Cyprus’ Presidential Commissioner for Humanitarian Affairs and Overseas Cypriots Photis Photiou, met on Thursday, November 24, with the Greek Alternate Minister of Foreign Affairs, Miltiades Varvitsiotis, in Athens.
Photiou is visiting Greece to attend events on the issue of missing persons.
The Commissioner briefed Varvitsiotis on the lack of substantial progress on the issue of the missing persons, as well as on Turkey’s intransigence and denial to cooperate in ending this tragedy, which is causing pain to the relatives of the missing persons.
Photiou and Varvitsiotis discussed the prospect of taking joint action towards EU institutions and decision-making centers, in order to exert pressure on Turkey to open the so-called military areas and give access to the military archives in order to determine the fate of all the missing persons.
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