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Photos appear to show Missing, says Photiou

ΠτΔ – Υπουργικό Συμβούλιο Τρόοδος
Photis Photiou

The people depicted in recently published photographs appear to be included in the list of missing persons, presidential commissioner Photis Photiou said on Monday after a cabinet meeting at the presidential residence in Troodos.

“This confirms once again the brutality of the occupying forces, the brutality of Attila, how these compatriots of ours were executed,” he said, stressing the importance of locating their burial sites. 

Photiou told reporters that the committee on missing persons (CMP) has information about some mass graves in Lapithos, but nothing concrete so far.  

“What is essential for us is to find where they are located,” he said, adding that all information is evaluated by the relevant services. 

The commissioner called on Greek and Turkish Cypriots to submit even the smallest bit of information, as “the tiniest and most insignificant testimony can be vital for the CMP”.  

“You must know that most of [these people’s] parents are gone, now the brothers and the spouses are also starting to pass away, which makes you realise where we have come 48 years later,” still looking for more than 750 missing people. 

“What we saw in the latest photos and other testimonies we have, are war crimes and someone could blame Turkey, and the international community should,” Photiou said, assuring that the committee would continue working towards finding the burial sites.  

So far, the remains of 1,027 missing persons from both communities have been identified and returned to their families for proper burial. 

The Committee on Missing Persons was 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 intercommunal fighting of 1963-1964 and in 1974. 

According to statistical data on the CMP website by August 1 out of 2,002 missing persons 1,185 were exhumed and 1,027 identified. 

 

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