The issues related to the memory in the Turkish Cypriot community are becoming noteworthy because of the displacements, traumatic events and political disagreements since the inter-communal violence years between 1963 and 1974 in Cyprus. Milieux de Mémoire as real environments of memory and Lieux de Mémoire as sites of memory are essential to realize the relationship between history and memory in the divided island. Besides, the concept of prosthetic memory provides an innovative way of investigating modern forms of collective memory in the community of the Turkish Cypriots. The collective memory of the Turkish Cypriots related to the inter-communal violence years between two major ethnic communities of the island is investigated through this research. This is an exploratory study of the Turkish Cypriot's experiences of the inter-communal violence years related to the memory, history and place in Gazimagusa (Famagusta) and Lefkosa (Nicosia) in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cy...

The aim of the present study is to analyse Ulucanlar Prison Museum, as an example of the memorial museum genre, and as a memorialisation attempt of an era which was marked with a confrontation discourse in Turkey. The data collected from the interviews conducted with the exprisoners and museum visitors as well as the semiological reading of the museum have been analysed with multi-modal ethnography in the light of the historical-political context of Turkey, collective memory theory and transitional justice theory with the aim of revealing the politics surrounding the museum; its contribution to individual healing and recognition as a symbolic reparation; promotion of human rights and raising awareness of their violations; and transmitting the heritage of the past with the message never again. Keywords: Collective memory, human rights, memorialisation, confrontation

In the debate on Contemporary Memory, two are the terms included constantly in the incipit of the major works of the literature on this topic: obsession and hypertrophy (Huyssen 2003, Agazzi and Fortunati 2007, Macdonald 2009). The theme of Memory has become a subject of discussion in different fields of knowledge: from social to biomedical sciences, from visual culture to media. In the last ten years the critics (Caruth 1995, Antze and Lambekm 1996, Edkins 2003) have focused on a particular aspect of Memory of traumatic and painful events: “If the 1980s were the decade of a happy postmodern pluralism, the 1990s seemed to be haunted by trauma as the dark underside of neoliberal triumphalism” (Huyssen 2003, 8).

Throughout the 20th century, and especially after the atrocities that occurred during the two world wars, a new need to honor and remember these events and their victims arose, and with it, the memorials (Sodaro, 2018, p.6). These sites of remembrance involve the convergence of strong emotions, political intentions, and the desire for legitimization of pain and justice (Barsalou & Baxter, 2007, p.4). The present case study links all this complexity of intentions with architectural conservation, leaving many questions about the appropriateness of the proposed intervention in the Ycuá Bolanos memorial, which intends to preserve and redesign an architectural building that must deal with the complexity of telling a story full of pain, death, and injustice but at the same time be a means to convey hope and heal the wounds of an entire society and specially, the victims and their families.

Nicosia, a medieval walled city in Cyprus, was divided by a ‘green line’ in 1964, again in 1974, and remains the last divided capital city in Europe. While the border between the two communities was opened in 2003 the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities live separated by a ‘dead zone’. This paper explores how the ‘dead zone’ works as a site of memory and its attendant forgettings. The aesthetics of the fragment and its multiplication, and an eclectic elision between diverse genres and discursive practices from philosophy to poetry and the multimedia image/text provide a rationale or methodology for a self-reflexive understanding of collective and individual memory. I will argue for a discourse of memory studies as a site for practice that both examines what memory processes and technologies are and how they might be employed to erode calcified repressive recollections; in this instance the memory-narratives that perpetuate enmity and political deadlock in the Cypriot context. The statement “I don’t forget” is emblazoned across Greek children’s school exercise books, the promise “we will not forget” is used in official propaganda on the Turkish side. Yet the official memories of each community are at odds: what is to be remembered, and how, is politically controversial and fiercely contested. The memories of individuals vary and both confirm and contradict the official rhetorics of their politicians. In such an environment certain kinds of memory and ways of remembering, become ideologically coded, over-signified activities. When considering what might be an appropriate research methodology for the study of memory we find ourselves faced with both different contexts or arenas of memory: the institutional, demotic, collective, and individual; which speak in the academy from a range of disciplines from philosophy to political theory, anthropology, sociology, history, cultural studies, psychoanalysis, psychology, to literary and film theory. Here I want to consider the border that divides Nicosia, as both what Nora would term a lieux and a contested milieux de memoire (of war, of childhood, of Cypriot identities), and in the process challenge disciplinary and discursive boundaries between theory and autobiography through a poetics of reverie (Bachelard) which uses both text and image.

Memory is a filter through which humans analyze and experience the space, affecting their behavior and perception. Memory integrates with the space, leading to the multidimensional spatial experience. Because memory is significant due to the fact that it encloses elements of identity and history, the constant search for ways and means to redefine its content is an important process for societies. A way to emerge memory is through architecture; memorials and museums can be considered “vaults” of memory. An indicative category of museums and memorial spaces that use the experiential approach to preserve, exhibit and communicate memory to deeply affect the visitors, is the one of the Holocaust. The Battle of Crete (Greece) and the period of the German Occupation of the island during WWII, is characterized as one of the darkest pages of Crete’s history. The chain of events resulted in a number of unique occurrences that affected the development of the social and collective memory of the participants and left deep “scars” on the residents and places of the island; a network of memory and destruction. Through the analysis of indicative architectural examples (museums / memorials) and testimonies of the period, this dissertation aims to explore ways of representing and evoking memory as well as the diagrammatic spatial interpretation of testimonies.