Nicosia: A budget of £1 million has been approved by the Council of Ministers for specialised genetic tests using the method of Massively Parallel Sequencing to identify the remains of missing persons, the Office of the Presidential Commissioner announced on Thursday. It is noted that it concerns remains that due to previous exposure to chemical substances, it has been until now extremely difficult or even impossible to identify.
According to Cyprus News Agency, the effort will be implemented through the Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics. The aim is to start the process within May. "This decision constitutes yet another substantive step in the effort to identify the remains of our missing persons and fallen. It utilises the most modern scientific method in the service of truth, memory and justice," the announcement said.
Securing this funding was made possible through the initiative of the Presidential Commissioner, Marios Hartsiotis, and with the decisive support of the President of the Republic, Nikos Christodoulides, confirming in practice the Government's will to intensify efforts to determine the fate of missing persons, the statement adds.
"The Government's position is clear: the issue of missing persons is primarily a humanitarian one. For this reason, it is the state's responsibility to intensify its actions to the greatest extent possible, until answers are provided to the last family of our missing persons," the Office of the Presidential Commissioner said in its announcement.
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.
According to statistical data published on the CMP website by March 31, 2026, of 2,002 missing persons, 1,714 were exhumed and 1,069 were identified. Out of 1,510 Greek Cypriot missing persons, 764 were identified and 746 are still missing. Out of 492 Turkish Cypriot missing persons, 305 were identified and 187 are still missing.