Turkey should be held accountable for the failure to resolve the humanitarian issue of missing persons and the continuation of the ordeal of their relatives, Presidential Commissioner Photis Photiou has said.

Speaking on Monday at the funeral of the remains of a missing soldier, who lost his life during the 1974 Turkish invasion, Photiou said that the families of the missing persons experience a tragedy that has no end and this is entirely due to the attitude and the stance of Ankara.

He pointed out that “despite our efforts and the efforts undertaken by the relatives of the missing persons, the fate of about 1,000 missing persons remains so far unclear.”

Photiou said that since the 1974 Turkish invasion, Ankara raises obstacles and undermines every effort to achieve substantial progress.

He referred to the fact that Turkey does not grant access to army archives, refuses to give information about mass burial sites and has proceeded with the removal of human remains of missing persons to other sites from the initial buried site.

According to Photiou, Turkey has a moral, political and legal responsibility and obligation to cooperate at long last in a sincere manner so that the fate of missing persons is finally confirmed.

He called on the international community to turn to Turkey and exert influence on the issue. The Commissioner assured that the government will not give up the effort and will continue the work to identify the remains of all missing persons and return them to their next of kin for a proper burial.

The Republic of Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkey invaded and occupied its northern third. As a result of the invasion, hundreds of Greek Cypriots were listed as missing, most of whom soldiers or reservists, who were captured in the battlefield. Turkish Cypriots are also listed as missing.

The CMP, a committee on missing persons, was established in the early 1980s, upon agreement between the leaders of the island`s two communities, with a view to exhuming, identifying and returning the remains of missing persons to their relatives.