Pusula / Ππούσουλας

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A common memorial/monument to Cypriot war dead from all communities

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Help Cyprus find its direction while bringing your ideas to life!
sergenbahceci sergenbahceci       1 comment    Created Date: 17/02/2020

Proposal code: Pusula / Ππούσουλας-2020-02-59

I propose the construction of a memorial/monument that is to be dedicated to the memory of all Cypriot war dead, regardless of their community or the circumstances of their death.

Monuments and memorials throughout Cyprus represent the violent events of the past, often honouring some selected victims or perpetrators of violence while condemning some others. What is crucially missing in public spaces on both sides of the dividing line are monuments that memorialise the war dead without imposing political, and often very nationalist, meanings on their death, e.g. memorials often emphasise their “killing” and allocate blame while to some other, while overlooking the deep tragedy of dying violently in a war.

I propose the construction of a memorial/monument that is to be dedicated to the memory of all Cypriot war dead, regardless of their community or the circumstances of their death.

For that purpose, I believe this memorial/monument needs to fulfil a number of criteria:

  1. It needs to emphasise the death of the fallen and the tragedy of their dying, rather than the act of their killing.
  2. It has to be in a neutral, or at least symbolically neutral ground that is also accessible and visible to people from all communities, e.g. around the Ledra Palace hotel area.
  3. Avoid militaristic symbolic elements in order to emphasise the fate of the victims rather than allocate blame.
  4. It needs to contain some level of symbolic ambiguity so that the onlookers can identify with the war dead and their victimhood, rather than their ethnic identity or the circumstances of their death.

Although the case in Cyprus is unique and a high level of artistic experimenting will be needed for a memorial/monument of this sort, several examples from around the world that I believe can inspire this project are as follows:

Monument aux Morts, Gentioux, France http://www.sanantoniopeace.center/mondays-monument-monument-aux-morts-gentioux-france/

Memorials to Unknown Deserters in both World Wars in Germany https://shrineodreams.wordpress.com/2015/11/11/remembrance-day-the-unknown-deserter/

Shot at Dawn Memorial in UK dedicated to executed war resisters in the army https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shot_at_Dawn_Memorial

 

Structures commemorating the dead of two “opposing” sides are not common anywhere in the World. It is exactly because of this that a memorial/monument of this kind is needed: so that Cypriots and people from other troubled places can start to imagine reconciliation and healing through tangible structures. The commonly found statues and monuments often serve to sustain enmity and bitterness. It is time that statues help people imagine how to deal with the tragedy of the past and the promise of their future.