Dear friends and families,
Forty-three years have passed since that black summer of 1974 of the coup d’état and the Turkish invasion. The images once again come to life before us: the sound of the sirens of betrayal. The attack on the Presidential Palace on 15th July 1974. The proclamations of the putchists of the coup d’état declaring that “we will save the homeland”. And then, the invasion of the Turkish army invasion of Attila. The bombings. The hell and devastation. The uprooting and displacement of our people. The homeland drowning in blood. The missing persons. The dead. The refugees leaving with the clothes they wore because they thought they would “come back in a few days”. The tents of the refugees…
At the same time, however, we remember with pride the heroic resistance at the Presidential Palace and at so many other castles of democracy. We remember the brave young men who defying death defended the freedom of Cyprus against the Turkish-NATO invasion; defending our homeland in an uneven, but simultaneously betrayed battle. Every corner of Cyprus is a history of betrayal, but also of dozens of stories of boldness, courage and selflessness.
Forty-three black Julys have passed since fascism opened the back doors to the hordes of Attila who ran amok; since we made unfulfilled – still – promises of reassurance that we shall meet our missing person, but today we are still waiting for them with a photo of our beloved one in our hands. Unfortunately, forty three years later the twin crime committed against Cyprus has still gone unpunished and our homeland is still divided and semi-occupied.
Every home and city has its own stories of bravery, pain, mourning and grief for that summer. So many deaths, missing persons, war-wounded, enclaved people, women who have been abused and about whom we have never talked about.
Today we are here to honor such heroes and especially the fallen and missing persons of the Municipality of Dali. Dali has paid a heavy price. 18 Missing persons from 1974 and two fallen of 1963. As it is known, the remains of Christoforos Skordis, Nikos Tsilelepis, Nikos Pericleous, Michalis Groutas, Michalis Solomonos and Savvas Savvides have been found and identified so far. This year the remains of Marcou Markou were identified and his funeral took place last April, followed by Antonis Efthymiou two weeks ago. Another 10 brave lads from Dali are on the missing persons list and, as we have been informed, the remains of Yiorgos Kyriakou of Panagiotis whose whereabouts were lost at the village of Trachonas and his family residing in Dali have been found.
It is also worth repeating from this podium too that the issue of the missing persons is an issue that must unite all Cypriots, Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriots, but also the Greek Cypriots between them, irrespective of their political views on the history or perspective of the Cyprus problem. For this reason, we must repeat at every opportunity and from every podium – no matter how exhausting and cliché it may sound – that the struggle for the missing persons will continue until the fate of each and every one of the missing persons of the Cyprus tragedy is verified. Despite the fact that the solution to the problem of the missing persons, is a matter of humanitarian importance, it should have been a self-evident and easy matter, as we all know it has become an enormous work. There are political, diplomatic, technical, scientific and economic aspects to the issue and so on, which year by year make the whole issue more difficult.
Those who have public posts/positions and are involved in any way on the subject of the missing persons mustn’t be complacent. I think it is my duty, both as a Member of Parliament and as Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Refugees, Enclaved People in the occupied areas, Missing Persons and War-stricken People, to report to our citizens about developments on missing persons issues, on what we have done and what needs to be done.
We have worked hard in recent years on the issue of the missing persons of Cyprus for it to assume a European dimension. We also succeeded, with the cooperation of Cypriot Members of the European Parliament, at the beginning of the year, in a Special Rapporteur of the European Parliament being appointed to monitor the issue of the missing persons of Cyprus. I had the opportunity to meet in Brussels with the rapporteur in question, Spanish MEP Juan Fernando Lopez Aguilar, to whom I have sent an invitation to visit Cyprus so as to have the opportunity to meet with the Committee of Missing Persons (CMP), to visit the laboratory and the exhumation sites, but also to talk with the relatives of the missing persons themselves for him to understand the magnitude of the drama. I hope that the visit of the European Parliament rapporteur to Cyprus at the beginning of 2018 will give an impetus to the missing persons issue at all levels and increase international pressure on Turkey.
Furthermore, on the initiative of the Parliamentary Committee Additionally on Refugees, Enclaved People, Missing Persons and War-stricken people, data were requested on missing persons from the Archives of the Greek Parliament. The archives, which are included in the “Cyprus File” and have recently been handed over to the House of Representatives of the Republic of Cyprus, should be immediately processed in order to search for possible information.
A positive development, albeit very late, was the recent decision concerning the promotion of facts to the CMP from the military missions of foreign countries in Cyprus, but also from the UN itself. All this is going to increase the workload which the CMP will have to carry out, and it is therefore extremely important to immediately achieve an increase in the crews and researchers involved in the excavation and identification process. Towards this end, it is important to hear the voice and pressure of the relatives of the missing persons themselves towards each competent authority.
Dear friends,
In 2017, 67 missing persons were identified. This means that 892 Greek Cypriots and 305 Turkish Cypriots are still missing today. The number is enormous taking into account the proportions of Cyprus’ population. Time is working against us. But the truth is that despite what the Republic of Cyprus and the Greek Cypriot side has done or should do, the problem of the missing persons will not be solved so long as Turkey does not cooperate. The occupational power is the big and main obstacle to the issue of the missing persons. Turkey’s supposed readiness to permit excavations in military areas in the occupied areas is being made with the utmost obstruction and bureaucratic impediments.
A powerful message must be transmitted from this event that not only the relatives of the missing people, but also the whole of the Cypriot people demand that Turkey cooperates to verify their fate; that if Turkey is counting, that the passage of time will bring amnesia and that the issue of the missing persons will be forgotten, it is mistaken. The families of the missing persons have the inalienable right to be informed about the fate of their beloved ones. It is the right of the relatives and a duty towards the missing persons. It is also a duty towards the history of our country.
Many say that it is trivial to repeat in such events that the only true vindication for the fallen and missing of 1974 is the solution of the Cyprus problem. This position is repeated constantly and by almost everyone because it is the truth. A real honor for our heroes will be when we can, at such a service, bring them the message that the 1974 crime has come to an end; that the occupation and division of our island has been lifted and that our homeland is free from one end to the other!
I realize that listening to these words, many may think that it is impossible to reach this desirable solution when we still cannot agree with each other within the Greek Cypriot community on what we want and how to fight for it. And yet the opposite is true. There is room for the unity of the people and an understanding of the political leadership. Namely, the Unanimous Decisions of the National Council that describe very clearly what is the form of the solution we are seeking and for which we are struggling. If all the political forces – that is, all those who agreed to these positions – are not drifting to pre-election expediencies/considerations and remain consistent to them, then we will be able to come to an understanding with each other and unity will be achieved. However, if everything is sacrificed for the sake of the elections and nationalist maximalist positions, then not only we will not achieve our goal of a solution based on the principles of the Cyprus problem, but we will not be able to make clear to those who are well-intentioned in the international community that the first and the main responsibility for the division of our homeland belongs to the occupying power, namely Turkey, and that the Cypriot remains unresolved because of Turkey’s intransigent positions.
Unfortunately, the latest developments that took place in Switzerland on the Cyprus problem show that we have moved away from the solution. The point is not to compromise with the impasse, with the occupation and the divisionist status quo. Let us also keep in mind that time works in favour of the occupation, not in our favour; that Turkey is implementing a policy of economic, political and cultural integration of the occupied areas and assimilation of the Turkish Cypriots. During the previous days, the Turkish Cypriots have once again reacted to the decision of the illegal pseudo-state to impose the teaching of the Koran at youth camps in the occupied areas. There are similar reactions from Turkish Cypriots also with regards other aspects of Ankara’s policy to assimilate the Turkish Cypriot community through the colonization of the occupied areas and its subjugation. We must bear in mind that these resistances will not last indefinitely because the struggle is overwhelmingly uneven. The finalization of the division of the island will not mean “lets live separately side by side in two parts” as many people think. On the contrary, it will mean the beginning of new sufferings for our country and a new era of insecurity.
All this does not mean that we have to give in and accept an unjust solution for the Cyprus problem. All this means that we must all remain committed to the goal of freedom and reunification, to defend the legitimate demands of our people. After all, the sacrifices of the heroes of 1974 were not made for our county to be divided, but to become again a free, united, independent and sovereign homeland. This is our duty to the heroes of Cyprus and to the generations who have passed away as refugees, but especially to the future generations. We must deliver them a better future than the present, a united and free country and not a divided island. We must deliver them a country that will not stack weapons, barbed wire and minefields, but a country that will open up perspectives so that the whole people – Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots – will live in a safe and peaceful homeland. This is our duty towards the heroes of the Dali too.
Heroes of Dali,
We kneel with respect before the greatness of your sacrifice. We are in anguish with your families and all the missing persons and join our forces together with the refugees and war-stricken people. We will always keep your memory alive because only in this way will we build the future of our country on solid foundations.
Speech by Skevi Koukouma, AKEL Political Bureau member, MP and Chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on Refugees, Enclaved People in the occupied areas, Missing Persons and War-stricken People at the memorial service for the Heroes, the Fallen and Missing persons in 1963 and 1974 from the Municipality of Dali
