Turkey's responsibilities and obligations for creating the problem of the missing persons and for perpetuating it with tactics and obstacles are heavy, said the Commissioner for the Presidency, noting that the aim of the occupying power is not to solve the problem for the benefit of the families, but to conceal and destroy all the evidence documenting the crimes committed by the occupying army against our people.
Despite the denial and the intransigent attitude of the occupying power, we continue and intensify our efforts to provide answers to every family of our missing persons, Fotis Fotiou said in his speech at the funeral of the commando Dimitris Pyrkas in Mammari who was murdered during the Turkish invasion. "This for us is a commitment and a debt to our heroes and their families," he said.
In commemorating Dimitrios Pyrkas, he continued, our thoughts, and our whole being, are transported to those bitter and treacherous days of the summer of 1974. "Our occupied lands, our ecclesiastical and cultural heritage, the graves of our ancestors, our dead and missing, cry out within us the great need for the rallying and unity of all in the struggle for the liberation of our land, for the reunification of our homeland, for the end of the occupation and for the safeguarding of the human rights and basic freedoms of each of us."
Fotiou said that Dimitris Pyrkas served in the 32 Commando Squadron, which undertook various missions to halt the advance of Turkish troops, along with other National Guard units. At dawn on 22 July, he added, the entire Company departed from Synchari and arrived at Alonagra Hill in the Pentadaktylus, where commandos from the other Companies of the Squadron had taken up battle positions, when they received a new order to occupy the White Moutti hill, also in the Pendadaktylus range above Dikomo, where there were manned Turkish machine guns and it was of great strategic importance.
During the exchange of fire, Dimitris was wounded in both thighs, fellow soldiers carried him back, but they had to return to the Sychari area to avoid being trapped. In the history of Dimitris' case according to the testimonies given, Fotiou said, the wounded man's strong desire for his fellow soldiers to be evacuated immediately, due to the prevailing situation, is also noted. "Yet another act worthy of the morality and patriotism of our heroic commando," he stressed.
A very small number of his bones, he noted, were found in the area of the Alonagra mound in the period 2010-2012, as part of the exhumation and identification of remains programme of the Missing Persons' Committee.
Source: CNA
Contents of this article including associated images are belongs Cyprus Times
Views & opinions expressed are those of the author and/or Cyprus Times
Source
