President Nicos Anastasiades has assured that the government is determined to continue efforts to find a functional and viable solution to the Cyprus problem, despite the difficulties due to the economic crisis. Addressing an event for missing persons in the village of Kornos in Nicosia district, President Anastasiades said this effort will take place after a good preparation and after the end of the urgent situation with the economy. The address was read out by Minister of Defence Photis Photiou.
President Anastasiades stressed that the government is struggling hard to deal with the difficulties and face the challenges, noting that the economic crisis has not disoriented it from the major target of solving the Cyprus problem and reuniting the country. He also pointed out that the issue of missing persons in Cyprus is always high in the government’s priorities and in this context the government fully supports the work of the Committee on Missing Persons. President Anastasiades expressed solidarity with the relatives of missing persons and said that the cooperation of the government with the Committees of missing persons in Cyprus and Greece remains firm.
“We have proven the extent of our cooperation on this humanitarian issue and we expect from the T/c side to lift all obstacles” to its resolution, he stressed. He said positive steps have been taken in the issue of missing persons, noting, however, that many more should be taken. “It is pivotal to see the Turkish government and the Turkish army to allow access to the so-called military zones in Cyprus’ occupied areas, enabling exhumations to be carried out. Another obligation of the Turkish military is to work on issues related to information, since it is the Turkish army and no-one else that maintains full control of the occupied areas”, he stressed. Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkey invaded and occupied its northern third. As a result of the invasion, 1619 Greek-Cypriots were listed as missing, most of whom soldiers or reservists, who were captured in the battlefield.
Among them, however, were many civilians, women and children, arrested by the Turkish invasion troops and Turkish-Cypriot paramilitary groups, within the area controlled by the Turkish army after the end of hostilities and far away from the battlefield. Many of those missing were last seen alive in the hands of the Turkish military. A further 41 more cases of Greek Cypriot missing persons have been recently added. These cases concern the period between 1963-1964, when inter-communal fighting broke out but none of them has been identified yet.
The number of Turkish Cypriot missing since 1974 and 1963/64 stands at 503. According to the CMP, the total number of identifications has risen to 407 from 337 at the end of 2012, of which 83% or 333 were Greek Cypriots and 17% which corresponds to 17 identifications were Turkish Cypriots. Since the beginning of the identification programme in 2006, 900 exhumations have been carried out until April 2013, which represents 45% of the total missing persons from both communities. So far excavations have been carried out at 738 sites, of which 479 or 65% bore no result whereas remains were located in 259 burial sites. Since the recommencement of the CMP programme last August, 1.351 samples have been genetically analysed which is 50% more than the samples analysed in the past seven years.