Eastern Mediterranean University Business and Economics Faculty, Political Science and International Relations Department hosted a seminar entitled “Coping with the Memories of the Spanish Civil War: A Past that does not Die Out”.
The seminar was delivered by Francisco Colom González, research professor of the Centre for Humanities and Social Sciences at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). During the seminar, Prof. Dr. Francisco Colom Gonzalez provided information about Spain’s reckoning with the civil war and Francisco Franco regime which was between 1939 and 1975. Prof. Dr. Gonzalez also stated that Spain’s transition to democracy between 1975 and 1982 was a political transition which did not include transitional justice.
The political amnesty act taking effect in 1977 and the absence of truth commissions ensured that crimes committed by Franco’s administration remained unreported. Additionally, due to the introduction of the said elements, victims of the civil war which took place between 1936 and 1939 could not benefit from symbolic compensation. The political resolution for the said period was based on forgetting about the past. Prof. Dr. Gonzalez added that a solution model for Cyprus which does not include facing the past will eventually bring out problems.