CMP receives €75,000 donation from TC community and €100,000 from Turkey (Updated)

The Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus (CMP) received a donation of €75,000 from the Turkish Cypriot community.

According to a CMP announcement this latest donation on Wednesday, brings the total financial contribution of the Turkish Cypriot community to €583,000 since 2006.

Meanwhile, the Republic of Turkey donated €100,000 to the CMP. The amount is the latest of the country’s yearly donations.

The donation cheque was donated to Turkish Cypriot CMP Member Hakki Muftuzade by the Turkish Ambassador in northern Nicosia Metin Feyzioglu on Friday afternoon, with Third Member Bruce Koepke also in attendance.

Feyzioglu said the CMP’s work “goes beyond politics”, and that Turkey “wholeheartedly shares the pain of the waiting families who are desperate to know the fate of their missing relatives”.

“I hope we can reunite more families with their missing persons this year,” he added.

Muftuzade expressed his gratitude to the Republic of Turkey for their donation and said “this year, we have started an excavation at the Aloda mass grave. We will provide the opportunity for families who have been waiting … to pay respects at the graves of their loved ones.”

The CMP was established in 1981 following an agreement between the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leaders, under the auspices of the United Nations. The CMP’s investigative work for the exhumation, identification and return of the remains of missing persons in Cyprus, started in 2006, co-financed by the European Union.

To date, 1,034 missing persons from both communities have been identified and returned to their families for a dignified burial.