The urgent need for immediate and effective measures to address Turkey’s efforts to close the issue of missing persons was agreed during a meeting between the Presidential Commissioner, Photis Photiou, and the new administration of the Pancyprian Organisation of the Relatives of Undeclared Prisoners and Missing Persons. The two sides also took stock of the implementation of measures and initiatives in and out of Cyprus, that were decided last September in Athens.
An official announcement notes that during the meeting, it was said there can be no further progress in the work of the Committee on Missing Persons without Turkey’s collaboration, while noting that only four missing persons were identified in 2022. The two sides focused on the ways through which the international community, the EU and the UN in particular, can play a crucial role, as this is a matter of basic principles of the human rights.
Both the Presidential Commissioner and the members of the Association noted that the families of the missing persons of Cyprus expect to receive equal treatment, as any other families of missing persons in the world.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkish troops invaded and occupied its northern third. 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 the remains of missing persons to their relatives.
Source: Cyprus News Agency