Kombos calls for collective apology to missing persons’ relatives

A collective apology is owed to the relatives of the missing, Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos said on Saturday, as he attended the funeral of a man who died during the invasion but whose remains were only recently identified.

Reading a eulogy during Minas Antoniou’s church service, Kombos said there are still more than 750 missing.

“At every opportunity in every international forum, the Republic of Cyprus denounces Turkey for the crime of deliberately moving and destroying mass graves of missing persons, with the obvious aim of concealing the truth.”

He said relatives of the missing are owed a collective apology because their pain could not be eased earlier.

Kombos underlined the government will assist the UN Secretary-General’s personal envoy, María Ángela Holguín in her mandate “in every possible way.”

“We are working with sincerity and perseverance, to create the conditions that are necessary for the resumption of talks to achieve a settlement on the basis of the agreed framework.”

Holguín is expected to return to Cyprus in March for a new round of contact, Kombos specified.

“Our side supports Holguin’s mandate and will assist her in every possible way” he said, adding that a Cyprus settlement is “an existential issue for us.”