'Unearthing the Truth': The Politics of Exhumations in Cyprus and Spain.

Iosif Kovras, Queen's University - Belfast

Abstract

Contrary to the experience of other countries with memories of clandestine violence and ‘missing persons’ (i.e. Argentina, Guatemala and Chile), where the mobilization of the (civil) society towards ‘truth recovery’ (bodies of the victims) was immediate and pivotal, the societies in Cyprus and Spain remained silent for a remarkably long period. This paper aspires to give a preliminary account about the reasons why both Cypriot communities and the Spanish society, until recently, did not manage to comprehensively address - not to mention resolve - the problem of ‘missing persons’. The recent emergence of the ‘politics of exhumations’ in these two countries, which highlight issues related to truth recovery and collective memory, makes the attempt to respond to the question why these processes take place only today, even more stimulating. The mobilization of victims’ associations and the subsequent change in the resources and the new – structural - opportunities available to them, are considered as the most important parameters of this shift.