Macro history is the playground of states, wars, and leaders. History from below, which emerged as an alternative to this, has tried making ordinary people the actors of history, by using the same state archives. As AÇÖTOM, we think that using the same archives and changing the subject of historiography is not enough to explain the period written. We believe that the true democratization of history needs the democratization of its resources. We aim to write the history of the simple and ordinary with the trivial documents of daily life, outside the surveillance of the power that creates the archives.

How do the ordinary documents of everyday life come to light?  When people die, their furniture is sent to antique shops, and their books to bookshops. The private documents (photographs, documents, letters, diaries, etc.) that accompany a person's life are thrown away when there is no one focusing on them. We claim these documents, which are not valued by collectors, and turn them into historiographic material.

The life of an ordinary person can be written with the documents that accompany his/her life. We see ephemera as source material allowing us to catch the rhythm of everyday life. Thus, an Ottoman postage stamp used in the early Republican period, a letter written by a member of parliament in Arabic letters on the letterhead of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey in 1955, a telegram sent to a wedding held on 16 September 1980 accompany us in capturing the spirit of the time. As AÇÖTOM, we invite you to the writing of history with the trinkets of everyday life. You can follow our work as an audience, contribute to the writing of history with your documents, and accompany us in this newly opened rich street of history.