Executive Secretary of the Committee of Relatives of Missing Persons Nicos Theodosiou has warned that if Turkey does not cooperate with the Committee on Missing Persons (CMP) then half of the missing persons in Cyprus will remain missing.
Speaking during an event organized on Tuesday at Idalion Municiipality to commemorate and honour those killed during the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974 and those missing since then, Theodosiou noted that if Turkey does not cooperate and allow exhumations in the military zones in Cyprus’ Turkish occupied areas and if it does not give the information it possess to the CMP then it is most likely that half of missing persons will remain missing forever or even the CMP project will collapse.
He noted that the exhumations and identifications project began in a hopeful way and that the flow of information that came in mainly from Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot volunteers during the first years was satisfying.
However, as he noted, no information has been given from Turkey and its army.
Theodosiou said that until now 274 families of Greek Cypriots have received the identified remains of their beloved ones and that this number has not met expectations.
He said that the programme must be upgraded to have more reliable results as regards their quality, expressing hope that after the delay of the last two months the new phase of the programme will move on faster and with a better quality of results.
He said that test will from now on be performed at ICMP in Sarajevo and that the upgrading of the laboratory is already under way while exhumations continue.
He reiterated that the aim of the Committee of Relatives is to ascertain the fate of each missing person with convincing data and the Committee will do its outmost to this end.
Chairwoman of the House Committee on Refugees, Enclaved, Missing and Adversely Affected Persons Skevi Koukouma said that the families of missing persons have the inalienable right to be informed about the fate of their beloved ones.
“We will not stop to exert pressure on Turkey to fulfill its obligations with regard to the issue of the ascertainment of the fate of every missing persons and we will insist that Ankara gives every data it has from its military records” she added.
With regard to exhumations and identifications process, Koukouma said that despite efforts being made it has not been possible for all parts of these processes to continue to take place in Cyprus and so genetic test will be performed by a laboratory in Bosnia which is cooperating with the CMP.
She assured that the House Committee will continue to support the work of the CMP and will do its outmost to help overcome any difficulties.
Koukouma noted that the most important thing is for the process to speed up and to have reliable results.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkey invaded and occupied its northern third. As a result of the invasion, 1619 Greek-Cypriots were listed as missing, most of whom soldiers or reservists, who were captured in the battlefield.
Among them, however, were many civilians, women and children, arrested by the Turkish invasion troops and Turkish-Cypriot paramilitary groups, within the area controlled by the Turkish army after the end of hostilities and far away from the battlefield. Many of those missing were last seen alive in the hands of the Turkish military. A further 41 more cases of Greek Cypriot missing persons have been recently added. These cases concern the period between 1963-1964, when inter-communal fighting broke out but none of them has been identified yet. The number of Turkish Cypriot missing since 1974 and 1963/64 stands at 503.
According to the latest figures released in July 2012, the remains of 330 missing individuals – 264 Greek Cypriots and 66 Turkish Cypriots – have been returned to their families for proper burial.
