Head of Humanitarian Affairs of Missing and Enclaved Persons, Anna Aristotelous, has assured that the President of the Republic, Nikos Christodoulides, is making every possible effort to promote the issue of the missing persons.
She was speaking to the Cyprus News Agency after attending on Saturday morning a tree planting ceremony at the site of a monument in Strovolos. The ceremony was organised by the Assia Community Council. The monument, that will be delivered soon, will honour fallen and missing persons of Assia, since the Turkish invasion of Cyprus n 1974 .
Speaking during the ceremony she said that “Assia experienced in the worst way possible the brutality and the merciless hatred of the occupiers and this is reflected in the number of executions, murders recorded in those days and the number of missing persons”.
People from Assia that are missing include, among others, an 11 year old, as well as elderly people.
Aristotelous assured that the President of the Republic is making every possible effort
to promote the issue of the missing persons, saying that regardless of the problems and adversities, the struggle to determine the fate of the last missing person will continue.
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.
According to statistical data published on the CMP website by December 31, 2023, out of 2002 missing persons 1,228 were exhumed and 1,044 were identified. Out of 1510 Greek Cypriot missing persons 751 were identified and 759 are still missing. Out of 492 Turkish Cypriot missing persons 293 were identified and 199 are still missing.
Source: Cyprus News Age
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