Kyrenia mayor Akis Violaris renewed calls for the return of displaced people and the resolution of the missing persons issue in a message marking the 52nd anniversary of the Turkish invasion of 1974.

In a statement published on Monday on social media, Violaris described the anniversary as a “day of pain, remembrance, and responsibility”.

He said that “52 years after the barbaric Turkish invasion, Turkey’s ongoing crimes in Cyprus do not allow us to forget, rest or compromise”.

Violaris added that “the struggle for liberation from the occupying forces, the withdrawal of all settlers, the return of the displaced and the finding of the missing continues no matter how many years pass”.

Concluding his message, he stressed that “our borders are in Kyrenia”, a perennial position of the municipality’s, which now operates in exile.

Kyrenia was the site of the first landing the Turkish invasion in July 1974, when forces established a bridgehead at Pentemili, where the city fell some three days later to enemy forces.