Cyprus Presidential Commissioner, Photis Photiou, said on Saturday, that without the sincere cooperation of Turkey there can be no substantive progress as regards the establishment of the fate of the missing persons in Cyprus.
Speaking during the funeral of Christakis Philippou Nicolaides, who was killed during the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974, and whose remains have been exhumed and identified, Photiou stressed that the international community, and particularly the UN and the EU must undertake, even after so many years, humanitarian initiatives for the missing persons in Cyprus, to overcome the intransigence and the refusal of Turkey to cooperate on this issue.
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