CopperLine wrote:The whole point of a truth and reconcialiation commission - very diffilcut to achieve, but has still been acheived - is to bring out the truth of what has happened to people, what they have experienced. It is not to claim to establish 'the truth' as if only one truth were possible. It therefore accepts that there are many different histories, many different experiences, many different 'sides'. It operates on the principle of 'this is my story, this is my experience, this is what happened to me'. It does not proceed on the basis that you are lying, that your experience doesn't count, that your story is propaganda, that what happened to you and yours is irrelevant.
Piratis saysAs if the truth were a neat little package held by someone, just waiting for the taking. So long as your repeatedly throw such phrases around 'accept the truth - like some religiious mystic, as if we were waiting for a messiah, then nothing but ill will come of it.Are you ready to accept the truth?
There is only one truth since the historical facts can not have multiple versions. What can differ is the interpretation of events and your opinion about them.
An example: in 1974 no TC was harmed until after the turkish invasion had started. This historical fact proves as false the big lie of the Turkish propaganda, that supposedly Turkey invaded Cyprus to save the TCs who were being killed. Are you ready to accept this truth, even though it doesn't serve your propaganda?
Beyond the facts, you can have your own opinion about why things happened the way they did, or what would have happened if .... etc etc. But the facts and the truth remains.
If the 'truth and reconciliation commission' was just about everybody coming out and saying his own suffering and sticking to any version of history suits him, then where is the truth and where is the reconciliation in this? It is just like what we are having in here! Welcome to the "truth and reconciliation commission"