There are still 758 Greek Cypriots missing, out of 1,510 government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis said on Sunday, speaking at the annual memorial service for Andreas Polykarpou held at the church of Ayia Marina Chrysochous, in Paphos.

He added that establishing the fate of every single missing person is a top priority for the government as well as for the president himself.

Letymbiotis said that as time goes by it becomes more and more difficult to solve this humanitarian problem.

He charged the responsibility of this lies squarely with Turkey, which he accused of refusing to cooperate in establishing the fate of the missing persons. Turkey defies the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights as well as those of other international organisations, Letymbiotis said.

“We expect the United Nations, the European Union, but also the powerful nations worldwide to put an end to the suffering and pain of the relatives of the missing persons,” he stressed, reminding that resolution 3450 of the UN General Assembly in 1975 highlights as a basic human need of the families, to have information about their missing relatives.

He also underlined that the government remains committed “not to give up until the fate of every single missing person is ascertained”.

“Half a century of occupation of European territory with the citizens of this place deprived of basic human rights, 50 years in total. The current state of affairs cannot be the future of our country, it cannot be the solution of the Cyprus issue. It is exactly for this reason that we are working to restart meaningful talks from the point where they have been interrupted”, he pointed out.