Presidential Commissioner Photis Photiou called on the Turkish side to end its tactics as regards the issue of the missing persons and to cooperate for the fate of all those who went missing, pointing out that our side will continue its efforts to locate and identify the remains of all Turkish Cypriot missing persons.
Photiou was asked by the Cyprus News Agency about statements made recently in the occupied areas as regards the issue and claims that the Greek Cypriot side is trying to take advantage of the issue for political reasons and the statements for propaganda.
He told CNA that is with great concern that he read the statements by the Turkish side, adding that Ankara and the Turkish Cypriot side are the ones who want to politicize all the efforts to find a solution to the problem of the missing persons.
He described their allegations and accusations as unsubstantiated adding that uttering these claims is not in line with the spirit of cooperation that should govern the behavior of all those involved in the efforts to solve the problem.
Photiou said that our side will not go down this road, pointing out that highlighting the problems that hinder progress is neither propaganda nor political exploitation, but the obligation of all who really care and are interested in ending the pain and ordeal of the families of the missing.
The Commissioner refuted the claims for propaganda, saying that pointing out the problems who derive from Turkey`s refusal to open its archives and to cooperate is not a propaganda or political exploitation.
Photiou stressed that the responsibilities and obligations of Turkey are included in the decisions of the ECHR in 2001 and 2014, as well as in the interim resolutions of the Council of Europe.
He called on Turkey and the Turkish Cypriots to provide answers as regards the approximately 800 cases of Greek Cypriots and Greeks who went missing, adding that our side will continue and will intensify its efforts in every direction in order to determine the fate of every Turkish Cypriot missing person.
Since the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus, 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