Faculty of Communication finalizes LAÇ urban memory project

The Lapta-Alsancak-Çamlıbel (LAÇ) Municipality Urban Memory project carried out by Cyprus International University (CIU) Faculty of Communication has been completed.  The LAÇ Urban Memory project was carried out by holding  interviews with 69 people from different professional groups from the villages within the borders of LAÇ Municipality and it took  3 months to finalize it.

LAÇ Urban Memory producer-cinematographer Prof. Dr. Aytekin İşman said that the study is the first urban memory project on the island and underlined that urban memory is an important cornerstone in carrying the past experiences of societies to the present.

Stating that they were happy to include many stories with different themes in the LAÇ Urban Memory project, İşman gave the message that, as the University, their community service efforts will continue increasingly and that they will start new projects with other municipalities on the island.

LAÇ Urban Memory project director Assoc. Prof. Dr. Dilan Çiftçi also spoke about the project and said, “It is buildings that make cities and people who attach meaning to these buildings. In our project, we tried to understand cities through people's stories." 

Pointing out that many people contributed to the project, from shooting to editing, from transportation to technical infrastructure, Çiftçi noted that in addition to the documentary and website created as a product of their work, a book will be published as a continuation of the project.

Çiftçi also emphasized that, as CIU Faculty of Communication, they have always been willing  to take part in every project that relates to society and moreover, people, and said, “We have had the opportunity to meet the wonderful people of our country who narrated the 69 different stories in the project. We will continue working on new projects with the mission of recording the lives and testimonials of the locals  in North Cyprus." 

In her speech, Çiftçi also said that at the Gala night hosted by LAÇ Municipality commemorative plaques were presented to the people interviewed, and concluded by saying the Gala night was very emotional.