‘Determining the fate of the last missing person is a top priority for both the Government and me personally,’ the President of the Republic noted in a speech read at a conference held on Missing Persons Day.
Government Spokesperson Konstantinos Letymbiotis read the speech of the President of the Republic, Nikos Christodoulides, at a conference held on Saturday at Neapolis University, in Pafos. The President stressed that all the drama, the anguish and the pain of the relatives of the missing persons mark Missing Persons’ Day, which was established in 2010 as a ‘reminder of the most tragic and sensitive aspect of the Cypriot tragedy of 1974.’
Missing Persons’ Day is ‘an account of the extent of the crime committed by the Turkish occupying forces against Cyprus’ the President said, adding that the word ‘missing’ entered our vocabulary for almost half a century, in the eve of these sad events.
President Christodoulides stressed that ‘as a State, we call for an end to this unacceptable situation. We expect the United Nations, the European Union, and the world powers to put an end to the drama and suffering of the relatives of the missing. UN General Assembly Resolution 3450 of 1975 underlines the basic human need for families to be informed about their missing relatives.’
He went on to say that in 2001 the European Court of Human Rights ruling condemning Turkey, following the interstate application of Cyprus v. Turkey – the fourth in a row – set the conditions for the Committee of Missing Persons, launched eventually in 2006. Today, of the 1510 Greek Cypriots missing, 767 remain missing, while of the 492 Turkish Cypriots, 199 remain missing, he added. ‘Their families are stoically waiting and hoping. For these families, time does not heal. Only answers do. The answers to the fate of their loved ones, they are anxiously searching for the conclusion to the tragedy they have been experiencing for almost half a century’ the President of the Republic added.
‘Determining the fate of the last missing person is a top priority for both the Government and me personally,’ Christodoulides added. ‘And it is precisely within this framework, intending to contribute even more to the efforts of the Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus (CMP), that the Republic of Cyprus is increasing its financial contribution – regardless the Turkish side’s stance. Recognizing the State’s minimum debt to the parents of the fallen and missing, the widows of the fallen, and the wives of the missing, I announced a few days ago something that should have been done long ago by the State: the Government’s decision to grant an allowance to all these fellow citizens in the same way as it was granted to the prisoners and hostages of 1974’.
‘Nearly 50 years have passed since the tragic summer of 1974, and our country remains under occupation. The current situation cannot determine the future of our nation. It is precisely for this reason that from the first moment, we have been working for the resumption of meaningful talks from where they have been interrupted in the summer of 2017,’ stressed President Christodoulides.
On restarting the negotiation process, the President of the Republic referred to ‘substantive talks,’ which will aim to resolve the Cyprus problem based on the agreed framework, and the principles and values of the European Union. ‘And I hope that the decision of the UN Secretary-General, after our continuous efforts to appoint a specific personality as envoy, will be accepted by the Turkish side, a development that will pave the way for the resumption of substantive talks that will lead to the blessed day of the reunification of our country,’ President Christodoulides said.
The President of the Republic stressed that the goal of the Republic of Cyprus is a solution ‘that will free Cyprus from anachronistic guarantees and occupying troops. A solution that will effectively end the occupation and enable all legitimate inhabitants of this land to peacefully coexist, with no division, under a regime of equal rights and equality.’
President Christodoulides thanked the President of the Pancyprian Organization of Relatives of Captured and Missing Persons, Nikos Sergides, as well as the Head of Humanitarian Affairs of Missing and Trapped Persons, Anna Aristotelous, for the organization of the Workshop and for the overall work they are doing.
Source: Cyprus News Agency