Commonwealth's Chief Rabbi, Sir Sacks, to "EuroFora" : "Truth can unite People for a Better Future"

    Commonwealth's Rabbi, Sir Jonathan Sacks, to "EuroFora" : Truth on Dark Past, can unite People for a better Future.

- EU Parliament's President, German ChristianDemocrat MEP Hans Gert Poettering, backs the move.


     Truth, even on the darkest tragedies of division, can unite People together for a better common Future, agreed Commonwealth and UK's Chief Rabbi, Sir  Jonathan Sacks, in reply to a question by "EuroFora" at a Press Conference with EU Parliament's President Hans Gert Poettering, in Strasbourg,

    - "We must always confront the TRUTH, and remember the Truth. The Alternative is to live a Lie !".

    - "And we must remember, both our People's sufferings, and other People's sufferings. For one specific purpose : We cannot change the Past, but, by remembering the Past, we can change the Future", he stressed. "We must remember Not in anger, resent or revenge, but always looking towards the Future, and to Hope", concluded Commonwealth's Chief Rabbi, Sir Sacks.

    He was replying to a "EuroFora's Question if he felt important, not only for Human Rights, but also Moraly and even Politicaly, "no to hide, but to find the Truth, on what really happened in serious Tragedies, as f.ex. on "Missing" persons or others, not in order to provoke hate, but, on the contrary, to bring together the People, as a guarantee that this will never happen again in Future". I.e. "using bad times they shared in Past divisions, in order to head towards a better common Future".

    - "What can bring ..together is a shared History of suffering", "take bad moments and use them to bring People together, because they are suffering together", he advised earlier.

    - "I completely agree with what the Rabbi said", echoed EU Parliament's President, Hans Gert POETTERING, who had introduced our Question. Poettering, a German MEP whose own father was killed during the 2nd World War, and a convinced European, reminded that EU Parliament had just "held a Commemoration to mark the 70th anniversary of the "Crystal Night", or "ReichsPogromNacht" :- "Such Tragedies, as also Shoah, Pogrom, Intolerance, etc., teach us a lesson that must be never forgotten", stressed EU Parliament's President this week in Strasbourg.
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    We had warned the Chief Rabbi that we raised that question after coming from an exceptional ECHR's Hearing on the tragic cases of 9 People gonne "Missing", until one of them was found killed with bullets shot at his head from short distance. -"Never mind where this happened, never mind who was the responsible State. But as a matter of general principle", we told Sir Jonathan Sacks.

    Significantly, the Commonwealth's Chief Rabbi made that point just minutes after the first in History ECHR's public hearing on Cyprus' "Missing" People's tragedy, in the Human Rights' building facing EU Parliament, at the other side of Strasbourg's river.

    The two sons of a peaceful Bank employee, who was kindapped at a coffee-shop by Turkish militia after the 1974 clash with Ankara's army, his bank robbed, his wife left without any news his fate more than 30 years, until his body was found recently with bullets shot at his head, but without knowing who was responsible for the brutal killing, eyed a representative of the Turkish government multiply legal technicalities against any complaint...

    Obviously seized by strong emotions, they didn't say a word.

    A Greek Cypriot Lawyer expressed  "sympathy" for some Turkish Cypriot "Missing" people's families affected at earlier clashes, but stressed also his belief that if they had lodged an application in Cyprus, the Government would have done all its possible to help them, while, on the contrary, Ankara never did any efficient investigation for thousands of Greek Cypriots gone "Missing" after the Turkish military invasion of 1974, despite repeated CoE and ECHR's calls since a 1992 Report and a 2001 judgement.

    Old women and other representatives of 9 persons gone "Missing" without any news about them, were present. One, tears in her eyes, told "Eurofora"  - "I searched everywhere. I went to all demonstrations with other families, in vain, Eye-witnesses said that they saw him in prison in mainland Turkey, but afterwards, nothing. I waited for him for years, and my life withered away for three decades. They owe us the truth. This must not be forgotten !".

    The Chief Rabbi spoke side to side with EU Parliament's President, Hans Gert Poettering, who said that he "completely agreed" on that, and, replying to a related question by "EuroFora", pleaded for a "Dialogue between Religions" to continue, even after his current term, hopping also that, after representatives of Muslims, the Dalai Lama, Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomeos and the Chief Rabbi, EU Parliament will succeed also to welcome the Christian Catholic Pope Benedict XVI, a worlwide Moral leader, even if "it might take as long to prepare as with his predecessor, John Paul II", who visited Strasbourg 20 years earlier, in 1988.