Nicosia seeks cooperation with Turkey on missing persons’ issue

Cyprus President, Nikos Christodoulides, was briefed on Monday on all developments to do with the missing persons in Cyprus, such as about the investigation and identification programmes. Nicosia seeks ways to achieve cooperation with Turkey aiming to establish the fate of missing persons.

Christodoulides presided over a meeting of officials who deal with the issue of missing persons, on Monday at the Presidential Palace .

According to a press release issued by the Presidency, participants discussed ways to achieve cooperation with Turkey aiming to establish missing persons’ fate, by acquiring access to archives which the Turkish occupation troops have.

The President asked and was thoroughly briefed on developments in this issue, such as about the investigation and the identification programmes, it is noted.

Foreign Minister, Konstantinos Kombos, the representative of the Greek Cypriot side in the Committee for Missing Persons in Cyprus (CMP), Leonidas Pantelides, the Foreign Ministry’s Permanent Secretary and head of the Central Intelligence Service, Kyriakos Kouros, Director of the President’s Press Office, Victoras Papadopoulos, the Director of the President’s Diplomatic Office, Marilena Raouna, and other officers attended the meeting.

Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkish troops invaded and occupied 37% of its territory. Since then, the fate of hundreds of people remains unknown.

A Committee on Missing Persons has been established, upon agreement between the leaders of the two communities, with the scope of exhuming, identifying and returning to their relatives the remains of 492 Turkish Cypriots and 1,510 Greek Cypriots, who went missing during the inter-communal fighting of 1963-1964 and in 1974.