is a joint initiative between the Association for Historical Dialogue & Research (AHDR) and Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) to digitize, catalogue and make available to the public, Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot newspaper articles on inter-communal relations and conflict-related violence during the 1955-1964 period.
The online archive contains digitized newspaper articles freely available to historians, social scientists, researchers, journalists or any interested member of the public, providing a unique resource to anyone who wants to learn more on this troubled period of the history of Cyprus.
A pioneering contribution to historical enquiry, the CCHA constitutes the first attempt to offer an online trilingual collection of sources on the 1955-64 periods. By providing English translations of Greek and Turkish sources, this resource makes readily available otherwise inaccessible material to anyone interested in Cypriot history – be it scholars, educators, or the public at large.
The purpose of the archive is to facilitate the quest for knowledge, understanding and multiperspectivity, and will enhance historical dialogue through access to primary sources.
Users are able to browse through the summaries entries and English translations, read the articles in their original language, and perform multiple searches. This resource opens a window into understanding the different perceptions of the events of the period not only along communal, but also political and ideological lines.
Emphasising access to primary material, means that the CCHA encourages users to enquire into historical issues themselves, rather than accepting ready-made answers that favour particular interpretations of Cypriot history. Thus users of the archive are provided with an n opportunity to be exposed to different points of view of specific events in order to better understand the complex nature of the Cyprus conflict.
The CCHA project was a huge undertaking involving several stages of research over a 3 year period. During the initial phase of the project that lasted about 15 months, researchers identified digitized and catalogued material from libraries and archives from all over Cyprus. Having collected tens of thousands of images, the second phase of the project concerned the uploading, summarizing, and translation of articles pertinent to selected themes and topics. This selection was based on specific criteria, the main consideration of which was going beyond conventional wisdom and established knowledge by highlighting marginalised, but no less important, facets of the 1955-64 periods.
The CCHA is a work in progress offering the potential to be built upon and enhanced in terms of the materials available and the periods covered. Eventually, it is hoped that the project will broaden its temporal scope and extend up to 1974, while the typology of sources will include private and public archival documentation, photographic archives, audio-visual material and oral accounts from Cyprus and abroad.
This short film provides an interesting and thought-provoking look into the making of the Cyprus Critical History Archive:
For further information, please contact:
The Association for Historical Dialogue and Research (AHDR)
Address: Home for Cooperation, 28, Marcou Dracou Street, 1102 Nicosia, Cyprus
Tel: +357 22445740 & +90 5488345740
E-mail address: ahdr@ahdr.info
Website: www.ahdr.info