The Day of Missing Persons, the Republic of Cyprus marks on October 29th, reminds us of the duty and responsibility to correctly ascertain the fate of each person who went missing, says the President of Cyprus Nicos Anastasiades.
“Despite our intense efforts for 48 years, hundreds of Cypriots remain missing”, the President wrote in a post on Twitter.
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.
Source: Cyprus News Agency