PHOTO: The wall dividing Turkish and Greek sections of Cyprus
The two leaders of the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, divided since 1974, have been pursuing talks for reunification and a federal system.
Mustafa Akinci, elected President of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, asked for the talks in April after his election. Nicos Anastasiades, the President of the mainly-Greek Republic of Cyprus — internationally recognized and a member of the European Union — immediately agreed.
The talks have been making progress, but can an agreement also heal long-term social wounds?
Christalla Yakinthou of the University of Birmingham writes for the Famagusta Gazette:
The two leaders have recently made groundbreaking statements about mistakes made on both sides in the past.
There has also been debate in the media and in the public about truth and reconciliation in Cyprus. Recent discussions have focused on whether we need a truth commission in Cyprus, and if we do, when that should happen.
But to have these discussions, we need to know more about what truth and reconciliation is and how it works.
Why deal with the past?
In Cyprus we often hear: “don’t stir up the past”. But the reality is that how we see the past shapes how we look at where we are today, and it certainly shapes what we think a safe future looks like.
To understand why we have this provision or that provision in the peace plan, we need to also know the stories underneath why those provisions are so important to one community or the other.
They are important because they are the accumulation of individual experiences that have become community memories and fears. Many of these provisions make one side or the other feel safe, or accept things as fair.
If we don’t know why the fears exist or how they came to be, it is also harder for citizens to feel satisfied with the details of a peace plan.
Make no mistake.
Periods of transition are frightening, they are traumatic, and they bring out insecurities without adding anything disputed like the past to the mix.
But anything that hides how we got here in the first place is always going to raise doubts. In a situation of instability, this will only add to fears that sit inside people’s hearts and their minds.
But if it is done right, a process of dealing with the past can build faith in the values that underpin this new vision of a whole Cyprus.
How can we deal with the past?
‘Truth and reconciliation’ is a short-hand term for a process of both seeking and speaking the many truths about the violence of the Cyprus conflict, how people experienced it, the different versions of history, and how it brought us to where we are today.
It is not about discrediting my pain or your memories. It is about adding more voices, and thinking about what the sum of all those voices say.
Truth and reconciliation commissions usually describe what happened, who was responsible, and the motives that were involved. Their aim is to investigate and publicly acknowledge widespread human rights abuses.
After they set their mandate, establish their structure and train their staff, they usually begin by going across the country taking individual statements.
They include victims and survivors from all over, and usually end in some form of a report that is made public. In the most successful commissions, the whole country is part of the process.
In failed cases, people are isolated.
The truth-seeking process opens up new possibilities for understanding what happened in the past by creating a space to tell stories that have not been previously heard.
This is particularly important when entrenched political narratives are the only story we hear and have been afraid to question.
Truth commissions do not prosecute (just as the Committee on Missing Persons doesn’t prosecute), but instead they focus on establishing a record of human rights violations during a particular period.
Truth and reconciliation are not the same thing. The theory is that truth-seeking and truth-telling can lead to reconciliation, but this is not always the case. Anger and hurt often continue.
But there are two things that are absolutely certain.
First, to forgive or to seek forgiveness, you need to understand.
To understand, you need to hear things that are usually difficult for you to hear. If there is no honest truth-seeking process, there will be no meaningful reconciliation, because reconciliation is based largely on forgiveness.
Second, you cannot choose to hear only one side of the story.
And you cannot say from the beginning, “I will reconcile with one group, but not with another.”
Reconciliation, when it does happen, comes from a process of deeper understanding. It takes its own route, and you cannot guarantee that route from the outset.
It is not always smooth, and it cannot be done in a rush.
If we do it, when is the right time?
The process of truth-seeking and truth-telling has actually been going on for decades now, but the voices speaking about the past have been few.
Investigative journalists, NGOs, and civil society initiatives by families of the missing and martyred have been asking about what happened to their loved ones, and some answers have come.
People have been telling parts of what they know for a long time now, as the CMP has been recovering, identifying and returning remains.
To be clear, the CMP is not a truth commission, and it does not provide the right basis for one.
A formal truth and reconciliation commission will usually start after a peace agreement is signed, not before.
While it is important to discuss the past and what we need to know now, we should not underestimate how fragile peace processes are, and how easily they are derailed by nationalist agendas.
It is a long process, and it needs to be.
Most commissions once they’ve started work have taken between 6 months and 2 years to do their work, but the most recent example of good practice, Tunisia’s Truth, Justice, and Reconciliation Commission, has a mandate of 4 years.
This is because almost all commissions need much longer than expected to do their work well.
To go from town to town, from village to village takes time.
To gain people’s trust takes time. To weave together our broken stories of the conflict, how we experienced it, and what caused us to be here today, takes time.
A truth and reconciliation commission does important work.
It provides the key to why we are here, in this position, with this particular peace agreement. It forms the basis for us to think about what kind of future we want for our country. And if it is done well, with care and with proper planning, it can help develop empathy between communities that do not yet trust each other.
