The 39th marathon of love for the people who went missing during the 1974 Turkish invasion of the island kicked off Monday and will continue until Friday with a series of events.
A press conference was held at the Archbishopric during which Leonidas Pantelides, the Greek Cypriot member of the Committee on Missing Persons (CMP) said that currently CMP is carrying out excavations with 7 teams, of which six in the occupied areas of the island and one in the Republic.
He said that from 2006 until today, more than 1,600 excavations have been carried out, resulting in the finding of the remains in 352 cases. A total of 1,047 identifications have been carried out to date, 752 for Greek Cypriots and 297 Turkish Cypriots.
He added that 212 identifications were also made that do not concern the list of the missing but the fallen. Pantelides also said that they are trying to increase the teams to 10.
Head of Humanitarian Affairs of Missing and Enclaved People Anna Aristotelous said that during last year the authorit
ies managed to secure that all contacts and information given for the issue of the missing are conducted under humane conditions and not in an investigative police manner.
She further noted that they are trying to make use of all information and that during the last year they had a total of 16 identifications of remains of missing persons. The total number of missing stands now at 776.
Aristotelous also said that the repatriation ceremonies for the remains of six soldiers who were serving in Cyprus from Greece will take place at the end of May 2024.
She went on to say that the authorities have also started compiling a list of the children of the missing while a care allowance will be given to the spouses of the missing, fallen and parents of the missing and fallen, in exactly the same way as granted to the 1974 prisoners.
Chair of the Organization of Relatives of the Missing Nikos Sergides said that during the last 20 years since the establishment of CMP, only 50% of the missing persons’ cases were resolv
ed. He also said that in the past 3-4 years the results have been very poor.
Chair of the House Refugee Committee Nikos Kettiros referred to Turkey’s responsibilities as regards the issue of the missing and pointed out that the Parliament plays a role in informing about the issue.
Archbishop Yeorgios said that the Cyprus Church shares the grief of all the relatives of the missing and assured them that they will continue to be by their side. He also noted that the solution of the missing persons’ issue is part of the solution to the Cyprus problem.
Accountant General Andreas Antoniades said that since the establishment of the Fund for the Missing in 1984 a total of approximately 1.2 million euro have been collected. The money is mostly spent for the education of the children of missing persons, or is given as wedding aid.
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 Pers
ons 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.
Source: Cyprus News Agency